Just curious as to how the rear wheels sit in the wheel openings comparing side to side. If your car is dog tracking, one side will be closer to the front of the wheel opening than the other.
Crabbing
- Thread starter Kent mosby
- Start date
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Just curious as to how the rear wheels sit in the wheel openings comparing side to side. If your car is dog tracking, one side will be closer to the front of the wheel opening than the other.
I put a carpenter square from the 4 post lift rail to front of axle just inside the shock mount
we posted at the same time. passenger side has more space
By how much? Something you could shim at the front hanger bracket? (on the short side)
from the zirk fitting of the lower ball joint to the center of axle is 112 passenger 111.750 drivers side. I have adjustable qa1 strut rods. Maybe that needs adjusting? I don't remember how they were adjusted originally.
512Stroker
We are all here because we are not all there.
I dont know if you will be able to adjust out a 1/4 inch.
I can tell that 1/4 inch out on the wheel base is contributing to your issue.
Probably has more to do with the squareness of the rear axle in relationship to the front end centerline.
It sounds like it needs to go on a frame machine for measuring and maybe a tug here and there.
512Stroker
We are all here because we are not all there.
What do the panel gaps look like?
ie are the gaps wider on one door vs the other and are the hood/trunk gaps square?
Panel gaps are ok. Not tweaked unusually.
512Stroker
We are all here because we are not all there.
OK
Do the wheels/tires look squared up in the wheel wells?
Ok, so you're ON the housing, correct? That could be inaccurate as far as the frame rails. A good point would be the front of the box where the front spring hanger studs go through. See what I'm gettin at? That way, you're eliminating the housing, which bolts in and may or may not be square with the "CAR". You want to check the car and how the housing bolts in separately.....if that makes sense. That way, you can "see" where the discrepancy is. If there is any. So far, it sounds like there could be.
Well, see the problem here is you're picking up lower control arm bushing flex and wear and measuring to the rear axle, which is bolted in and may not be straight. You need to measure from points on the frame, to isolate the body from the bolted on suspension parts and go from there.
I measured the trans crossmember to leaf spring mount ( frame points) 52.25 rt side and 52.00 on driver side. From leaf spring mount to center of housing is 22.00 each side. The discrepancy is that the leaf spring mount is more forward on the drivers side. Shims should take care of it. I hope. Is this what you are saying?
MopaR&D
Nerd Member
You have the right idea. I was going to suggest taking it to an alignment shop and checking the distances between the front and rear wheels on each side, if one is less then add a shim between the leaf spring eye mount bracket and where it mounts to the chassis/unibody. Overall the accuracy of a decent alignment rack is going to be way better than using string and tape measure and will give exact locations of the wheels themselves, not the axle housing or some other part attached to the wheels. Not that those DIY methods aren't useful but for chasing a problem like this IMO it would be straight to the alignment shop first thing just to eliminate any possible guesswork or screwups in measuring.
No. I'd have the car put on a dedicated frame machine using a datum plane. It's beginning to sound like the difference is in the car itself. Shims won't take care of the discrepancy between the cross member and spring mount at the frame. I guess it just all depends on "how right" you want it. It's entirely possible it's been like this from birth.
67Dart273
Well-Known Member
If you look in any of the service manuals there are some measurement points. Some guys talk about "stringing" the car, etc, but be aware of little things that can "get" you like the front track wider than the rear ETC, not to mention wheel offset and front/ rear tire sized difference
There are what's called "dedicated" holes in the frame rails for measurement. They normally have a turned up lip all the way around the perimeter of the hole. The lip turns up into the frame rail. That's what the holes are for. There are fixtures that the car sits on, on those holes for measurement, with the datum plane beneath the rack for reference.
MopaR&D
Nerd Member
I'll have to remember that, might get my Duster checked out just for the heck of it. After what I've seen doing all my suspension and chassis mods I doubt it's perfectly square/symmetrical, none of these cars were when new anyway and I know mine was in at least one small crash at some point in its life. And mine is being built for road racing so that arguably matters even more than for drag racing.
famous bob
mopar misfit
locating holes for assembly line , tolerances still existed .
Inertia
Well-Known Member
Nope, - works just fine with diff wheel spacers and different offsets.
Racecars change all that regularly .
Those holes in the frame are called "datum points" .
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No, that's not what the body FSM says. They are dedicated measuring points. But yes, you're dead right there were tolerances from one car to another.
Exactly so!
cookietruck
Well-Known Member
when i was adjusting the strut rods in my car, i dropped points to the ground from the torsion bar sockets and them from the centerline of the bolts in the lower ball joints. adjusted so that both sides were equal.
i would measure from the same point on the crossmember to the front leaf spring mounts and possibly another point on the rear housing as well. sounds like you've already done this.
I think i saw .250" shims just for this purpose on the Bergman website. sounds like it's a common thing...
edit, they are 1/8"
BAC Rear Axle Shims - Bergman Auto Craft
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