[jaqazi]

OK, just took my ground up restoration to the alignment shop for the first time. Frame Sag!? They can't get it to spec without offset shafts. Bummer, Whats the easiest way to replace these? Do I have to pull the lower ball joint? Could I just stick a floor jack under the lower arm and pop off the upper ball joint? I am trying not to mess up my freshly painted engine bay too much.

Any ideas?

PS: the left camber is off by .2 and the right is off by .7 the caster is way off. The toe is fine. I'm not going to drive this car very much at all. Should I worry?


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Jameel Qazi
#'s 67 SS



[This message has been edited by jaqazi (edited 04-16-99).]

 

[Wes V]

Jaqazi;

I've done just what you are talking about.

Put the jack under the lower arm, as close to the lower ball joint, and jack it up. You can then remove the upper ball joint and the upper arm.

KEEP THE SHOCK IN PLACE AND BE CAREFUL!

The spindle, rotor, and caliper will tend to flop around and you should figure out some way of supporting it so that you don't put tension on the brake line.

Wes.

[This message has been edited by Wes V (edited 04-16-99).]

 

[chev64]

jaqazi, I put in offset shafts from the begining cause my brother told me that I would have that kind of problem with the alignment. Sorry you had to find out the hard way. Follow the above instructions and good luck, I've been working on my 64 off and on for 12 yrs.

 

[Tom Mobley]

jaqazi

options:
1) take it to frame shop and have it fixed, no big deal here.

2) have them set the toe and run it, if it doesn't pull you're OK, they can probably fix the caster if they feel like it.

3) put the shafts in, I've seen a couple that were bad enough that the shafts didn't completely fix the problem.

If you don't know a good frame shop here in the Valley email me and I'll get you a name.

Tom

 

[jaqazi]

I like the frame shop idea. What bums me out is that I had the front of the frame straightened when the car was all apart to correct some collision damage. I'm dissapointed they didn't check for alignment issues. Should they have done this?

How invasive would frame straightening be at this point? Keep in mind, everything is pretty detailed. Would I have to repaint a lot of stuff? Can they do it with the dog house on the car?

I drove the car quite a bit this weekend. The caster is like -1.7 and -1.9. I think it is supposed to be +1 (I forget). One thing I noticed is that it doesn't come out of corners by itself very easily. I have to turn the wheel back to straight myself. Would too much negative caster cause this? The car drives fine otherwise.

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Jameel Qazi
#'s 67 SS



[This message has been edited by jaqazi (edited 04-19-99).]

 

[Tom Mobley]

jaqazi

>>Should they have done this?

Probably not unless it was a Chevelle-only shop.

>>Would I have to repaint a lot of stuff? Can they do it with the dog
house on the car?
You might have to do some touchup but I don't think this is a big deal for a good shop.

>>Would
too much negative caster cause this? The car drives fine otherwise.
Yes.