[T3] Front Alignment and Ball Joint

["Fuhriman, Mark" <mfuhriman@fugro.com>]

Just got back from the tire shop.  Got a set of Michelin XZX.
Super hard to find.  After several calls I was about to give up,
but I finally found a shop that had a set in stock.  I guess the
model is discontinued.  We had to replace an outer tie rod end,
and I was disappointed to find that the replacement didn't have
the castle nut with split pin.  Instead, it had a self-locking
nut.  Maybe I should have looked harder for a better part...

We found the camber was a little off from spec.  Before the tech
had a chance to try to turn the ball joints, I noticed that the
lower joints were oriented wrong (little line wasn't pointing
straight ahead).  The uppers were both pointing straight ahead.  I
had him turn the lowers straight ahead, and that brought the
camber on both sides right to spec.  No adjustment of the tops was
needed.  Coincidence?  The toe was off by more than one degree.
Fixed that.  It pays to find a shop that doesn't mind you watching
and guiding them.  Read up on the procedures first, though.  They
have the specs in the computer, but they probably won't adjust the
right set of ball joints.

Now a couple of questions:

Caster is not adjustable I guess?  According to the shop's
computer, caster spec is 4 deg.  Measured on my car were 5.5 deg
(left) and 4.9 deg (right).  My car has never been lowered, and as
far as I can tell, the torsion rods have never come out.  Is the
out-of-spec caster from age-induced sag in the torsion arms/rods?
Anything to worry about?

There is a squeek in the LHS suspension when I turn the steering
wheel.  The alignment tech and I pretty much narrowed it down to
(probably) a ball joint.  It's not the steering box or anything
connected directly to it.  It really sounded like a ball joint.
The boots are not torn, and there isn't really any play in them
that seems out of spec (I used Bentley test method for reference).
The ball joints look original.  Maybe time to add some grease?  If
so, I'm not sure how much I should add.  I don't want to cause the
boots to split.

-Mark Fuhriman
 '69 Fastback

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