Suspension alignment

[jkg2101]

Now to the front suspension –

Front tire camber is really easy to set on a Kirkham. The lower control arm has these neat adjustments at the attachment to the frame. The rod ends can be pulled in or out of the control arm by turning the hex heads on the lower arm, as in the picture. In addition, by varying how much the forward or rear rod end is moved, can adjust caster (the forward rod end should be extended out further to decrease caster). At least I think that is how it works, and it worked well for me.

I could even make these adjustments with the car on the ground, as long as I had cardboard on my vinyl tile, so the tires slide really easily. I think if I jacked up the car, I might have to roll it to settle the suspension, but once on the ground, suspension changes don’t seem to need the rolling back and forth since my floor is so slippery and the car is pretty light, even with engine in.

[jkg2101]

Finally, it is time to set front toe. First put the steering wheel in the straight ahead position in the center of the steering rack range. Then run a string again from a jack stand behind the rear tire to one in front, with the string again running just barely on the front of the rear tire, so the string represents the long axis of the car and the tire (since rear toe is currently at zero). Now measure the distance from the string to the front and then also the back of the front tire. If the distance from the string to the front of the tire is the same as to the rear of the tire, then the front tire is parallel to the rear tire and the long axis. Rotate the tie rod so that the front tire is perfectly parallel.

After setting the toe of both front tires to zero this way, I attached the fastrax to one of the front wheels with the bungee, and then used the adjusting legs and a tape measure to check toe-in by measuring at the front and the rear across the front tires. I was lucky (or skilled) and got the same number for both measurements, confirming the tires are at zero toe, and parallel to the long axis of the car.

Now I added a little toe in at each front tire to give about 1/16” toe in up front, and about the same in the rear. Then tightened all the adjusting nuts on the front and rear tie rods and double checked everything in the suspension.

Although maybe not as accurate as the fancy machine at the professional shop, unfortunately in my area we only have unskilled workers manning these machines, and I am happy to keep their wrenches off my car.

I aligned the suspension on my pantera about 9 years ago, and the wear pattern on the tires (admittedly only a few thousand miles) looks great, so I think I am not too far off.

here is an extra image of the front tie rod