All front end alignment angles should be adjusted with the car sitting at ride height - including toe-in.

Use the stick 'n' nail to scribe a line, but set the car back down on the ground and use a tape measure to compare front and back distances.

When the wheels are hanging, differences in suspension/steering component travel arcs will induce something known as "bump-steer".

If you adjust the toe-in with the wheels hanging, you will be including bump-steer in your adjustments, and the wheels will NOT be pointing straight ahead when the car is back on its wheels at ride height.

You could do just as well by sighting down each front wheel towards the back wheel, or using a piece of string stretched from the back wheel past the front wheel.....which is the way oval-trackers have done - and still do - "Four Wheel Alignments" before the word "computer" became an everyday part of the English language.

Early MOPARS had as much bump-steer as any other car of the era. I've straightened out a number of them for oval-track racing over the years.

The bump-steer that exists on most street cars is not of any major concern, but it can be used as a chassis-tuning tool for oval-track and road-racing racecars that must turn.


B.P.

.....thats ride height,,,,,the tires are just off the ground...think blocking the A arms.

I use your string method when I know all the rims are straight and body work permits.....but the stick method as I stated it is the easiest for an amateur.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Not really.....

Measure the space between the top of the tire and the fender opening with the car sitting on its wheels on the ground.

Then jack the car under the control arm and measure that same space. It will be different, because supporting the car at the middle of the control arm offers a different lever arm than the tire at the end of the control arm.

Better yet, place your camber/caster guage on the hub, then jack the car......or have someone else jack the car so you can observe the change for yourself.

Again, the correct way is to have the car sitting with the weight on its wheels.

B.P.

OK, here ya go; To get the steering centered so that you have the same
amount of steering (in your case 2-1/2 turns either way from center,
DON'T MESS WITH THE STEERING WHEEL... leave it with the master spline lined up... if you force it on youll be sorry later when you try and get it off again; also tour turn signal cam will be off.
Now, remove the pitman arm from the box. Turn the steering wheel all the way one direction. Now count as you turn it all the way the other way and bring it back 1/2 way. This is where the box is centered. Put the pitman arm on here as close to where the idler and pitman are parallel to each other. Done. If your steering is still way off then either your tie rods are not at equal length or your steering coupler is not installed correctly at that end of the steering box. Center the steering wheel and adjust the tie rod sleeves so as to straighten the tires; eyeball down the side of the car, from the outsides of the front sidewalls to the outer sidewalls of the back tire on that side. Tighten the sleeves, and sorry to say, get the car directly back to the alignment shop to have the toe set unless you have enuf stock in a tire company so as to be able to get replacements for free!
Think about this too. Whatever ratio your box is whether it be 16:1, 20:1, or whatever, using uour example of 5 turns lock to lock, the pitman shaft only turns like about 90* total sweep. (thats where the ratio comes in;
5 turns at the wheel, 1/4 turn at the pitman arm.)
It used to kill me as an alignment guy, some of the complaints about a crooked wheel. I saw many cars with the steering wheel straight with the world and the alignment off the charts, yet others with the wheel nearly upside down, yet except for the steering wheel position the alignment was perfect. Do you look at the wheel while driving or the road ahead?
Are ALL the roads thaat you drive on perfect, flat, crowned exactly the same, material the same, no curves,/ etc? These are all things that effect the position of the steering wheel, at different times.
While driving, actually you have equal toe in or out, even though statically on the rack with the steering wheel locked down, it may show up otherwise on the alignment computer. You just steer slightly one way or the other to equalize it.... for tire wear the "total toe" is the important reading. For a straight steering wheel, that's where the individual toe reading comes in. That don't even begin to consider the tires.... one being low on air, one size or brand on one side something different on the other side. These can all effect how the car drives even though according to specs the alignment could show perfect on the machine screen.

Sir....are if you telling me the correct way to do the stick and nail method you failed to read a number of the points I made.

I tried to provide a simple, yet effective method a beginner could rough in his toe in to get to the alignment shop......... If you need to spin the tires to scribe them while they are on the ground you have my blessing.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Ok, this is how I installed it. I removed the old box, leaving the pitman arm on the centerlink.

On the new box, I turned the input shaft lock to lock and I counted 5 turns total. I turned it back from lock to 2.5 turns. I put it in the car. I attached the coupler to the colum and made sure the steering wheel was locked so the input shaft couldn't turn by accident. I turned the tires by hand to straight ahead and tried to install the pitman - wouldn't, splines didn't line up. Only way it would is if the input shaft was turned.

If you installed the arm on the box before putting it on the car, sure, it will go on any one of four ways. But the thing is, when you put it on the car, with the input shaft on the box centered between locks, and the tires centered, it will be pointing way off.

Call me hardheaded.... Theory of pitman arm off 90deg is plausible on paper but on the car it just doesn't cut it. If you centered the input shaft, and centered the wheels, then tried to mate a pitman arm that was off 90deg you would need to be superman to get the pitman arm to stretch that much. Maybe only 1/2 of superman if you use the made in china arms that Dan loves so much.

The steering wheel alignment isn't a problem at all. I use a grant aftermarket wheel, and the adapter on it has no "master spline" or key on it, can be put on in any direction. Also same for the flaming river colum <-> box coupler.

From the sounds of it the tierods can make that big a difference. Maybe this will be a good excuse to convert to the heavier c-body ends. Think I recall someone making solid sleeves too with locking nuts instead of clamps.