Alignment Help

The cross caster and caster being under +1° of caster will cause the issues you're having.

With Moog offset bushings and stock control arms you're not likely to get more than +3.5° of caster. It does depend on the rest of your suspension and ride height, but that's about it.

You don't want to run more than -1° camber on the street anyway, for modern radials and regular street driving -.5° is fine, if you do some corner carving up to -1° is good. More than -1° camber starts to wear the insides of the tires prematurely, and really only benefits if you're autoX'ing or doing road courses.



A lot of alignment shops will only use the factory settings, which are for bias ply's and are totally wrong for radials. So right of the bat a lot of places won't put the right alignment on the car. Even if you find a place that will use the SKOSH chart there's no guarantee that any of the techs will have the foggiest idea of how to align one of these cars. Modern cars don't usually take much effort, so if you're talking to an alignment tech at a tire shop good luck.

A Fastrax gauge with a set of turn plates can produce great results with a little practice. Add a set of toe plates to make setting the toe easier and you don't have to worry about taking it to a shop. Unless it's just to check your work, when I buy new tires I'll have it put on a rack to check but I don't let them touch anything. If they even will, I've had shops refuse because of the adjustable UCA's and tubular LCA's on my car. They don't want to assume the liability for aftermarket parts if they didn't do the install.
7th
The cross caster and caster being under +1° of caster will cause the issues you're having.

With Moog offset bushings and stock control arms you're not likely to get more than +3.5° of caster. It does depend on the rest of your suspension and ride height, but that's about it.

You don't want to run more than -1° camber on the street anyway, for modern radials and regular street driving -.5° is fine, if you do some corner carving up to -1° is good. More than -1° camber starts to wear the insides of the tires prematurely, and really only benefits if you're autoX'ing or doing road courses.



A lot of alignment shops will only use the factory settings, which are for bias ply's and are totally wrong for radials. So right of the bat a lot of places won't put the right alignment on the car. Even if you find a place that will use the SKOSH chart there's no guarantee that any of the techs will have the foggiest idea of how to align one of these cars. Modern cars don't usually take much effort, so if you're talking to an alignment tech at a tire shop good luck.

A Fastrax gauge with a set of turn plates can produce great results with a little practice. Add a set of toe plates to make setting the toe easier and you don't have to worry about taking it to a shop. Unless it's just to check your work, when I buy new tires I'll have it put on a rack to check but I don't let them touch anything. If they even will, I've had shops refuse because of the adjustable UCA's and tubular LCA's on my car. They don't want to assume the liability for aftermarket parts if they didn't do the install.


The mechanic who does the work on my 68 Dart is also a collector who is familiar with older model cars as he has a few of his own. He did the last alignment and when we spoke about offset control arm bushings he was completely familiar with them. So, I have a set waiting to go in, and my initial question on this forum was asking if anyone had experience with them and whether or not I would gain enough caster, and also be able to obtain proper camber.....or whether I needed to do more alterations. I am not going to switch to tubular UCA because the entire car is literally brand new from the full nut and bolt restoration. So hopefully I will get enough caster to make the car more fun to drive without having to be on edge waiting for it to scare me by suddenly moving to one side or the other. I'm just wanting to be able to enjoy a leisurely drive, like I was familiar with in my previous Dart.