Yeah… I figure it’s going to be out of whack so have opted for even distribution of spacers and then will let the pro’s do the fine adjustments later…
I used to do a rudimentary adjustment at home on the front suspension after a front crossmember and lot of components had been changed,
before installing the suspension springs, this meant it was easy to add or remove shims safely.
The front coil springs measure 8.5 - 9 inches between their upper and lower seatings when compressed (cars sitting on it's wheels normally).
Camber adjustment :-
So, before installing the springs, and with the car on axle stands, I used to place blocks under the front wheels so that there was an 8.5 - 9 inch distance between the spring seatings, check the camber using a spirit level against the wheel rim (vertical = 0* camber), I used to set it so that the top of the wheel rim was c. 1/8 inch further in than the bottom of the rim - giving a little negative camber.
Caster adjustment:-
Caster adjustment is harder to measure at home as it involves steering to one lock by a set no. of degrees , zeroing a gauge and then steering the same no. of degrees onto the opposite lock and then reading the gauge -in the old days it could be done using chalk marks on the floor.. I'd just check that the total thickness of the shims on the rear pivot pin mounting on the crossmember is slightly greater that those on the front mounting by maybe 2 thin shims - this should kick the lower ball joint forward just enough to give a little positive caster.
Tracking adjustment:-
Tracking adjustment - 1st set the wheels straight ahead by steering all the way to the left, then count the no. of turns of the steering wheel to go fully to the right, divide no. of turns by 2 and bring wheel back by this no of turns to centralise the steering. p
Place/attach using straps or clamps, 2 straight edges against the front wheels pointing forwards (you could use 2 lengths of very straight timber or 2 tubes/pipes). Make a mark on each st. edge that is the same distance from the wheel rim, then make a another mark on each st. edge that is 14 inches ahead of the 1st mark, now measure the distance between the straight edges at the 2 marked places Front measurement should be 3/16 inch smaller that the rear measurement if you want 3/16 in. toe-in.
These rough checks/adjustments should be enough to set the car up to drive to a professional wheel alignment shop without tearing the tread from the tires, sometimes, you get lucky and need very minimal further adjustment.
Here's a helper page with the settings from the ever-helpful folks@ autoricambi.us :
. Thanks in advance!
