VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 !941 front end alignment

I have not been able to break in the engine much because the alignment was so bad that the tires squealed over the speed of about 20 miles an hour. I should have run a post for help, but was preoccupied with the transmission not shifting right, yard work, and renovating windows at a condo we just bought. As I age I find multitasking is getting harder and harder, but I still think I can do everything at once!!!

This winter I had replaced the cross member, both shocks, both link pins, and the passenger side steering knuckle support and its king pin. Thank goodness I cannot throw things out and had everything but a set of king pins.
I really believe in saving whatever is salvageable.

No matter how I was adjusting the right side link pin I was not making headway with its camber angle. I also had not figured out how to adjust, by myself, the tie rods. I was using a carpenter square for camber, but had not figured a way to get the tie rods adjusted. The lines of the body and lack of common points on each side of the frame, to measure from, had me puzzled.

The best frame shop in the area is about 20 miles each way. I could not imagine tearing up an old set of tires driving the car at 20 miles an hour with a new engine. So I began calling local parts stores and a frame shop for recommendations. By noon, last Monday, I had scheduled alignments for Friday at three different repair shops that assured me they would have no problem doing the work. I ended up cancelling two and settling on one that had an old guy who said he had had a 48 Chevy and was familiar with its alignment.

This shop was about 10 miles away. A local VCCA member, friend, and restorer, Don Harbron, agreed to trailer the car there for me. The guy at NAPA who recommended the place said it had modern alignment equipment and well qualified mechanics. It turned out to be just the opposite.

I had to drive the car up an old ramp about 3 foot off the ground. The first time I tried I stalled the car so had to start over. The second time I got about half the way then applied the emergency brake while shifting into neutral. Three guys are telling me to keep driving up the ramp. So now I revved up the car, let out the clutch, and took off the emergence brake. The car moved forward about 6 more feet and I again applied the emergence brake and shifted into neutral. The car was now on the ramp enough so they could level out the ramp. Of course it leveled about 80 percent. So the mechanics in unison began to urge it vocally into place. After about 20 seconds the ramp leveled itself. I was still about 4 feet from the front of the ramp. At this point I can see the tops of the guys' heads as they urge me forward. All I can think of is I am going to drive my car over the front of the ramp and right onto them!!!

With my last ounce of courage/stupidity I eased the car forward into place.

I opened the car door and looked down at a wood box about half way to the floor. They were expecting me to step on the box to get to the cement floor. Being 6'3" and 65 years old my wallaby legs barely made the transition.

Now I had time to look around and survey the shop. It was dirty, with tools scattered and an old computer on top of a Sun alignment cabinet. Now the games would begin. I took about 15 minutes training them on how to begin aligning the car. I had brought a complete driver side suspension, thinking they may find something bent that had kept me from adjusting the camber. I showed them the parts and how the link pin was used to set the caster and camber.

I then visited with two of the mechanics while their boss spent 20 minutes trying to set up the computer for the alignment. He ended up telling the computer my car was a 1995 Chevy and manually entering all my camber/caster/toe-in information. I watched like a hawk as he began setting up his alignment instruments on each individual wheel and making adjustments. It was almost comical to watch him adjust the link pin with an Allen wrench that I had told him the size. He finally went to a tool cabinet and pulled out a socket with the end of an Allen wrench mounted in it and attached it to a long socket extension. It took him no time to figure out that something was bent in the suspension on the drivers side and say he got it as close as he could but not within specs.. The rest of the alignment went well, and I did enjoy watching one of the mechanics take the wheels into a back room with the floor covered with cotton ball tree fuzz.

By the time I had been there, an hour and a half, and paid my bill, $79.95 I had visited with the head mechanic/owner, his son the second mechanic, the third mechanic (old guy who told me he new all about aligning my car), the office manager (wife of the head mechanic/owner), and her assistant the wife of the second mechanic and daughter-in-law of the... I guess they would call this a "Mom and Pop" small business???

With a lot of concern I began my drive home. It didn't take me long to realize the alignment was fine and that my only followup would be to readjust my steering wheel. It was at the 2 o'clock position.

And yes I did call the shop and thank them for doing a good job aligning my suspension!!!

I wish you all a good day and will update you later on my engine's performance. Thanks, Mike

Sounds like a real adventure Mike! Good to hear that it's drivable now.

On the steering wheel alignment; before the front end alignment, the steering wheel should be turned from side to side and brought back to center and secured in place. With doing the alignment first and then adjusting the steering wheel to it, you lose some arc on one side and gain it on the other. To do it right, you have to shorten one tie rod and lengthen the other to get it close and then adjust for toe-in. Is your pitman arm pretty much straight out with the wheels straight ahead or off to one side a bit? If this is the first time it was adjusted wrong, you might be okay with just doing the steering wheel thing. My brother bought a car once that you could barely make a normal right turn with it tight against the stop.

Then again, if you had the steering wheel off and put it back on a little off kilter... ;-) Gives you something to think about and play around with anyway.

Wow! With me being out of town, I asked my father to take my 41 to the collision center on Thursday that we've known for many years. We have a great friendship with their alignment man. My father took him the 41 shop manual, drove it up on the rack for them and 45 minutes later and $43, we have a great alignment. The alignment man showed my dad how the wheels were supposed to be set and showed him the angles of the wheels and all. He found the allen screws and all by looking through the manual we had provided. This alignment man is an older guy but he goes to alignment school yearly and can read and interpret the books.

With my 41 restoration experiences and by reading yours...restoring a car is an adventure. There will be ups and downs, times of joy, times of frustration, times that you want to push the car over a hill. But in the end, restoring a 41 is all worth it...even though it's taken me 17 years and $18,000. Man...what a ride it's been!

I am not familiar with your front end but if it is possible to have the steering gear off center with the wheels straight forward, it would cause a problem. You definitely want the steering gear centered when you are going straight. That is because the point with the least clearance in the gear is when it is centered.

The "notch" on the top end of the worm shaft must be in the 12:00 o'clock position. If not the gear is not centered and will have free play. The end of the shaft can easily be seen by removing the horn button.
The 1939-1948 cars had a long solid tie rod on the left side and an adjustable tie rod on the right. There is no way to adjust the tie rods to center the steering gear.
There was an adjustqable long left tire rod made (aftermarket) and that would make centering possible.
Had a nice visit with Don and Linda last week.

Mike,
Next time:

Center the pitman as Gene says.

Next get two long sticks and crawl under the front end. Hold sticks together and slide one to reach the left wheel as far up on the inside of the wheels as possible and the other to reach the right wheel. Hold the sticks level. Mark where the end of one stick over-laps the other. Do the same on the front of the wheels. Adjust with the right tie-rod. When you get about a quarter to half inch of tow-in (depending on the looseness of the tie-rod ends) on the front side you're done. You can do this in reverse if you want to.

Now pull the steering wheel and center it. You're done.

Saves some bucks. If you have to worry about the caster and camber then take it to a shop that will adjust for that. Unless you really need the caster and camber adjusted using shims, etc, then the tow-in deal is about all you may get get from the alignment shop. After all, how in the world did the caster and camber get out of specs in the first place. Usually after a wreck or really bad pot hole or uncovered man-hole.

The stick alignment is the preferred method down south. Close enough for good ol' boys.

Charlie