The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks 72 front suspension in 65

I've fought this thing for a couple of years and am trying again. I built a very nice 65 short bed for my wife but it's undriveable. It has a 72 cross member and complete suspension with disc brakes and CPP lowering springs and shocks. It darts all over the road and the tires lay out when backing up. When driving forward the passenger side rolls a couple of rounds then scrapes sideways.
I'm thinking I may have lost some parts when I had it apart. Are there some odd shaped washers that go between the upper control arm shaft and the cross member? It has a couple of thick ones that are wavy on the back side but they aren't at all 4 mounting studs. If I'm missing a couple of them that would throw the alignment way off.

Sounds like alignment shims --have you taken it to a good alignment / front end place?

My biggest problem is that there isn't a front end shop around here any more.I had it aligned when I finished it and couldn't drive it. The kid who did it was brand new so I'm trying to figure it out myself. I did go look at some junk yard pick ups this morning and I'm convinced I put it together right. I found out that there are some significant differences between 65, 72 and 74 front ends. Deb wants me to put the original springs and shocks back, we got new shocks for it last night so I guess I'll try that today.

R-Bo is on target, sounds like the shims fell out. Good chance that the nuts weren't tightened up properly. You should be able to get shims from the parts store to at least get it close and make it drivable, but you will need to get the alignment properly set. You might check to see what kind of warrantee the shop that originally aligned it has on that service, and have them reset it under warrantee, preferably having someone that knows what they're doing, rather than a trainee kid.

I finally found a shop about 35 miles from here that's owned by a guy I know and has a good alignment guy. We worked on it for 5 hours today. He got the toe and camber to come in line but not the caster. It now has 1.1° on the drivers side and 3.1° on the passenger side. He had to quit it because his next appointment showed up. I still ended up paying for 2.5 hours labor on top of the alignment.
It still turns too far both directions, he thinks the center link is too long since it came off of the 72 with the complete crossmember. At one time, I measured the centerlinks from both the 65 and 72 and it seems that they were the same.It also still darts a little bit, that could be caused by the idler arm.
It is at least driveable now but I still don't think Deb will trust it.

Don't know what happened to my post, it's blank. Anyway, I finally got to take the truck to a good alignment shop 35 miles from here. The guy worked on it for 5 hours steady and never could get it right. The toe and camber are good but he could only get the caster to 1.1° on the drivers side and 3.1° on the passenger side. I had the drivers upper control arm shaft not centered correctly so we fixed that but it didn't make any difference.
It still turns way too far both directions (like 70°)and rolls the tire under. He thinks the center link is too long. It's the original one that was on the 72 crossmember when I trans planted the whole thing.
It also still darts around a little on rough roads, that may be a combination of the 15" steering wheel and the pitman arm, which is the only thing I haven't replaced.
It's more driveable now but I still don't think she'll want to go far in it.

I don't know what happened with the last 2 posts but I'll try again. I spent 5 hours at the alignment shop Friday, I finally found one 35 miles away, that was owned by a guy I knew. They were able to get the camber and toe to come in spec but couldn't get the caster. The book called for 2.5°, they could only get 1.1° on the drivers side and 3.1° on the passenger. The thing is at least driveable now.
I still have the issue of it turning too far in both directions, the guy said it looks like it's turning about 70° where it should only turn about 50.
I had heard before that the center link might be different from the 72 front end to the 65 but when I measured them both, they were the same. It is possible that the holes were in different places. I also don't see how that could affect it since I used the whole crossmember with all steering linkage. The frame is the same width, so how could it turn shorter just by putting it under a different truck?
I'm thinking about making some steering stops to limit the travel.