Urgent advice - how do we set-up the front suspension again?

[raven68]

TONIGHT..... ! After posting this thread about ruining our new front lower control arm inner bushings http://www.moparuk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47887

clearly we didn't do something right when finally tightening everything up as I think the lower control arm was pulled so far forward it caused the inner sleeve of the bush to be too skewed on the bolt such that with the up and down action of the suspension it rapidly wore through the outer rubber.

OK I know everything should be tightened with the suspension at 'normal' ride height bearing the weight of the car.

I thought we tightened the strut rods too much and pulled the lower arm too far forwards causing the inner bushes to fail. However the strut rods don't look 'adjustable' in any way? Whats the trick when tightening them up? I just cant figure out how we got the lower arm so twisted that it buggered up the inner bush.............

Whats the sequence to getting the front suspension nearly right before you take it to an alignment specialist then?

Castor? How is that done? Just seen another thread on here that says upper arm rear bush set right in, front bush set right out for max castor?
How then do you set the camber if you do that?

And when do you set (up or adjust?) the strut rod.......

Sorry bit long winded but the car is up in the air and we want to get it back on the ground running for tomorrow..........

[Dave-R]

Set max caster as you said, fronts right out and rears right in.

Then put a camber gauge on the front wheels and bring the front bushes in just enough to give you a half degree negative camber.

Then set toe and check the camber again.

All this has to be done with the weight of the car on the suspension and with the car level.

[Pete]

You need to "settle" the car after every adjustment - i.e. if you jack it up to do any bolts up, you need to move the car backwards / forwards (if doing it on a driveway and not a lift with adjustable swivelling plates) otherwise you will not be starting from the same baseline.

Personally, I would not worry about camber, just get the caster right and also the toe-in and you will be fine.

Remember that even the strut rod bush nuts should be tightened with the weight of the car on it and at ride height.......

[raven68]

Thanks guys - have pretty much done all that now for tonight. Set caster as described for both sides and passenger side camber was almost spot on with no further adjustment.

Had a problem with the drivers side camber in that it started at just over 2deg negative and only got worse of course by cranking in the front UCA bush so had to back out the UCA rear bush by 90deg (or half its total travel) to get same half degree negative.

Guess its to be expected that something has shifted, twisted or had chassis damage after all these years, so nothing will be identical

Will recheck and re-set it all again tomorrow morning though....

I was more concerned about setting the strut rod wrongly and pulling the LCA out of true (as this is how the strut rod works on a Ford Mustang to set the caster) but its a fixed length? So there's no secret tricks to know about the strut rod then? Just torque it up or what?

[Pete]

Regarding the strut rod, just leave it relatively loose until you have got ride height, etc correct and then torque up with the full weight of the car on it - ditto the LCA retaining nuts........

[Dave-R]

The strut rod is indeed a fixed length but it does fix the LCA in it's "vertical" plane. Obviously it is not truly vertical but a few degrees on a large circle. So in effect each strut rod pulls the LCA forward as the LCA moves up and down.

You can get adjustable strut rods that you can pull tighter and pull the LCA forward slightly on it's bush. This increases the caster slightly and takes out some of the "wobble" in the LCA bush.

[Steve]

This is a great topic...very interesting! There was a great link to a cracking little gauge that was top quality for about £40. Left it a bit too late as I tried to get one but they had all been sold