Hi guy's, I have a 54 ford f100 with a volare front independent sus. Ive noticed on the adjustment of the bolts that control side to side or camber, on the driver side I can see its adjusted all the way out and on the passenger side its almost all the way in. Is this a set adjustment where both sides should be the about the same or is this a normal left right setting on a volare? lately something just doesn't feel right in the steering but everything seems to be tight. I don't see any difference in tire ware as both fronts are wearing pretty even. Bill

 

Because nobody knows who or how it was installed, that is a question that can't be accurately answered on here. You need to take it and have the alignment checked if you think it may be off. Sorry.

 

If tires are wearing evenly, I would guess the alignment is okay. If you think something doesn't feel right like pulling to one side or the other then I'd have the alignment checked.

 

IIRC the front end on those volare there is a bracket that the upper control bolts to, that bracket is bolted to the sub frame with four bolts, to align these from ends you need a unique shim that fits under that bracket. I remember having to buy them from the dealer. Most from end guys have probably never aligned one of these and may not understand how to do them.

 

Sorry if some of this is overly detailed but you never know how detailed to get. First of all, the position of the upper control arm bolts in the adjustment slots might be the same on both sides if all the components were fabricated with extreme precision and are perfectly symmetrical, but we all suspect that back in the late 70s American auto manufacturers did not aspire to those standards. Add to that process of transplanting the subframe and you may be lucky if the amount of adjustment afforded by the slots is adequate for getting the alignment within specs. So it is likely the bolts will not be in the same position on both sides. I had to enlarge the slots by a 1/8 to get mine within specs. But IMO you can do this yourself. Park your truck on a level surface and put a 2 ft. level on the side of the tire. Place the level vertically and check in front of and behind the bulge. The camber spec for a Volare is 1/2 degree on the left, 1/4 degree on the right. Positive camber is when the top of the tire leans outward. The left side is usually a little more than right because most roadways are crowned and slope downward to the right and increasing camber on the left helps to keep the vehicle from drifting right when the road surface is crowned. The height of the tire where you will place the level for an average 15 inch truck tire is about 20 inches so 1/2 degree will be about 3/16 of an inch and a 1/4 degree is half that. On the left side the level should have a 3/16 gap between the tire and the level at the bottom when bubble is in the middle. The right side should have 3/17 inch gap at the bottom. Adjusting camber will change toe in and visa versa so check and adjust both until you're good. Hmm, maybe I'll post a photo. The reason I say you can do this yourself is the published tolerance for Volare is min. 0, max. +1 on the left and min. -1/4, max. +3/4 on the right. Holly cos, you could get that doing it by eye. Toe is spec for Volare is 1/16 to 1/4 inch. That is the distance between the sidewall of the tires at the front is 1/16 to 1/4 less than the same distance between tires at the rear of the tire. This also can can be checked visually because if you eyeball or use a chalk line from the outside face of the front tire to the rear tire a 1/8 inch toein will be 5/8 inch and that is pretty easy to see. Of course measure the outside to outside distance front and back so you know where the outside face of the front tires should align with the rear tires. Caster is much harder to check. The caster spec for Volare is min. 1-1/2, preferred 2-1/2,and max 3-3/4 degrees. Positive caster means the top ball joint is behind the lower ball joint. The ball joints are about 9 inches apart so the top one should be about 3/8 of an inch behind a vertical line through the lower one. I'm not sure how to check this very precisely but the range for the tolerance tells me doesn't matter much. I suppose you could increase it if all other things are adjusted and the front end wanders a little.

 

So here's a question for Axe. When setting up your car for racing, what is the range of adjustment for toe-in, caster and camber? Is a 1/4 degree caster or toe-in a big deal? Or is the set up more about how force is on each tire?

 

The Volare front end had the control arms slide on a slotted hole like the MII style frt end. The special tool used had a bar with a dowel end on the bottom and a hook that fit around the upper control shaft. In the volare they were very hard to get at, and if the hook slipped off, you really whacked your elbows Chrysler had a recall on the upper control arm shaft, and had a bracket installed that really impeeded access for the tool. I can almost guarantee, that it will be very hard to find a guy at a frt end shop that has ever done one, so watch out what they will charge you. Ask the shop owner if he is familiar with that model frt end. You will see the bolt spacing different due to the caster/camber angles. Good luck.

 

I did an at home alignment on my 53 with Volare then took it to a local trusted shop and had him check it. Basically needed no additional adjustments. This was after installing Fatmans dropped spindles. I am certainly just a hobby guy with no training, so anyone could do it with enough determination.

 

Great information guys. I really appreciate all the help and will start checking measurements first thing tomorrow. Bill