[FC] alignment

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

Since everyone has an opinion, and what would a Corvair list be worth 
without a variety of opinions to choose from, here's mine

Dale has given some good values, but,

A good front end tech should be able to move caster and camber jointly, 
saving time in getting to those awkward dag nabbed nuts (pulling that 
air duct on the right side ahead of time is a good place to start along 
with a liberal doses of your favorite aerosol lubricant and letting it 
soak -- or dropping the front end out and doing a full restoration on 
the upper a-arm bolts).  Caster values are NOT some absolute cast in 
stone number -- generally two or three degrees positive are just fine as 
long as both sides are nearly the same (except for vehicles designed for 
negative caster, like some old Monte Carlos @ -7, etc.)

I like to run radials straight up and down (zero camber) and straight 
ahead (zero toe in) unless tire wear or  undesirable handling is 
observed and attributed to these settings (generally, it is something 
else causing it, but sometimes curing the symptom is easier than curing 
the cause).

Camber and toe are typically tire wear adjustments (not counting that a 
Corvair is not typical) while caster is a touchy-feely thing, BUT any 
one of these being radically off or significantly differing side-to-side 
can become a handling and or safety issue.

Shocks -- I've always liked the old Gabriel Adjustable-E's, even though 
you had to take things apart to install them.. A 95 van is relatively 
heavy with a higher roll center (than say a rotary powered Spridget) and 
you need good stiff shocks to autocross it. If you are worried about the 
performance of high end shocks, maybe you need  a degree and a half of 
negative rear camber, also.  A cut-off wheel on a die grinder is also a 
nice way to cut springs down.

Also, it's much easier to use a die grinder to enlarge the lower control 
arm shock holes than an air chisel.

Drive On!

Bill Strickland