[FC] Rear transaxle alignment

[Paul Steinberg]

Back in the early 1960's Chevrolet send the dealers a notice on how to bend 
the front cross member if the car couldn't  be brought into alignment 
specifications using shims.  I doubt that today you could even find a frame 
shop that would even want to do this even if it was the only way to get a 
correct alignment.  There was one in Springfield MA that did this work back 
in the day for the dealerships, and they were very good at correcting 
factory errors, however, they went out of business this past fall, and along 
with the loss of this shop, all the expertise is not gone.  I had them work 
on many of my old collector cars, and they always knew how to do the job 
correctly.  The single reason that they told me for them closing was that 
people today don't want to pay for quality alignment work, and feel that the 
$39.99 specials are all that they need.
Paul in CT


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris & Bill Strickland" <lechevrier at earthlink.net>
To: <corvanatics at corvair.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: [FC] Rear transaxle alignment


>
>>With the above statement, on an early without individual four wheel 
>>adjustments, it is very hard to change the thrust angle. The reason is you 
>>can only change the total toe setting with the shims. When you add or 
>>subtract shims, you change both tires an equal amount. On a late model it 
>>is very easy to get the thrust angle changed because you can change the 
>>individual rear tires toe and camber settings.
>>
>
> Perhaps that is all true, Ken, but perhaps there are other things that
> can be done outside the traditional "alignment shims" to make changes.
> Regardless, one should know whether the thrust angle is correct on your
> vehicle or not, and the front axle should be so aligned.  Sometimes,
> aligning a non-conforming vehicle is not necessarily "easy" nor is such
> work included for $39.95, but that is not saying it can't or shouldn't
> be done.
>
> Bill Strickland
>
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