Tote

Has anyone had experience with setting up X series font suspension? After getting the ute back from the panel beater he got the local suspension joint to wind back the caster bars enough to allow the 225/50/16 tyres to clear the front guards. They told me that they would shim the upper control arm to regain some caster but I dont think this happened as I have lost self centering of the steering and the steering seems vague.
As I see it I need to add some shims under the front bolt that secures the upper control arm (please correct me if I'm wrong) to move the upper pivot rearwards to compensate for the lower pivot being moved back.
My question is how many shims can I safely pack on the bolt and wil this fix my problem?
The front end currently has no shims either side as I suspect a prior owner may have disposed of them.

Regards,
Tote

rod

the XF does not use shims for the correct alignment setting the toe is set by adjusting the tie rod's the camber is set from the ecentric bolts on the inner edge of the lower control arms & the caster is set buy adjusting the caster bar locking nuts

if you have had somebody wind the caster bars back to fit the wheels under the guards it is not the correct way to do it, remember if you try to shim the upper control arms it will make the camber more posative, this is not a guessing game you are playing it MUST be done on wheel alignment machine otherwise you will scrub the tyres in no time

personally i would not shim the upper arms, i would give it to a compertant wheel alignment expert & get them to set it up, no knocking tyre places but most tyre stores just do what is called in the trade " a Toe & Go " in other words the set the toe adjustment & off you go

it takes time to do a wheel alignment correctly & for a lazy $35.00 they aint going to spend an hour or so doing an alignment

regards
rod

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Tote

Rod,
I realise that the shims are not for general alignment but most falcons I've pulled apart have had some shims under the upper control arm bolts, its my understanding that these are there to make up for tolerances in the chassis, I'm just a but sus that this ute dosent have any.
The panel beater took the ute to a competent suspension place, they do most of the race cars, and it was their suggestion to shim the upper control arms in order to recover the camber settings. I was wondering if anyone had played with shims to correct problems and how successful they were. In my previous ute I was able to run 225/60/14 tyres on 7" rims with no difficulties and get a reasonable amount of caster so there was a difference somewhere.
I'm aware of the implications of guessing my wheel alignment settings but if I've got to drop the upper control arms I'd rather do the work myself and then take it to be aligned than drop it in and get a $500.00 bill for "black magic" even if it works.
I dont understand why shimming the front locating bolts on the upper control arm would make the caster more positive, wouldnt this have the effect of moving the top ball joint ******d and rearward which would increase negative caster and also affect camber which would have to be adjusted via the lower control arm to compensate or am I barking up the wrong tree altogether??
Thanks for the reply,
Regards,
Tote

Tote

Had a long yarn to the suspension place today, The ute's booked in for mid Jan to have the shelby mod done to the upper control arm as well as a few other tricks. I'll post the results when it's done.
Regds,
Tote