Thread: Spindles/Camber

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I just ran into a problem and would like to know if anyone else has ever had the same thing happen. I ordered a pair of forged early Ford spindles from S------ and put them on the Chassis Engineering axle in my '32 Highboy project. When I bolted the wheels on and let the car down I found that there was 1 degree negative camber. I thought I may have a screwed up axle so I started swapping spindles from car to car and found that when I put the new spindles on the other cars it ended up being the same negative camber reading. When I put stock Ford spindles on the same axles, including the Chassis Engineering axle, the camber was about 1/2 degree positive which, according to my '53 Motors manual, is about right. I've been a Hot Rodder since the early '60's and have never had this happen before, has anyone else had a problem like this with spindles they have purchased??
Thanks, Bruce

Strange as it may seem, Old Henry seemed to have better tolerances than some of the newly made stuff. I usually only use old stuff, and the specs seem to be pretty close to being right on, but some of the aftermarket parts are not that exact.

An example is the chrome axle on the front of my Kids T. We just dialed in the alignment, and the caster is different by 2 degrees from one side to the other. By forcing the radius rod up with a floor jack we were able to twist out one degree and get it so that one side is 5 degrees and the other 6 degrees. Not ideal, but better than what it was.

I would call the vendor and ask for a new set and try those. BTW, a truck or oldtime alignment shop can bend your axle to correct it by chaining it down and using jacks. If it is a chromed axle though you may not want to do that.

Don

Yup, lots of similar problems...Bolt on parts seldom are a bolt on!!!!