47 Buick alignment help

J

Johnnyjack

Newbie
Hello everybody, first time on a form for me. I have a 47 Buick that is lowered with a Chevy 350. It's got all the good stuff like air conditioning, cruise control, electric heated seats and the doors are all shaved and I don't think I like that. The alignment is off and it pulls to the right and I cannot find what the correct measurements are for towing and toe out and the rest of it. Any help would be very appreciated. Thanks guys and have a great day
 
Most of the time you set a very slight toe-in.

You say the car is "lowered"... is it still on the Buick front suspension? If it was lowered by shortening springs as opposed to drop spindles or something purpose-built for lowering, that usually affects camber (the "lean in/lean out"). Stick a level on your rims and see if they're pretty close to vertical...or, at least, symmetrical. If you have e.g. the right wheel with positive caster (leans to the right) and the left wheel with negative caster (also leans to the right), the car will...pull to the right.

Caster (the angle front-to-back) can also cause issues. If one wheel is kicked further forward that the other, that'll affect steering wheel centering. That's harder to measure at home, it supposedly can be done, but I've never figured it out.

And (also very important) you need to make sure that the rear-end is square, too. You can measure from points on the frame and make sure the rear end isn't tweaked. If it's out of line, the car will "dog-walk" and will always pull.

Need to share some pictures! That sounds like a sweet ride.

Welcome to the forum!
 
Welcome to our world. If you scroll up above you will see links for shop manuals. I suspect most all years are the same. Since there is no 1947, perhaps begin with the 2948=2949.
Where is home?

Ben
 
Hi guys, I tried to post pictures but they tell me they're too large. I believe that the suspension is original so maybe it isn't lowered.
 
Johnnyjack said:
Hello everybody, first time on a form for me. I have a 47 Buick that is lowered with a Chevy 350. It's got all the good stuff like air conditioning, cruise control, electric heated seats and the doors are all shaved and I don't think I like that. The alignment is off and it pulls to the right and I cannot find what the correct measurements are for towing and toe out and the rest of it. Any help would be very appreciated. Thanks guys and have a great day
Click to expand...
The 1958 Motor Auto Repair Manual starts their Buick alignment specs with 1949 models, all series having the same specs. For what they are worth, it shows: for Caster, Degrees: Limits +1/4 to +1 1/2, Desired +3/4. Camber, Degrees: Limits -5/8 to +7/8, Desired +3/8. Toe-In, Inch: 1/16 to 1/8. Toe-Out on Turns, Degrees: Outer Wheel, 20; Inner Wheel 20 3/4 to 22 1/2. Kingpin Angle, Degrees, Theoretical 4 1/4 @ 3/8 Camber.
The 1940 Buick Shop Manual shows, for Series 40, 50, 60 and 70 (Special, Super, Century, Limited) : Toe-In - At Outside of tire : 0 to 1/16". At Inner edge of tire: 0 to 1/16". Caster - Degrees: 3/8 Pos., + or - 3/8. Crosswire (Typo, I guess, I think they mean Crosswise) Inclination of King Pin: 3 1/2 to 4 1/2. It doesn't say, but I take it to be degrees.
The toe-in measurements are consistent from the 40 Shop Manual to the 58 Motor Manual, which includes up to 52 with it's 49 specs, in that 1/16" is in both sets. So that's where I'd start to check yours, even though toe is the last adjustment, after caster and camber, in an on-the-rack alignment. So the distance between the tires at their front at axle level should be 1/16" less than the distance between them at their rear. Hope this helps. 1/16" is a pretty fine measurement, when you're lying down with a tape measure under a Buick. I wonder if one of those ratcheting cargo bars from Harbor Freight etc., with the pads popped off, would work. All the best with that, and I, too, would like to see pictures. The 47s are beautiful.
 
Johnnyjack said:
Hi guys, I tried to post pictures but they tell me they're too large. I believe that the suspension is original so maybe it isn't lowered.
Click to expand...
Resize images in paint, so they arent too large. If you wanted to could lower resolution in your settings prior to taking pics so not to take so much data.

You should read a bit about your question in related manual or random search otherwise you wont clearly grasp the suggestions of the members.
 
What we used to do for a "Farmer Alignment" - after making sure there weren't any clapped-out ball joints or tie rods (kingpins in this situation), or after REPLACING said components, we'd:

Use a level to make sure the wheels are mostly straight up-and-down, maybe a touch of positive camber, and (most importantly) the same for both front wheels. Adjust as needed. This affects toe-in, so make sure that's done first.

Then we'd do toe-in by first examining the tire & seeing if the tread tracks true. If it doesn't, then we'd scribe a line on the tire tread - just using a nail in a board and spinning the tire against it to zero out any imperfections. Then set the car on all 4, roll it back a half-turn of the tires, roll it back forwards to make sure everything is loaded like it would be going down the road. Then measure the distance front and rear.

Since on MOST cars you can't measure at 9 and 3-o-clock, and you're stuck measuring like 4 and 7 or 8...that keeps you from getting the "good" reading you're after. So instead of 1/8" toe-in at 9 and 3, you'd be lucky to measure 1/16th at 4 and 7. So we'd shoot for like 1/32nd to 1/16th toe-in - basically "just making good and sure it's toed slightly in instead of out" (and honestly this was at the limit of our abilities and tools), and that usually was good enough.

Drive the car, see if the steering wheel isn't straight, if it isn't, note which way you need to move things, turn the tie rods equally to bring the steering wheel over, measure toe-in one more time, and done. (Hopefully!)
 
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