Front end alignment at home

LJ67barracuda340 said
just checked and reset my Barracuda's alignment with this gauge... works great and has payed for itself over and over. Also it gets set to MY specs.

View attachment 1715152326

Magnetic gauges are great if you’re using steel rims and/or hubs.

I’ve got an old snap on magnetic gauge like that. Unfortunately that’s not very helpful on my Duster, which has aluminum hubs and wheels. Which is why I use the SPC gauge.

jbc426 said
I've never had to deal with the rust issues so prevalent on most of the Mopars in the US. I can only imagine how quickly those eccentrics would be eaten up and rendered nearly impossible to adjust.

I have wondered about simply altering the stock strut rods by machining the relief that stops the large cupped washers from sliding farther down the strut rod body or trimming the rubber bushings a bit thinner to allow the lower control arm to be pulled forward an 1/8" or a bit more.

It wouldn't take much, and would be virtually undetectable on a stock front end. I don't see how doing something like this could not add more positive caster without having detrimental effects.

With the regard to altering the strut rods it depends on whether or not that 1/8” will cause the LCA to bind in its range of travel. Sure, it’ll give you more caster, but that’s not the point of the strut rod. The point is to locate the LCA and not have it bind up. Could be an 1/8” shorter would be great. Or heck, it could be a 1/4” shorter is what you need. Or it could be that it was already a bit short of ideal and that 1/8” causes binding. Without checking for binding and setting the length accordingly you don’t know. Which is why adjustable strut rods are so handy, especially if not all of your suspension parts are stock.