Front Strut adjustment on Demon?

[northeastmopar]

Just had my all new front end aligned by me mechanic. Seems to look and track nicely. But my drivers side tire is just clipping the lower inside fender lip when I back up and turn the wheel. I noticed that the space between my fender and my tire in that area is about 2". When I look at the other side the same area space is about 2 1/2 or 2 3/4"? I wondered what would cause this and then I thought about the new heavy strut bars I bought from PST suspension. I do see about the same amount of threads showing in the front of the K member and I was thinking that maybe that left strut needs to be adjusted back to push the lower control arm back? Does that sound correct and will I then have to have my guy re-align the front end? I don't know why he did not notice that when he did the alignment? Has anyone on here had any experience like this? Thanks

 

[brian6pac]

You can move it back and it will have to be realigned, you need to make sure you are not putting the lower arm on a bind at the frame bushing.

 

[Jim Lusk]

Did you get a print-out of the alignment? It is possible that the caster is different for each side, which would cause this. What size tire are you running?

 

[northeastmopar]

Did you get a print-out of the alignment? It is possible that the caster is different for each side, which would cause this. What size tire are you running?

My front end guy put me on his alignment machine and told me he got it dead on. I explained to him I had installed new moog offset bushings on the upper. New lower control arm spindles. I have 17" x 7" om\n trhe front and 17" x 8" on the back with nitto tires.

 

[Jim Lusk]

Dead on doesn't say a thing. What specs did he use? Original or radial friendly? There is also a range that is "dead on". How tall are the front tires? We had trouble with 235-60-15s, but 215-60-15s fit perfect on my son's Dart.

 

[72bluNblu]

You can move it back and it will have to be realigned, you need to make sure you are not putting the lower arm on a bind at the frame bushing.

Exactly. The strut rods are not there to set the alignment. They should be adjusted so there's no bind in the movement of the LCA through it's range of motion. There is a little bit of a range in the length of the strut rod where you won't get binding, so, some adjustment can be made. But what you don't want to do is just adjust the strut rod until the tire clears and have the LCA binding up because of it.

Dead on doesn't say a thing. What specs did he use? Original or radial friendly? There is also a range that is "dead on". How tall are the front tires? We had trouble with 235-60-15s, but 215-60-15s fit perfect on my son's Dart.

Again, exactly this. Caster has a range for being correct and it doesn't have to be identical side to side. And the difference between the factory specs for bias ply's and what you should have for those newer radials is significant. The body tolerances on these cars aren't perfect either. Have you looked the the lower fender to bumper brace? There is some adjustment there as well, it may not be the same on both sides and you might be able to push the lower corner of the front fender out a bit with that brace if it's not maxed out already.