1937 Lasalle coupe castor and camber adjustment

[Rich Iannelli]

Hi,

Just had a complete front end suspension installed on my  1937 Lasalle.  The mechanics are trying to get the alignment right but can't seem to get it back to specs.
The mechanic is reading +2 degrees on the camber. His suggestion was to remove the lower control arms and elongate the holes another 1/2". This would bring the bottom of the wheel out to match the top of the wheel.

Does anyone have information that I could pass along to my repair shop?

Thank you,

Rich Iannelli

[Glen]

It seems to me there is something wrong there.  Elongating the holes is only covering up for the original error. 

I would be looking at the upper suspension arms and the shock.  Are the upper arms original or are these replacement arms? 

Looking at the parts book the shocks for the 37-50 and 60 series are different from the other series cars of that year.  Is it possible you have the wrong upper arms/shocks?     

Maybe someone with a 37 LaSalle could measure the length of their upper arms for you to compare.   

[harvey b]

On the upper control arms there is some adjustment,i think you remove the grease nipples and in there is a allen key adjusted shaft,im not sure if they seen them or not,it shows it on page 30 of the shop manual the specs for the cars is also there too.I cant scan it for you,but possibly someone here could? there is an eccentric pin in the steering knuckle that might give you what you need,I would not let them ream out the holes,I would find another shop,find one that has an old grey haired guy who looks like he has been around a while.   Good luck   Harveyb

[Glen]

Page 30 from the shop manual

[Steve Passmore]

One would hope the shop had realized about the eccentric adjustment on the top joint when they rebuilt everything but theres no way the adjustment there would compensate for 1/2".  I have never seen +2 degrees, that means the wheels are too far out at the top, its usually the other way around after some impact to the control arms. Hope they are not checking this with the car jacked up? that will give a false + camber reading.
If this car didn't have the problem before the rebuild somethings wrong with the build, on the other hand the car could have the wrong control arms giving a wrong camber. Shocks are the same from smaller series GM cars so that wouldn't make any difference and larger series don't interchange, whereas the control arms from other GM cars will fit but have different camber alignment.

[sly37]

I had the same problem. Put the original springs back in and problem was solved. New springs had front sitting too high making alignment impossible.
D schroeder