Front re-allignment has dropped my front suspension by over an inch??

[Brian68GT]

This may not interest anyone on the board but i dropped my 68 fastback into my mechanic yesterday to have the front suspension re-alligned. Basically there was too much positive camber (my front wheels looked slightly bow legged) resulting in my front tyres wearing badly on the outer edges, and not handling very well.

I had been planning on a front suspension rebuilt with lowering springs as the front was sitting up very high.

Anyway he re-aligned the suspension and the front has dropped by around an inch at least. The car is now almost completely level, i was amazed. I had been afriad that even with a 1 inch drop my car would still be nose high but now i can drop the front and back by one inch and all will be level, i'm a happy man. I just thought i'd let you guys know incase anyone else might have this problem with camber. I never realised that incorrect camber could affect the height of the front suspension so much.

he also tightened my powersteering and its much more responsive, less sloppy than it used to be. I was going to buy a steering rebuild kit but i dont think i need it now.

One question for anyone whos got this far. I had been planing on new upper and lower control arms as well as 620 1" lowering springs. My mechanic maintains that my front suspension has no play in it and that i am wasting my money replacing parts that work perfectly well. What do you guys think? this guy is not into performance cars, hes just a good mechanic. Are replacement parts like the grab a track system going to make any difference to the handling if my current set up is in perfect condition?

 

[Ozsum67]

You might want to re-think your reasoning. Camber doesn't effect ride height. If anything, when you straightened the tires up, the thing got taller.

 

[69PaleHorse]

Well, if it was toed in, I can see that correcting the alignment would have lowered it. Toed out and then corrected would likely increase the ride height.

BTW, I love Dublin! You folks throw an incredible St. Patty's Day festival. I want to go back in the worst way.

 

[Brian68GT]

It was also toed in, so maybe thats what dropped it, i dont know, but it has dropped and looks fantastic. How can toe in effect height anyway? I'm no mechanic so i dont really know much about this stuff.

Any thoughts on whether i should replace my apparently perfect and tight upper and lower control arms (according to my mechanic), am i being over indulgent?

 

[69PaleHorse]

I think it is really a matter of preference at this point. If your mechanic can validate that there is no play in the suspension and that the car is safe, then replacing the suspension is not a 'necessity'.

However, if you intend to push the vehicle to perform better (in any forum, race, street, strip, etc.) then you may want to indulge in the idea that newer is better. Besides, with new parts, high performance or stock, you'll know that there is not a wear issue.

Also, pushing for performance gains in the suspension department is not limited to throwing new parts at it. Do a search on this forum for easy modifications like the 'shelby drop' and you'll see plenty of input. Another poster here, Historic Mustang, has had good luck with inexpensive modifications to the stock suspension to make his car perform...

 

[Hack]

You might want to re-think your reasoning. Camber doesn't effect ride height. If anything, when you straightened the tires up, the thing got taller.

So you're saying you don't believe him?

If you think about it, the spindle is (supposed to be) roughly parallel to the ground. In order to get the camber he's describing with wear on the outside of the tire, you rotate the spindle so that the nut at its tip is lower than the base. In my head, I can see how that would increase the height of the car.

The distance from the point where the wheel mounts to the spindle to the center of the tire tread is shorter than the distance from the mounting point to the shoulder of the tire tread. The wider the tire, the bigger difference you get.

So, the tire mounting point on the spindle would move up under that condition. Also, the ball joint mounting points would move up. It's the only place they can go.

To me his post made perfect sense. Maybe you were thinking caster rather than camber?

 

[dolfan87]

The grab a track set up is just new stock components. If your suspension is in good shape, don't waste your money.

Just my opinion though.

87

 

[jae902]

Maybe when he put the car on the rack, the springs got moved out of place. I can lower my car about another .5 to an inch by just turning the spring so that the first half of a coil is off the upper control arm.

 

[Hack]

Maybe when he put the car on the rack, the springs got moved out of place. I can lower my car about another .5 to an inch by just turning the spring so that the first half of a coil is off the upper control arm.

Worth checking, but I doubt that happened.