4 wheel alignment

[captden29]

i read an article on a 51 Plymouth where the man said he ahd a 4 wheel alignment done on the car. is that possible on a 51 Plymouth? i thought only front wheel drive cars get this. also, he said he reset the steering. not sure what he meant by that either. says the car drives so much better. has anyone any idea what was done to this car?    capt den.

[Merle Coggins]

 A 4 wheel alignment assures that the rear axle is squared up to the chassis. Have you ever seen a vehicle dog tracking while going down the road? This is because the rear axle is not aligned properly.

Reseting the steering probably means that the steering box was centered up with the front wheels. Sometimes the linkage gets a little off and you will be slightly off center when driving straight.

[pflaming]

Merle, I would surmise that in evenly worn shackles could impact allaignment, is that a fair statement? 

[DrDoctor]

   Cars with damaged/out-of-square frames are notorious “dog-trackers”. Severely worn rubber grommets in the leaf springs (front or rear), or the links of coil-suspended rear ends, can also cause this “dog-tracking”, not to mention poor steering, ie: wandering. If the steering wheel is off-center, the preferred method to center it is to take in one end of the cross-link while letting out the same amount on the other end. A “quick-and-dirty” method of centering the steering wheel is to just pull it off of the steering shaft, and move it to center (unless it has a master-spline, in which condition you can’t move the steering wheel, so you’re left with “option-1”—the cross-link adjustment). That’s been my experience. Thx . . .

[captden29]

thanks for the replies. worn shackles and bushings are probably the usual culprits.    capt den