Thread: IFS alignment, best way to...

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OOPs, sorry brick, didn't see this one earlier.

If I'm not too late, first things first. Double check the frame for square over it's entire length. Do a diagonal measure from corner to corner, front to back. THEN check the front frame section as a precaution.

About the ride heighth thing. First thing to keep in mind for the anti-dive, and all the alignment settings to work out is that the lower control arms be parallel with the ground at static heighth. The way most folks do that is to take out the springs and shocks and put a piece of allthread through the shock mounts. With the spindle in place you'll have the proper spacing between the upper and lower arms, then adjust the nuts you put on the allthread to have the lower arm parallel to the deck. Then you can move the crossmember setup to the chassis that you've got positioned at the attitude you desire. Depending on how low you want to go will determine if you mount the crossmember to the bottom of the existing rails, or if you have to notch them and "bury" the crossmember some. About this time some begin to wonder how this is all gonna be affected by the weight of the engine, trans, rad, etc. Doesn't matter. When all that stuff is in the lower control arms still need to be parallel to the ground, so you "adjust" that with spring heighth.

Then it's the stuff you've talked about above, double checking the wheel base, square to the frame, level across, and fitting the sheetmetal to make sure that visual and measured work together.

Oh, and assuming you're using the stock strut rods, the mounting to the frame needs to be stout. As has been noted here before, it's preferable to make the bracket by sandwiching two pieces together rather than trying to weld one thick piece to the relatively thinner rail stock.