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With the passenger LCA horizontal bolt slid all the way to the center of the vehicle, the camber will not go below -2.1. The toe and caster are fine on the PS, and the DS is behaving normally. So what did I change since the last alignment?
* Bought used OEM UCA mounts, welded in custom upper shock mount, installed new ball joints. Moved my tubular upper arms (delrin bushings) from my known good mounts to the used mounts. I bought a spare set of mounts so I wouldn't be welding in my only set of upper mounts. Haven't lubed ball joint or delrin bushings yet.
* Installed rod-ended coilover shocks
* Bought used LCAs, reamed endlink hole to 5/8" for heim endlink, pressed in new bushings & balljoints. Bought used LCAs so I wouldn't ream on my original LCA's.
* Installed race hubs w/ adapters
* Installed new wheels/tires
Did you mean the bolt is slid AWAY from the center of the vehicle to gain max neg camber?
Did you or previous owner enlarge the slot in the K-member?....assuming its stock
Did you mean the bolt is slid AWAY from the center of the vehicle to gain max neg camber?
Did you or previous owner enlarge the slot in the K-member?....assuming its stock
It's the same oem kmember I've had for about 12 years, it was replaced due to an accident. The PS front LCA may have been replaced during the same repair, I'd have to look at the receipt for the body work. This is the first time I've ever had an alignment problem. I never modified the kmember.
The horizontal bolt is all the way to the right of the slot, giving us -2.x camber. We need to move that bolt further right, and/or push the upper outward, to get the camber closer to 0. But none of my front lcas are adjustable.
oh wow.some people would like to start with that much neg camber lol.
SO no change in K, LCA is the same...but UCA is in a different location somehow....or maybe better said spindle is in a different location.
Adjustable Ball joints?
I found my body shop invoice from 2007. They replaced the steering knuckle, crossmember, tie rod & tie rod end on the passenger side. The LCA is not listed on the invoice at all, so my front LCA's should both be the factory originals since I bought the car new off the lot and to my knowledge there was never a reason to have replaced them for another reason. Since that repair, that combination of parts has always allowed me to get the desired range of alignments. Standard replacement ball joints, just heavier duty.
After the changes listed above, I have the alignment problem.
* The spare upper OEM UCA mounts I bought are using the same 4 OEM bolt holes to mount to the chassis. I bought the spare merely so I wouldn't be welding on my known good parts. I can't switch back to my original mounts without also having to switch back to my old coilovers due to the different shock mounting style. I guess we could loosen those bolts and see if we can move the mount towards the fender at all?
* The upper control arm is the same as I've been using for many years, all I did was move it to the spare mount I bought. It is a Global West version with del-a-lum bushings (I've errantly said delrin in the past). I didn't replace the bushings due to no need.
* I replaced the upper ball joint, but I'm pretty sure I got the orientation correct. Could having it rotated the wrong way cause the tire to be in too far at the top?
* At the bottom end of the spindle, anything that's between the ball joint and the tire could affect how far out it reads, correct?
I have to think from the photo that something is completely shifted a bit to the driver side, or for some reason the upper control arm lca/mount on the passenger side needs to be investigated.
I think I would check part #s on the ball joints first just to rule out something easy. XRP does make adjustable/offset units (for an Fbody?)that could be packaged in wrong box possibly. Your installer may not have noticed when he wasn't expecting them to be offset.
After that, then yeah, looks like UCA needs some investigating.
The XRF's I ordered were K6462 (upper) and K6145T (lower), they intentionally match the Moog part numbers for ease of cross reference. I remember the studs being centered just like the Moog units I removed. They do not list adjustable/offset variants in their online catalog. At least it's on the passenger side so I don't need to fight with the brake master cylinder & brace.
I just got done aligning my car and installing a new k-member. Once completed I see the k-member isn't centered. It is where it wanted to be, I do not think the holes line up unless it was where it is. I know you didn't do anything with the k-member, but I wonder if your k-member is also not centered. If it isn't centered that would explain why you can align one side and not the other.
Regardless of what is causing this you can remedy it with adjustable LCA and/or adj UCA. Just take $$ and since someone else is doing the alignment... a lot of $$ for alignment with adjustable parts.
You jack the car up level and you then use 1 or more plumb bobs to mark the same parts on the floor. Then measure from rear to front straight and cross until they are within 1/16".
At this point my question is why I'm suddenly having the problem after the above changes. I didn't have the alignment problem with the same k-member prior to those changes, so could the k-member have shifted towards the driver side? Could the parts I swapped out have caused the problem?
I have no clue without looking. Just know how to center or check for center on the k-member because I did it when I swapped mine to UMI. You need to start measuring everything from center until you find what is different. Use similar to above to mark center and every connection point for each thing, control arm points, ball joints on both sides. Then measure to center front and rear until you find something not balanced side to side.
03-31-2018, 07:01 PM
Alignment problem 
