excess positive camber 440 A body
Okay, I'll see if I can make sense of it.
Looking at the car from the front: If the front edges of the tires seem to be pointing in to each other, this equates to "Toe-In". These words directly compare to your feet. If both are pointing directly forward where the heels and toes are parallel, both forward, this is ZERO toe. If the toes point to each other, in other words toward the middle. this is TOE IN. If they point away from each other, this is TOE OUT.
The wheel alignment uses the same terminology. When the tires are aligned TOE IN, the steering is in a bind and with the car moving forward, the tires are trying to grab at each other. This results in the car "jacking" or essentially climbing. Torsion bar settings may not even come into play because the forces of the jacking effect are so strong.
A little background though to show you how I know:
I have owned somewhere between 24 and 26 A body cars in my 34 years in the hobby. I had a few that I used as stunt cars for a home movie hobby that I did in the late 90s. I wrecked several Darts, Dusters along with some donated junk cars. The Mopars were used for jumps and off road trails so their suspensions were put to hard use. I learned a bunch about how they react to damage!
I've seen bent lower control arms, ball joints, upper control arm mounts pushed in toward the engine, egged out mounting points in the K members, bent frame rails, buckled floorpans but I never saw one spindle fail and nothing ever broke outright.
Really, the first thing is to get the car on an alignment rack. They often start by setting the ride height, then proceed to inspect and check the base line settings.
See the picture below. Look at the gussets I welded into mine around the hole. That hole is where the lower control arm pivot shaft goes through. Normally this is nothing more than a thin tube welded in with a very small 1/8" bead. When subject to abuse, the small welds fail and that tube starts to move around. A car with worn lower control arm bushings is the worst because the metal to metal condition vibrates the whole area, accelerating the damage.
Okay, I'll see if I can make sense of it.
Looking at the car from the front: If the front edges of the tires seem to be pointing in to each other, this equates to "Toe-In". These words directly compare to your feet. If both are pointing directly forward where the heels and toes are parallel, both forward, this is ZERO toe. If the toes point to each other, in other words toward the middle. this is TOE IN. If they point away from each other, this is TOE OUT.
The wheel alignment uses the same terminology. When the tires are aligned TOE IN, the steering is in a bind and with the car moving forward, the tires are trying to grab at each other. This results in the car "jacking" or essentially climbing. Torsion bar settings may not even come into play because the forces of the jacking effect are so strong.
A little background though to show you how I know:
I have owned somewhere between 24 and 26 A body cars in my 34 years in the hobby. I had a few that I used as stunt cars for a home movie hobby that I did in the late 90s. I wrecked several Darts, Dusters along with some donated junk cars. The Mopars were used for jumps and off road trails so their suspensions were put to hard use. I learned a bunch about how they react to damage!
I've seen bent lower control arms, ball joints, upper control arm mounts pushed in toward the engine, egged out mounting points in the K members, bent frame rails, buckled floorpans but I never saw one spindle fail and nothing ever broke outright.
Really, the first thing is to get the car on an alignment rack. They often start by setting the ride height, then proceed to inspect and check the base line settings.
See the picture below. Look at the gussets I welded into mine around the hole. That hole is where the lower control arm pivot shaft goes through. Normally this is nothing more than a thin tube welded in with a very small 1/8" bead. When subject to abuse, the small welds fail and that tube starts to move around. A car with worn lower control arm bushings is the worst because the metal to metal condition vibrates the whole area, accelerating the damage.
