Hello all,

A little while ago I fitted new front coils to my '79 F100, at that time I also fitted a pair of 3" drop DJM Dream Beams.

After finishing the job I noticed the camber of the front wheels seemed to be a fair way positive (you could easily see that the top of the wheels were leaning out).

I had a front end alignment done and the analysis came back as 2 degrees 15 minutes on the left hand wheel (my passenger side here in Australia) and 2 degrees 44 minutes on the right hand (drivers) side.

I'd been driving it that way for a while (even though the front end felt pretty ordinary) but I recently noticed the tyres were starting to scrub out on the outside so I decided to get my act together and cut some of the coil until the camber was somewhere about 0 degrees (I've been advised that stock camber is -5/8 degrees +/- 3/8 degrees).

I found a piece of 20mm steel angle, laid it on an engineering table so I could see that it was fairly straight and flat and also bought a magnetic angle protractor so I could park the truck in my shed on a reasonably flat and level surface and measure the camber as I shortened the coils. I know the camber measurement won't be particularly accurate but I wanted to get it as close as I could and then I'll get another front end alignment done.



Before I started I checked that both front tyres were at the same pressure and then measured the camber angles and also distance between the front beams and a point on the rebound rubber bracket on either side.

The measurements were as follows:

• Passenger side +1.5 degrees and 111mm
• Drivers side +2.5 degrees and 97mm

The thought occurred to me that as the driver's side had more positive camber then perhaps that meant that there was more distance between the top coil bucket and the beam but the measurements didn't bear that out.

For the first cut I removed the same amount of material from either coil, re-installed them and then, after driving down the road to make sure everything was settled, took a second set of measurements.

They were:

• Passenger side +1.5 degrees and 108mm
• Driver's side +2.0 degrees and 94mm

I've since made two more cuts and both times I've removed a little more from the driver's side coil to try and equal the camber up (you can see the different cuts in the pic of the coil segments below).



The measurements now are:

• Passenger side +1.0 degrees 104mm
• Driver's side +1.5 degrees 92mm

With the extra portion of the coil removed from the driver's side I would have expected that it would drop more than the passenger side. The camber angle seems to have reduced evenly on both sides but my measuring technique for that is a long way from accurate and I'm more inclined to trust my distance measurements as a better representation of what's going on.

After all that what I'm asking is does anyone have any idea what could be causing the front end to drop unevenly? The distance on the driver's side should be evening up with the passenger side after having more of the coil removed.

I'm having some doubts about the chassis itself, I've had to space the driver's side radiator core support by about 10mm to raise it to level it up and I've also had to loosen the whole front clip and pull it across towards the driver's side to have it sit more evenly over the front wheels. I don't think all is right with that because to get the clip to sit evenly leaves a very uneven gap between the back edge of the bonnet and the cowl panel on the cab (much bigger gap on the passenger side than the driver's side).

Any input would be much appreciated.

 

Camber adjustment is done on an I-Beam axle by bending it cold, never with heat. It's done all the time on big trucks so you may have to find a shop that has the bending equipment and knowledge on how to do it. Most of you small shops can't do it and a lot of the new ones won't even know what you are talking about. Take it to a good shop it's become a lost art as more and more trucks builders get away from the I-Beam axles. One of the drop axles you bought may have slipped out of alignment in their jig before it was welded up.

 

Jim, thanks for your reply.

I've found a truck alignment business near me that can set I beams but my understanding is that because the DJM beams are fabricated from hollow section tube that they can't be bent as they will deform.

The stock beams are solid and can be set and with the way the drop beams feel I've been considering refitting my stock items and going that way. My concern is that without the 3 inch drop that you get with the drop beams I may run out of suspension travel before I get to the ride height I want using the stock beams.

 

I never knew how the drop beams were constructed , sorry to hear that .

 

Chocko , I thought about your problem with the beams . Do they have a warranty of any kind ? I would think if the sold you something as important as a front axle they should warranty it. They built it knowing you could not get it bent or do any thing that changed it from the way they constructed it. So they should replace it if you have not changed anything. Maybe the truck shop can check it to see if it is bent someplace. Just thinking out loud and throwing some ideas at you . __JIM__

 

I bought the gear from the US and had it shipped to me in Australia so economically it's not worth me trying to return something if it's defective. One of the beams being incorrectly set would explain a lot of what's going on though.

I cut another section out of both coils this morning and I've now got the passenger side very close to 0 degrees (maybe still a touch positive) and the driver's side seems to be about 1 degree positive. The driver's side of the front clip still seems to be lower though and that side has less suspension travel so I still don't know what's going on there.

I'll take the truck in next week and get the alignment checked properly and see exactly where it's at.

 

Are the mounting pads and shims that the front clip sit on in good condition ? I had to add shims to one side of mine to get it to line up with the bumper .

 

bending pipe can be done.

i wonder if a fabrication shop could steer you in the right direction.

perhaps there is a way to use a regular pipe die in the alignment shop's equipment.

just a thought

 

I have djm beams and notice the same thing. they only problem I have is I cant cut coils in front due to tie rod oilpan clearance. I have a moroso oil pan and it is close to the drag link now. also huge complaint on the tie rod relocators juuuuuuuuuunnnnkkk. horrible . not welded up square and in theory they would work but put a straight bolt thru a taper hole what can it do ? besides shimmy and a walk a bit I didn't like that at all so I fabbed up new radius arms and don't run relocator deals, them hence the tie rod pan clearance.

 

if I could do it over again I would just do a vic swap and be done.
still considering doing this, but have a lot of money invested in front end.

 

By mounting pads you're meaning the core support rubbers? I replaced them 12 months ago so they're still good. Also replaced the cab mounts as well.

I'm not sure which shims you're referring to.

That might work if the beams were round tube but they're made up of two rectangular sections, one sleeved into the other and then welded.

I had a whine about how shoddy I thought the relocators were in my build thread and someone commented that they thought they'd been something a PO had knocked up in his shed. They're pretty ordinary and are a pain to get a spanner into to tighten as well.

I'd like to get some radius arms made with an offset in them but here in Australia something like that would require engineering certification to be legal and engineer's certificates cost literally thousands of dollars (a friend of mine had one issued for some work he did on an old wagon he restored and that cost him $1200 and there wasn't a whole lot of mods that he had to get certified).

If I was going to get into the hassle of engineer's certificates I'd get a chassis notch done for the rear end but I'm trying to avoid the extra cost and trouble.

 

tube is tube, be it round square, rectangle, ect... it can be bent. fabrication shops do it all day every day.... i'd check it out, it may well be worth your time.

 

OK, if it's possible I'll certainly follow it up. I'll ask the guys at the truck alignment place near me when I see them this week.

 

On mine there were some shims, like big washers, along with the rubber pads. All 5 of the dent sides and the bronco i'v had they were there. I just move them around from one side to the other to level it up. They were different thicknesses to , my friend just down the street from me has a body shop and he said that was what they were for.

 

OK, now I know what you mean. My mounts came with them too but they were only one thickness.

I've already got a stack of 5 of them under the driver's side core support mount and looking at the clip and bumper from the front of the vehicle you can see that the driver's side is sitting up in relation to the bumper bar.

I'm planning on hopefully taking the vehicle off the road in a few months for a body off restoration, when it comes time for re-assembly maybe I'll figure out what's going on then. My priority at this point is to get the front end geometry correct and go from there.