New Alignment

[emerystora]

>GMCers
>
>Good news to report. My GMC now drives very well. It no longer
>darts from side to side. There were several problems. First the front
>ride height was 2 inches low. The back was 1/2 inch high. The toe in
>was set to 0. I also had 3 bent bogie arms. The only one not bent
>was driverside front. Now it even goes where I point it. At 55 MPH
>she will track straight enough to let go of the wheel. Life is good.
>Once again I would like to thank Jim Bounds for all of his help.
>
>Take Care
>Arch

Arch - glad to hear that you've got it working so well. Once it is
adjusted like it came from the factory it should actually drive quite
well. After that base adjustment is done then one could experiment
with such things as changing the toe, the camber, etc. to personalize
the handling. If I recall, Tom Warner, basically said this when he
said something to the effect that drawing conclusions from a single
adjustment meant nothing unless we were aware of the other settings
such as ride height, alignment, etc.

How did you finally decide to do the rear alignment? Did you use
shims or did you have the arms "rearced" (bent)?

Emery Stora
77 Kingsley
Santa Fe, NM

 

[dave lowry]

Arch, Great post!

No substitute for experience, especially when you can watch it at work. Our
coaches are much less a mystery to guys who've worked on GM stuff for 20
years or so.

And I'm sure your being a good judge of people helped you to let him work.

Wish we could find one like him in SB.

Type on my friend.

Dave (advisor/navigator) & Dege (ALL else), '76 Royale, Santa Barbara, CA

 

[richard guthart]

Arch,

That bending surely must put a lot of force on the pins and bushings. Does
it take any special technique to protect them from damage? (If I recall, you
had some concerns about that.)

I ask because the toe on my "forward" rear wheels is in just a little, but
the rears are out; out 1/4" on the left and 1/8" on the right. I'll
eventually have them bent (gotta be OK to do that because Emery, Jim Bounds
and others say so, and you were persuaded, but its hard for me to get beyond
the image of a fire rescue team using their port-a-power to rip open a car.
Just looking for reassurance, I guess.)

Richard ('77 Birchaven)
rguthart

> unit was an oversized grease gun with a ram on the end of a hose. Terry
> put in there and started pumping. I could not believe how far the wheels
> moved out of the wheel well. Terry explained that you move it out a little
> and let it go back. You keep doing this until it is where you want
it.......

 

[dave lowry]

Arch, there's no substitute for experience, especially when you can watch it at work. Our coaches are much less a mystery to guys who've worked on GM stuff for 20 years or so.

And I'm sure your being a good judge of people helped you to let him work.

Wish we could find one like him in SB.

Type on my friend.

Dave (advisor/navigator) & Dege (ALL else), '76 Royale, Santa Barbara, CA

Dave & Dege, TZE366V101501, FMCA, GMC

 

[richard guthart]

Thanks for expanding on that, Arch.

Richard ('77 Birchaven)
rguthart

>
> In a message dated 05/15/2000 8:54:27 PM Central Daylight Time,

>
> > That bending surely must put a lot of force on the pins and
> bushings. Does
> > it take any special technique to protect them from damage? (If
> I recall,
> you
> > had some concerns about that.)
> >
> Richard
>
> I had a lot of concerns. Please don't think I know what I am talking about
> here. I have no idea if I did the right thing or not. Its all
> about who you
> trust
> and believe in. The world is not black and white. Somewhere you have to
> trust what other people tell you. Then you have to do some research and
> then make up your mind what YOU are going to do. I cant tell you that. I
> will only tell you what I did and why. I did not like the idea of
> bending the
> arms. I like it when a problem can be finessed not overpowered. Guess
> the first person with a sound point was Jim. He said " if only one arm is
> bent shims wont help". That's a very strong point with me. In fact my
> driver side was that way. Front arm was fine the back one was in real
> bad shape. Then when I ask Terry about bending the arms and my concerns
> about damage to my new bushings and pins---he smiled and said it should
> only take about 4000 pounds of pressure to bend the arms. He said that the
> up and down pressures on the pins and bushings from a high speed pot hole
> are much greater than that. Add all of to that to what Emery and Patrick
> said and it was a go......
>