DYI front end alignment?

[JH27N0B]

I've have a bit of a dilemma with my T/A restoration.
The front end was never aligned.  When I had the car at a shop in IN last year getting a bunch of stuff fubared by the previous shop fixed, he took it to the alignment shop he has used for years.
Lo and behold the shop had recently got a new alignment rack, and found it wouldn't work with a vintage E body. 
The car is a trailer queen I don't for see driving other than to a few nearby shows and cruises, so wondering if I might be able to get things "close enough" so that it looks ok and drives ok for limited driving.
I replaced tie rods on my old Bronco years ago, and with some measurements got the toe-in fine in my driveway, so I'm thinking that part should be no problem.
But how about camber, is it hard to do, and can you get it close "eyeballing" it or with rough measurements?

[Chryco Psycho]

Old story but I set up the front end for a member here , he felt it drove well but wanted to take it to an alignment shop , I told the shop the specs to set it to & they did but on the way home he asked if I could reset it to where I had it as it drove better the way I had set it 
It is not hard to do with a level & tape measure

[BFM_Cuda]

I've done this before and had good results. I built a half square ( think = [ ) out of 1/4 inch square tube with equal length horizontal "legs" that I could rest on the upper and lower ball joint grease zerks and then used a digital level or angle finder to set the caster. It also worked to set the camber by resting it on the wheel (I may have had to set it on brake rotor with the wheel off to get a level surface, cant remember). The tire may get in the way to get square measurements, but if you can remove the wheel and set the brake rotor on a block of wood at the same height as ride height, it works pretty good. Once you are happy with the camber and caster, then you can reset the toe.

[JH27N0B]

Great ideas, thanks!

[Chryco Psycho]

I did an alignment on both of my vans this afternoon , but there is no caster adjustment because they are a strut front end so I could only do camber & toe

[RUNCHARGER]

Max your upper control arms, front out, back in. Then run a square on the wheel and adjust them so the level is straight up. Then set your toe in to 1/8". That will get you close. I bought a camber caster gauge to do it right though as I enjoy new tools.

[Ifixmycarmyself]

Max your upper control arms, front out, back in. Then run a square on the wheel and adjust them so the level is straight up. Then set your toe in to 1/8". That will get you close. I bought a camber caster gauge to do it right though as I enjoy new tools.

Same procedure as I use to make a preliminary set up, and some time the one that works best. Unfortunately we end up with a compromise adjustment between Camber and Caster. I like more positive Caster but not to much Camber. Intresting to hear if you with the tool can get a 1,5 degree positive Caster but less than 1/2  degree positive Camber and what steering axis inklination you get with that compromise.

[Ifixmycarmyself]

I did an alignment on both of my vans this afternoon , but there is no caster adjustment because they are a strut front end so I could only do camber & toe

I agree with this and your post above. How much Caster would you recommend? I try to increase Caster on Challengers to at least 1.5-2 degree but to the compromise of to high Camber and les steering axis inclination. SLA front ends were never designed to optimise handling. large engine bay was priority. Have you ever tried to increase Caster by shortening the strut rod sleeve between the rubber bushing and by that forcing the lower control arm forward. that would increase positive caster without worsening camber. Is it wort experimenting with that modification. Similar to some aftermarket adjustable, better handling, stuff. What do you think?

[Chryco Psycho]

Without modification or adjustable upper control arms 3* is approx the max you can achieve , you can use adjustable lower control struts that will adjust for a bit more caster but you start to bind the lower bushing if you go too far