I have a 76 Maverick and I took it to Pep Boys to get a front end alignment and they told me that the earliest car they got in the system is a 81 Mustang. They did the alignment but its not true to my car and still pulls right. I was just wondering where I can take it to get a true alignment for a 76 maverick.
Although I'm not really familiar with the new electronic gizmo alignment machines, I'd think they could see if caster was/wasn't equal on both sides... Excessive caster(or lack of), is generally what causes a pull to one side though damaged/worn suspension may be the cause it couldn't be aligned... Any independent shop that's been around for 20-25 years should be able to set it up... BTW a rough check of caster is measure to see if wheels are setting same in the fender well, if one is farther rearward than the other, it's out of spec... Probably won't see much or any difference but with worn parts, I've seen differences as much as 1/2"... BTW #2 a problem in the power steering control valve can cause a pull that isn't related to front end geometry...
That was the way it worked with my circle track cars - I did my own caster/camber using a Longacre gauge threaded onto the end of the spindle - 1 degree positive on the left and 5 or 6 degrees positive on the right (super excessive on the street) made it pull hard to the left but that was designed that way for racing - the driver actually had to hold the steering wheel back somewhat to the right to stay straight once he was out of the turns - in racing the general rule of thumb was that the car will pull in the direction of the least amount of positive caster (spindle leaned back on top)
they did find a problem with the steering and had to replace the steering gear, power assist cylinder and the power steering hose. When I got it back I noticed that the power steering wasn’t working, so I am now probably going to have to replace that as well.
pep boys will never touch another vehicle of mine i needed a weekend ac repair on my daily driver due to a week of traveling come monday compressor clutch blew up... well after a new compressor and strangely the condensor that had a hole in it...picked it up on sunday ac worked half a day monday...after several revisits i left it there while on an out of state trip came back picked it up..a few miles down the road the compressor fell off...never never never again
I took the alignment specs in with me, gave it to them, they set it to that and all was good. if you don't mind, what was the total on the bill when they finished? Mike (MAV) took a set of wheels in to get them balanced and had to show them (and the manager) how to do it...
Do the specs need to be skewed due to using different tires nowadays? Also is a alignment going to be the same for a PS vs a manual setup? I have had my 75 that is converted to manual aligned several times with no real good results to speak off.
I have slip plates, caster/camber gauge and toe gauge and do my own alignments on my Maverick. What works best for my car and the way I use it, running modern radial tires: 2 3/4 degrees positive caster 0 degrees camber 1/16" toe in
Is this with a stock type suspension? Since the front end rebuild and disc brakes, mine is yet to see a alignment and have been thinking some extra positive caster would be beneficial in increasing steering feel... It's a bit unstable(probably has negative caster) but doesn't pull, toe-in is correct...
I got my specs. from Rod and Custom with my RC-107 kit. they just so happen to be the same as the stock suspension specs.
