Aligned into oblivion

ruben said
I took an older Imperial down to a shop to have it aligned. Figured they would know. I watched and got very concerned. I got the owners attention and he let me onto the shop floor (Midas shop). They had no clue. His lead mechanic walked away swearing at the car. I could not believe it. The owner told me they could not do anything and that there was something seriously wrong with the car. I took it back home, took a good look at it and realised what was happening. They were taking all weight off of the wheels and trying to adjust the caster/camber. It won't work because the suspension is loaded and when you loosen the nuts the front end adjustment surfaces just gets cocked out of shape and won't move. I found you have to remove some weight but not all the weight from the wheels so that the adjustment surfaces stay relatively in the same plane and will slide when you try to adjust them. A little finicky but not rocket science.

You should be able to make the adjustments to the camber bolts with all of the weight on the wheels. If you can’t then you need to service the camber bolts. The weight of the car is carried almost entirely by the lower control arms.

The alignment must be set at ride height because the alignment numbers change as the control arms move. If you take weight off the wheels, you’re not at ride height anymore, and you have to roll the car to fully settle the suspension after you’ve lifted it.

With a torsion bar suspension you have to set the ride height before you have an alignment done. Not only that, but if you change the ride height you need another alignment done.