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1980 - 1986 Bullnose F100, F150 & Larger F-Series Trucks Discuss the Early Eighties Bullnose Ford Truck

Alignment measurements

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Old May 11, 2012 | 02:03 PM
  #1  
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lavatan
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Laughing Gas
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From: Rock Valley, IA
Alignment measurements

Hello all. I am going to be replacing my tie rod ends (and anything else that needs is) and was wondering if anyone had any numbers for street truck. I've done alignements on my hobby stock car but that is for turning left... I don't think they should be straight/even...

If I missed a previous discussion about this please link me.
 
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Old May 11, 2012 | 03:13 PM
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What I do is very carefully measure from the center of the tie rod end where the grease fitting is(if it has a grease fitting) to the opposite grease fitting. Install the new one and make sure it's exactly the same distance grease fitting to grease fitting(or center to center if it doesn't have a fitting).
 
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Old May 11, 2012 | 03:28 PM
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lavatan
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Laughing Gas
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From: Rock Valley, IA
I see what you're getting at, but what if your alignment is off already or the tie rod end is bent a bit.

Let me give you an example of what I do with the race car and maybe that will help illustrate what information I am trying to obtain:

I make sure the pitman arm closest to the gear box is straight ahead (or as straight as I can tell with my eye. I then measure from the front of the tire on one side to the same spot on the tire on the other. I then do the back side. The difference in measurement will tell me how much toe I have. We usually go for about 1.5 to 2" of toe for the race car.

Second, I take my caster/camber gauge and do the turny turny thing to find out what I have for camber. We usually want no camber on one tire and 4* on the other.

Caster is a whole 'nother ball of worms that I don't want to get into...

So, I guess what I'm asking is should I have, say, an 1/8" on the toe and no camber, 1* camber (positive or negative depending on which wheel we're talking about)?

I know how to get the measurements, I just need to know what those numbers are.
 
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