The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts alignment

anyone know how to align or set the tracking of a big bolt. 1941 cc-300 1-1/2 ton

Hy katrina, about all you can do without the alignment shops equipment, is measure from the edge of a front wheel to the edge of a rear wheel on each side of the truck, the measurements should be the same, that will tell you that the wheelbase is the same on both sides of the truck. The other thing you can check is the squareness of the frame, if you measure from the inside edge of the left front wheel to the inside edge of the right rear wheel, and then do the opposite measurement (right front to left rear) those measurements should be the same, try and measure as close to the center of the wheels diameter as possible to obtain a straight line measurement. If either of these measurements do not come out the same you must determine what is wrong and correct the problem, do the wheelbase measurement first, hope that helps.

You can check several things in your own shop, if looking at the truck it doesn't show sign of being twisted or wrecked/bent frame and all looks normal, what I usually do is starting at the front spring hanger grease fitting measure to a point on the front axle, same point at both sides, this at least tells you taht the axle and springs are in alingment, taking for granted that the front spring hangers are not loose or the center is not worn out, then from there measure from the front axle to the rear, same points both axles, this checks rear to front, as along as the front is square then the rear needs to follow it, you can also hang a string from the same points on each axle with a plumb bob on the end of it mark the floor and measure the marks, once your satisfied that the axles are straight with everything you can check toe in on the front axle, but aquick check on front tires is run your hand across the tread both directions if you feel a sharp[ edge one direction or another then your toe in needs to be measured and set.
Measuring from axle to axle, using the tires,wheels and hubs won't give a decent measurment, there are too many varaibles in wheel,tires, and then holding a tape excat center on the hubs, this is how you check wheel base from center to center of hubs.