• Welcome to ClassicBroncos! - You are currently viewing the forums as a GUEST. To take advantage of all the site features, please take a moment to register. It's fast, simple and absolutely free. So please join our community today!
    If you have problems registering or can't log into your account, please contact Admin.

I have 1 degree caster with 7 degree C bushings

Dan74Bronc

Sr. Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2007
Messages
928
Loc.
Chandler, Az
Is there any where to purchase axle tubes that are already adjusted?


Not that I'm aware of. Either get to know a Bronco brother who can do it or take the axle to a machine shop.

Where are you located?

Nevermind, I just looked at your screen name again, Maui right?
 
Last edited:

TBS-POPS

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 16, 2007
Messages
1,388
Loc.
valley springs, ca
A good OLD SCHOOL alignment shop can heat and bend your radius arms to get caster problems resolved. Thats the way it was done before you were prob born...
 

lars

Contributor
Been here awhile
Joined
Jun 29, 2001
Messages
3,039
Loc.
NorCal flatlands
That's correct. But, as it turns out, only in theory unfortunately. As the others have stated (except for bmc), the numbers were all over the place in the early years. By the time his '76 was built though, things seemed to be a bit more normalized and were a bit more consistent. I bet they were still not perfect though.
My '71 barely has (if I remember now) about 1.2° positive on one side, with about .8° positive on the other, with 3.5" of lift and 7° bushings.
All that means is that it didn't have the specified caster to begin with. The bushings are correcting for the lift, but the caster was starting out with a deficit.

So, "by the book" (and if your caster was what it was supposed to be from the factory in the first place), then the 4° bushings would be fine. But in practice, you pretty much have to have your alignment specs checked BEFORE the lift, so you know what bushings you're going to need.
And then hope that you are starting from a good point.
There are certainly plenty here with normal caster readings after bushings, but more often than not, they've not been enough to correct what was wrong to begin with.

I had a friend who actually returned his '72 or '73 Baja Bronco back to the dealer(!!!!) as a lemon because it could not be correctly aligned with the normal methods. And it was "stock", for a Baja.
Both his caster and camber were so far out of spec that he couldn't get any miles on his tires before they started showing noticeable wear patterns.
Yeah, a Baja got returned to a dealer. Geez. If he'd only known what we know now, it would never have gotten to that point. But it did. Bummer.
I think that was even before the "Lemon Law" was thought of, but he complained so bitterly, and was so persuasive (and probably was a good regular customer of the dealer) that they took it back and either gave him his money back, or another one (not a Baja though) in trade. I can't remember which way it was resolved, but it got returned.

Paul

And there you have it. A better explanation and corroboration of the problem that starts these discussions than I've seen anywhere. Thanks, Paul.
 
OP
OP
ilovemaui

ilovemaui

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 10, 2010
Messages
1,651
Loc.
Pacific Moist West
And there you have it. A better explanation and corroboration of the problem that starts these discussions than I've seen anywhere. Thanks, Paul.

Nice education but doesn't solve my problem. I've always known Dana had a quality control problem. Thanks for everyone that has chimed in.

So my options are:

1. Change to adjustable radius arms $700. (I like the ones at BC because they use the existing brackets, but they are out of stock). I'm wondering what this does to the driveline.
2. Installing aftermarket extended radius arms with built in caster $1200+. This requires removing the gas tank, removing the existing brackets, welding in new brackets and reinstall the gas tank. Jim Cole can do this for me next week using his radius arms which I'm guessing are similar to Cage.
3. Lowering the radius arm brackets which requires removing the gas tank, cutting off the old brakets, welding on new ones and reassembly $800+.
4. Removing and reinstalling the knuckles $????.
5. Finding a front end with better caster $????.

All the options are labor intensive and expensive, especially since I don't own a welder. Please let me know if there are other options I've missed.
 

bmc69

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 11, 2004
Messages
11,852
2. Installing aftermarket extended radius arms with built in caster $1200+. This requires removing the gas tank, removing the existing brackets, welding in new brackets and reinstall the gas tank. Jim Cole can do this for me next week using his radius arms which I'm guessing are similar to Cage..

That one gets my vote..and they are not similar; they are identical.;)
 

Broncobowsher

Total hack
Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
34,834
Just remember that all the caster fixes (except cut and turn) will also hurt the front U-joint angle.

There are shops that you can take the axle to and they will do the rotate job for you. I know Todd Z. farmed this job out on his truck.
 

1975matthews

Jr. Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2010
Messages
74
Loc.
Canada
extended arms

This is the only way to go in my opinion. Duff sells them for $699 and the are heavy duty with built in caster. Easy to do took me a day I'm not a mechanic. bolted them on took back to the alignment shop the welded them up all is good drives great
 

lars

Contributor
Been here awhile
Joined
Jun 29, 2001
Messages
3,039
Loc.
NorCal flatlands
Nice education but doesn't solve my problem. I've always known Dana had a quality control problem. Thanks for everyone that has chimed in.

So my options are:

1. Change to adjustable radius arms $700. (I like the ones at BC because they use the existing brackets, but they are out of stock). I'm wondering what this does to the driveline.
2. Installing aftermarket extended radius arms with built in caster $1200+. This requires removing the gas tank, removing the existing brackets, welding in new brackets and reinstall the gas tank. Jim Cole can do this for me next week using his radius arms which I'm guessing are similar to Cage.
3. Lowering the radius arm brackets which requires removing the gas tank, cutting off the old brakets, welding on new ones and reassembly $800+.
4. Removing and reinstalling the knuckles $????.
5. Finding a front end with better caster $????.

All the options are labor intensive and expensive, especially since I don't own a welder. Please let me know if there are other options I've missed.

If you are willing to find someone who does have a welder, you can do 75-90% of the work yourself, then have someone else weld the inner knuckles back to the tubes. Mostly it's just disassembly/reassembly. If you looked at the link I posted, it looks pretty difficult and requiring of lots of specialized equipment. I overthought it; were I to do it again I could do it a lot faster and with less effort. 2-4 hours of time on the welder's part should be enough.

I know of a couple of people in the Sacramento area who did it that way; cost them about $250.
 
Top