FRONT END ALIGNMENT

[George Karageorge]

I have been finding it difficult to find a shop that can do an alignment on my 64 SDV.  The alignment heads that attach to the rear wheels come too close or touch the body.  I have been to 4 shops so far.  Will be going to Duty Tire as Jason suggested but I wanted to see if anyone has had this experience or can shed any light.

Short history of the work that I have done is replace upper lower ball joints, stab links, and control arm bushings.  The brakes have been totally redone-everything, and have been adjusted a number of times.

The car seems to ride straight maybe a slight wander to the right when steering wheel is let go.  When the brakes are applied car pulls to the left, I guess for lack of a better description at a medium intensity.  I have adjusted the brakes per manual a few times.

Thanks

George

[Clovis]

George only one side of the wheel cylinder will move if there is no resistance. The fluid takes the path of least resistance and will only move the one that's easiest. When the brakes are applied they will both give equal pressure on the drum. To be sure you can unhook the springs on the side that's not moving and watch while someone gently pushes the brakes to see if it moves. Do not let them push to hard or you will end up with brake fluid all over. You should also pop the rubber cap back to see if any rust and or fluid is present. There should be none.

When the drum is installed the pin/stud coming out of the wc will straighten out. The amount of travel that the wc does is minor, most braking action is done by shoes binding on the drums. They twist a bit in there that's why those pins move.

[Clovis]

George have you done the test I suggested for the strut bushings?

[George Karageorge]

not yet. shes on stands right now to sort out the brake issue. Hopefully I'll have that straightened out by this weekend, then I'll move on the struts.

[Tony and Ginny 429]

I would examine the internals of the brake cylinder to be sure the bore is smooth clean and the internal rubber is good
Nothing worse than trouble shooting a part that is new and not working correctly as it is not suspect at first
You should be dealing with some brake fluid and you will need to bleed that brake when done and fill the MC

If the fix for your problem is replacing ( or reversing ) the brake sping this will be a very interesting and unusual trouble shooting post

Some trouble shooting is a complicated brain teaser and a process of elimination mostly
The more complex the problem is the greater the reward when solved

To be honest i cannot wait to find out the solution to this one

Enjoy

[George Karageorge]

I'm going to tackle it hard this weekend and will post.  What interesting though is that the left side spring is hooked from the top and it seems to be operating the front shoe correctly.  I'm assuming that since the manual shows the left side picture hooking from the bottom, the right side should also hook from the bottom.  What's interesting though is when I took it apart the previous installer had one spring hooking from the top and the other from the bottom.  I'm going to go back and look at pics I took because it definitely is stirring my curiosity now. As always stay tuned........for the next episode of "as the wheel turns".

[George Karageorge]

Got that backwards.  The left side picture in the manual shows it hooking from the bottom.  Saw some pictures on this site posted by mokk showing the left side hooking from the top and the right side hooking from the bottom...hmmmmmmmmm

[Tony and Ginny 429]

George
Your largest spring on the front brake needs to be hooked from the bottom
Yours is hooked from the top now
Everything else looks as it should regarding the springs

"As the wheel turns " is histerical LMAO !!

[George Karageorge]

Got the right side primary spring hooking from the bottom and that did it.  No more pulling.

It wasn't quite that easy though.  The spring that was on there was one I reused from the previous brake job and it was incorrect to begin with, although it probably would have worked but would not go in to hook from the bottom.  Soooo I used springs from a kit that I had but had a difficult time getting them to engage into the shoe hole.  I also had some original used springs and they went on easily.  So I compared the small hook of the original springs to the kit springs and it seemed that there was a small difference between them.  I Slightly spred the kit spring small hook in a vise to get it to look similar to the original spring and it finally went in to the shoe hole properly.  It also looked like the Raybestos shoe hole was smaller than the shoe that was on previously.  Anyways no more pulling YAY!  The left side spring kit or original simply would not hook from the bottom, so I kept it hooked from the top and it works fine.  I haven't wrapped that one around my brain yet......

So on to checking the strut bushings per Clovis procedure then back to the original question of where to find an alignment shop :)

[Tony and Ginny 429]

Now that is very good news - we have brakes
No more episodes of "how the wheel turns " AH-AH !!

[Logan Robb]

This is incredibly helpful information! I am undertaking braking issues and soon alignment and suspension issues as well. 

Wondering if this wouldn't be a good candidate for the help page?

Logan.