[wakesupremo]

This must have been discussed on here a few times but I struggle to find anything previously so I apologise in advance.
I have fitted the tubular control arms and new springs to my '69 firebird convertible. It has always driven straight and true before and still does but now seems to wander as if its steering from the rear. I haven't touched anything at the rear so assume its front end alignment. I also appreciate that, originally, it wouldn't have been fitted with radials. What specs for toe in should I be setting it at please?

[vertigto]

Here's what BMR recommends for their tubular A-Arms for a 67-69 F-body...

[steve25]

Have someone drive behind you when your driving straight to see if the car is Crab walking, because if it is it’s because your rear has shifted on the leaf spring purch , not due to front end alignment issues!

[wakesupremo]

Thanks for the replys agin.

[wakesupremo]

I have adjusted and set the toe in to the correct specification but the car still 'snatches' on corners. When turning in to a corner it seems to take a lot of steering to begin the steering process then , snatch, and its on opposite lock to correct. Is this a castor angle problem? How do I adjust castor?

[Kenth]

Front end alignment is no easy DIY task.
I would go to a wheel alignment shop and use the settings vertigto provided in post #2.

[wakesupremo]

Ok thank you for all the replys.

[grivera]

Did your A-Arms come with alignment specs? If they are Global West knock-offs you should try to acquire their specs rather than using the BMR specs. There's an old thread where someone has already gone through this and I believe had good results going that route.

[Don 79 TA]

aftermarket arms change geometry which depending how aggressive you go makes the feel of steering different, like pump strain, from caster changes, especially from older cars
i felt a difference playing with the setup i put in my 79 TA, not to mention the more caster the further back the wheel was to the fender
when i did the alignment i think i went back to 2 and 2.5 for caster or somewhere near there
i just didn't like or need that more aggressive setting and wanted a little more tire/fender clearance

you make caster/camber changes with the shims (or adjusters if your arms have them)
keep in mind, one chance impacts the others
also some of these arms have flippable bars on the arms that change camber/caster angles too

i've done alignments for along time and bought my own snap on machine now, used online from a dealer
maybe venture to some small shop owners, possbily coax them into an upgrade, think of a new way to make some friends/money lol (or be used so watch it)
yeah it's a PITA to crawl around and set it all up (age starting to come into play whether i admit it or not)

you'll want to find a friend/shop that will not mind spending the extra time to dial in a setup
most will just set toe and go, roll it on the lift and back off... time is money

checking tires, air pressure, and everything else takes time

they do make an adjuster for the rear springs if it's not "square"
i want to say SPC... i think that is where i got the alignment shims and other misc tools from
there are also some nice "kits" you can buy that you can do your own alignments with too
search for them, powernation showed a nice segment when they did a firebird build some years ago, it's on youtube
longacre is one
not computerized like a full snapon/ranger/hawk/etc but under 1k you can get a kit and play till your heart is content

also maybe its possible if you are going from a worn out stock setup, to something aftermarket you might not be used to the new aggressive feel???? just a thought
and something i noticed too worn body bushings will be more.. ummm noticeable too
just some feedback

[JLMounce]

It sounds like you are trying to do the alignment yourself and may not have the necessary tools to do it. If you just replaced the control arms, your alignment is going to be completely out of whack, even if you re-used the existing shims in the existing stacks. If the arms you chose don't use shims, it's probably worse.

Get the car to an alignment shop and provide them the alignment specs provided by the manufacturer of your control arms. They will also check your drive-ahead from the rear as well, which will tell you how square the car is and if you need to make any changes back there.

[wakesupremo]

Thanks again everybody for the advice. I will get it to an alignment shop as soon as I can.

[ZeGermanHam]

One additional recommendation... Be sure to call your intended alignment shop ahead of time and have a very frank discussion about their ability to align an old car that uses shims. Most of your typical alignment shops that work with modern cars have no idea how to align a car with shims. This means that some shops will refuse to work on an older car, or alternatively, they may give it a try but do a poor job.

[66sprint6]

Ya, that's for sure. I brought our Tempest to a large shop and even called to ask if they could align an old car. They said no problem. When I got there, they told me that they couldn't do it because they couldn't find the Tempest in their computer. I got lucky though, we did find an old school shop that did it by hand and the car felt great after.

[77 TRASHCAN]

Originally Posted by ZeGermanHam

One additional recommendation... Be sure to call your intended alignment shop ahead of time and have a very frank discussion about their ability to align an old car that uses shims. Most of your typical alignment shops that work with modern cars have no idea how to align a car with shims. This means that some shops will refuse to work on an older car, or alternatively, they may give it a try but do a poor job.

Ask the shop how old the front end guy is...................

[TedRamAirII]

Originally Posted by 66sprint6

Ya, that's for sure. I brought our Tempest to a large shop and even called to ask if they could align an old car. They said no problem. When I got there, they told me that they couldn't do it because they couldn't find the Tempest in their computer. I got lucky though, we did find an old school shop that did it by hand and the car felt great after.

A more honest reply would be "all the alignment guys are too stupid to use Specifications for alignment" Toe, Caster and Camber are the 3 basic alignment points. ALL cars use them. With the new computer aided alignment machines, a 10 year old girl could do alignments. Pathetic times we are in.