I am doing a body off rebuild of my 65 roadster. The body is off and I am working with a rolling frame. I have replaced all the suspension bushings front and rear. In the rear I installed a new poly trailing arm bushing kit and am using stainless shims. I have also installed the new heavy duty rear camber strut rods to make adjusting camber easier. A few years ago I installed a new rear spring. I don’t remember where I ordered it from or if it is a heavy duty or a standard one.

Here are my questions. After installing the trailing arm bushings I put in the shims (even amount on each side of the trailing arm bolt. Both tires looked like they were pointing outward at the front of the tires (I think that is negative toe in??) instead of inward (which is positive toe in??). I removed all the shims, moved the trailing arm over to the inside as far as it would go and inserted all the shims that I could on the outer side. After tightening the bolt and lowering the frame to the ground it still looks like the tires are pointing outward. I would think that all the shims should not be on one side of the trailing arm bolt anyway.

It is my understanding that the rear spring should be adjusted until it is basically horizontal, and that the half shafts (which are also new with new u-joints) are also to be horizontal. Neither is horizontal. I can’t get the spring to be flat as there is no adjustment left in the spring bolts. Looking at the half shafts, it appears that if they were horizontal the rear of the trailing arm would be pushed outward a little thus creating more positive toe in. If this is correct, how do I get the half shafts to be horizontal? Since the body is not on the frame there is no weight back there, but there isn’t much weight back there anyway with the body on.

I would appreciate any advice and guidance that can be provided. I am lost as far as how all these rear suspension components work together.

Thanks, Mark

 

You can't make these adjustments without the body, the gas tank, the engine, the trani, etc. Toe is described as toe in or toe out, not positive and negative. The weight is the only thing that will flatten out a spring, the bolt adjustment only effects the height and alignment.

 

Mark:

having gone through all this with my '65 body-off, my advice to you is:

for now, use equal shim packs on the TA's.

That will get you pretty close, usually.

When the car is all back together, and gas in the tank -- then you can dial in the alignment settings.

 

MelWff/Mike

Thank you for your replies. I guess I can't jump the gun and try to get some toe in just to make sure I can get correct adjustment after the car is all back together in a year or so. I just got the frame back from the frame shop. The car took a hit in the front passenger side somewhere along the line and the wheel was pushed back about an inch. The rear had also been hit and the frame at the back was repaired but the passenger side was about 3/4 inch higher than the driver side. Both are now fixed but I just wanted to see if I can get some recognizable toe in.

Again, thank you for your responses.

Mark

 

I recomend doing a search on poly vs oem rubber. I recently removed the poly trailing arm bushing kit and went back to as designed rubber. Keep us informed.
Brgds,
Rene

 

I remember pulling my hair out on this.

First thing to sort out is: you see a toe-in spec. and wonder "is that EACH wheel or the total??" Wasn't too clear in many cases.

Then you have to factor in radial vs. bias ply tires, and the type of driving you normally do. OK -- radial tires and street driving for me.

THEN you realize that the toe spec's are in DEGREES (which is fine), but if you're playing with it yourself --what is the relationship between shim THICKNESS and toe angle??

Appears that 1/32" equates to 0.07 degrees, based on my rooting around in all the info out there.

Anyway, FWIW. Might help you or some other C2 owner out in the future.

Mike

 

There is no reason why you can't do some rough measurements with the body off. Obviously, you will have to re-do it when you have all the weight on the suspension. You don't want to completely re-assemble the car and then find out the frame is bent. Here are a couple of articles on rear toe and camber.

http://www.duntovmotors.com/tech-alignment.php

http://www.lbfun.com/warehouse/tech_...r%20Camber.pdf

 

Really give some thought to using poly bushings in your trailing arms, especially if you have side pipes. Mine turned into glass and fell out after a few years. My friend had the same problem with a customers car, also with side pipes. I switched back to rubber. Even with my lift, it was a big pain in the butt to change out both sides. Jerry

 

You'll wish you had used the correct OEM rubber bushings instead of poly; now is a good time to change to rubber while it's still all apart.

 

John, that may be the right advice for most places in these United States, but it just does not comport with experience on the Gulf Coast. We have a uniquely corrosive, oxidizing climate that turns rubber to dust in a very short time. You live here, plan on buying new wiper blades every 6 months, even if the car is garaged. Properly compounded polyurethane is a good solution to this area's unique environment. I have my 18 year old poly suspension bushings in the red thing to back that up.

 

It's usually best to heed John H's advise, I find it is traditional with reasonable concessions to todays technology.
FYI, the rear trailing arm bushings move in a 3 dimensional arc. PolyUrethane bushings can only work in 2 dimensional, up and down. It seems to me that theoretically that would grind them up. I opine that it is technically incorrect to use Polyurethane bushings in that position. Guys do it I know ....

 

Being a Midwesterner, I can't speak to the Gulf Coast climate issue, but in this part of the country, poly bushings are not a good thing for a street-driven car, especially where they're subjected to three axes of motion.