I am at my wits end here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have done alot of work restoring my 1966 mustang. Well ever since I have put it back together I can seem to get the alignment to set right. I have taken it to multiple aligment shops and still no luck. It seems that if I drop the nose it works fine when driving. If I try to take off quite fast as the weight transfers to the rear the nose comes up ans when that happens the alignment seems to go out of whack. I really dont know why this is happening. The mechanic told me that he ha no idea why it is doing that either. All the numbers match up. Now i have made the engine lighter by using aluminum heads. Most of the steering and suspension has been done with the OE replacment stuff. I am really at a loss here. Some say the chassis might have some twist some say the engine is too light for the stock springs some say it might have the wrong ride height up front. I am really at a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Not sure what specs you are using. I have the same problem after some front end work. I have severe bump steer with hard acceleration. Also, it is critical to know what front end parts you have such as possibly Granada spindles. These create more bump steer and need a kit to fix the problem. I have been told I need to get things to these specs: Goes to shop next week. "0 - camber on both sides, 2 deg. positive caster on both sides, 1/8" toe-in. The caster and camber has to be the same on both sides. DO NOT let them set the car for road crown." This came from Opentracker Racing Products (Opentracker Racing Products) since I have his products under my car.
two possibilities here that i can think of; 1: when you tightened the front suspension bolts for the lower control arms, you did it while the car was up in the air. that causes a binding in the return travel for the suspension. 2: more likely without knowing what you combination is, you used granada spindles and did the shelby mod. this can cause the very binding you are experiencing. it isnt always the case as some granada spindles have geometry closer to the stock spindles.
I agree with #2, this happened to 2 people i know with Granada swap and Shelby drop. When they drive forward the front end rises like a boat in water. But when the car stops, the front end stays up. We cut the front coils a little and it stopped the rising effect.
Since you didn't mention a Granada conversion... I only ask if the OEM parts that were replaced are the correct ones. Specifically, are the strut rods '65-'66 or are they '67 or up? I have seen the wrong ones subbed in with the results you describe. FYI: The early ones have threads that stop when fully installed, the later ones have continuous threads for full adjustability. I honestly don't have a clue what your car has up front, this is just something I have seen in the past.
I just set my alignment to the specs I listed above. All is well now. Car drives great. The car had neg. caster which caused the problem. I highly recommend the listed specs.
This might help as I never had the binding problem so many people talk about. Get her low and put up with somewhat of a "rough" ride. You can not have your cake and eat it too. With these things it is all about compromise. Click here, it won't cost you a dime! http://www.historicmustang.com/tech.html
