74 Dart camber....coupla questions

[Paul Peckham]

Hello all......First time poster here. Picked up a 74 Dodge Dart Custom as a daily driver last year and have been going through it a bit at a time. Lots of little stuff, but now it's time to get into the weeds. It is 100% stock front to back.
Replaced the original...47 year old... front shocks today and wanted to increase the camber on the right front wheel. It's negative by just over 1 degree, it feels squirelly in a right turn and if you look at the wheel, it looks like it's tilted in at the top. So, with my newly acquired morsels of knowledge about the front end, I mark the position of the adjusting bolts in the UCA and started adjusting. I thought that moving the UCA out a bit would do the trick, but it didn't change the camber. The wheel moved down, but the camber did not appear to change. So I put everything back to where it was and here I am. I guess I don't know what I don't know. I thought that was the way to adjust camber, but apparently not. Any simple diagram, picture, photo, explanation and/or directions to a tech piece breaking down the alignment adjustments would be appreciated.
Just a note: I really enjoy reading about you guys doing that magic with these old cars.
I hope I get that far with this.
Thanks.

 

[Craig Burriss]

Welcome to the site.
The eccentric bolts on the UCAs Are for camber adjustments, but if you lift the front of the car up to do it, you have to roll it around some and bounce on the bumper to get the suspension to settle, if you don’t, it’ll look worse than when you started.
If it feels squirrelly, it could be you have too much toe out (fronts of the tires pointing away from each other). That’s adjusted with the tie rods. For street driving, I like to set it 1/16” toed in (fronts of the front tires 1/16” closer to each other than the rears of the front tires). Bad LCA bushings can also cause some crazy problems.
Good luck

 

[67Dart273]

Well they are both caster and camber. It "might be" that the bushings are worn, but it's also possible that something is bent or even cracked / broken. You should consider (if you are physically able) to learn to do your own alignments. You do not measure caster. You measure camber, and you figure caster from two different camber measurements. Even camber "gauges" are "in effect" using math.

When you (If you actually can) push the arm out away from the car with both adjustments, you change camber. If you only move one bolt, you change both caster and camber. Why you move the front bolt / cam in such a way as to push the front of the arm out, you change camber, but you also increase caster--you are tilting the spindle back. It is difficult to get "too much caster" on most these girls.

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[Ironracer]

Welcome from Florida! There are a Bunch of People he that do their own alignments. There are also tools available, some cheap, some not, some you can make! I'm still learning the basics on Driveway alignments. I've had some "Fun". Like set it up, drive it hard, come home, wonder why car looks like a Gasser? Well, over torque on a ft sway bar Will do that.... toe in? I probably need some newspaper, or VCT ( that hideous commercial vinyl tile from days gone by)
My problem is a level area. A few guys here said to jack it up, add wood ect. As a Carpenter, I can do that. Heck, I have a self leveling laser. What I don't understand, IS, level to What? Frame rails front to back? Then side to side? I dunno, just saying I ain't qualified to help! But I Hope You Continue and Get er Done! Post back with information and Welcome Aboard!