Good day FTE'rs,
with the great weather we've had in SC the last 2 days, I've had the opportunity to complete my disk brake upgrade. The brakes work great!!!

The negative result is the front end alignment. The camber of "positive" about 1 inch on both sides and I've adjusted the toe-in as far as possible but am still out 1 1/2 inches. We did a full front end swap from a '73 F100 donor and verified the I-Beams were straight prior to installation. Additionally we did use the original '65 coil springs. So, the questions are:
1. what can I do to correct the toe-in problem?
2. what can I do to correct the camber, if anything?

Thanks in advance for all your feedback/suggestions, etc.

 

After the swap when you put the truck on the grd. did you drive it are move it enough to settle it before taking your measurements?

 

I drove it about 2 miles. Didnt want to go too far as the brake light and turn sigmals currently do not work, but thats another story all together.....

 

Positive means the top of the tires are sticking out? I had similar problem with mine. Putting the original springs in put me the other way(negative). Your springs are too long. I made some ~1" aluminum spacers under the spring mount to increase the ride height which solved the negative camber problem. You must have something wrong for the toe in to be that far out and out of adjustment.

 

Correct, the top of the tires are out (/), not straight (|) or negative (\). I'm using the orginal springs and had not camber issues prior to the swap out so I dont think its a spring issue.....

 

I took mine to a simitruck alignment shop. They can use a slight bend (as dealers did on our trucks originally) to correct the problem. Cost me $100

 

I assume that's where this is going to be resolved.

I'd still like to understand what's causing the issue. Especially since we checked the I-Beams and used the orginal coil springs. Seems those are the only 2 things that could result in the camber being off.....

 

The camber is measured in degrees, the proper setting is 1 degree pos. First thing I would do is make sure the springs are seated properly. If they are, the way I would fix it is by cutting the spring a couple inchs at a time. I lowered my truck by raising the inner pivot point of the axle then I cut my springs to get the camber back were it belonged, works fine. If you cut your springs use a cutoff wheel and not a torch.

 

Thanks, the springs are properly seated. I'm not sure I want to cut the springs as if I screw that up its unrecoverable short of finding "new" coil springs. I think the industrial frame/alignment shop is the obvious choice. I'm just puzzled as to the cause....

 

toe in and camber issues? if it was one or the other, i'd agree that it's just an alignment issue. but both being so far off, espessially the toe in after using all the adjustment, tells me theres a mismatch of parts somewhere, or somethings not properly installed. and 1" of +camber is about 3 degrees (iirc), and thats really alot. how is the ride height? normal?

did the 73 donor have power steering? not sure, but that could be your mismatch of parts? i know the pitman arms are different, not sure what else might be?

 

No power steering, just the disk brakes. We replaced the I-beam pivot bushings and the radius arm bushings. Nothing from the donor was bent and everything went together without any major problems...just a few rusted bolts that had to be "broken" loose with an impact wrench and PB Blaster.
I'm hoping once the camber is corrected the toe-in will show some improvement.