Hi,

as far as I understand there ain't much that cant be adjusted on a straight front axle and rigid rear axle chassis as we have on our cars ( '47 and earlier).

Caster and camber are more or less given by the hardware (axle, wishbone, spindels etc) and the only thing which can be adjusted is the toe-in and the center position of the steering wheel.

I think most of you guys do that yourself but I wanted to have my chassis settings checked by a professionnal with a high tech laser computer aided system. These systems usually rely on a database who has all datas of the cars and trucks on the marked. The guys I asked if they could check my '41 1/2 ton pick-up looked in their database but the oldest truck they could find was an F100/F150 as it does not go beyond '53 or so.

Now in case of missing data the values can be manually entered.
Does any one of you have these values or can you get them from one of your professionnals who uses such a system?

Best regards, Gab.


BTW .I live in Europe , '38 to '47 Ford cars are very seldom and knowledgeable people on the subject even more rare, therefore I must rely on you guys. Thank you.

 

In the very first "Read me" at the top of the page, if you go through it, you'll find someone posted frame specs/dimensions...unsure if it'll have the exact info you seek, but might be a starting point.

Just to break your years down some, 35-41 pu's and commercials shared the same frames, in '42 the PU's went to the parallel front and rear leaf springs.

The other adjustment for camber, it to bend the front axle.

I think the only place you could find those type of specs, would be from an aftermarket frame supplier. I wouldn't be suprised (assuming you can get the info) to find your frame way, way off from where the AM frames are built.

Other thing you'll notice is that these frame were designed to flexs and be part of the suspension, so even if hung and it showed a "tweak", you could still lay it level on a set of jackstand and (unless really tweaked) would reconform to being flat.

There's other problem with trying to make it "just right" as well, due to the way the springs are as well as the inner "X" brace.

You could do some tweaking here and there I suppose on the wishbone arm mount to ensure the front and rear axles track correctly, but I hink that's about it.

Personally, I'd just replace worn parts and run it as-is.

One more thing, as I mentioned above about bending the axle for camber, used to be here in the 'States back in the 70's, many alignment shops would still do the work, but no so now. Only place I've found that will do it now are Truck shop (Big Trucks/Semi's,etc) as they still run straight axles and routinely have to tweak them to get the camber correct.

Good luck, post up if you do find the info you're looking for.

 

http://www.wescottsauto.com/pdf2/FR-6.pdf

Here's the link for you on the chassis dimesions, hope it helps

 

Are these of any use?
Castor Max 8 deg. Min 4.5 deg.
Camber Max. 1 deg min. 1/4 deg
Camber plus side inclination Max 9 deg Min. 8 1/4 deg.
Toe In 1/16 in.
Toe out on a 20 deg turn 23 1/3 in.
Max camber variation between wheels 1/4 deg.
Max castor variation between wheels 1/2 deg.

These were in my '39 - 48 shop manual.