Dodge 2001 Dakota 4X4 Transmission

From : twosocks

Q: fundamentally castor is the angle of the king pin axis viewed from the side while camber is the angle of the wheel viewed from the front. you can indeed set camber using a plain level and a ruler i do it all the time on my race car in fact. castor is harder. i can think of a couple of fiddles to get it close but id personally take a truck to an alignment shop and let them do it. fiddles my race car has a flat machined on the upright so i just put a digital level on and read the castor directly. you can measure castor indirectly by measuring its effect on camber as you turn the wheels usually 20 degrees left and right. you could probably get in the ball park by measuring how far back the upper ball joint is compared to the lower using your level and a ruler and compare side to side. you could do it by adjusting until the truck tracks straight - that has the advantage of ignoring what the measurement actually is and gets the effect you want. brian brian go to dodgetalk.comthe ball joint problem is discussed often.or often disgusted.i am not certain about the vans but the late 90s trucks are a real problem.i hope you have a moog and not a dodge ball joint martin wrote i recently replaced upper ball joints on a 96 dodge 3500 1-ton van. this vehicle uses pressed-in ball joints and i replaced them with a standard c-frame tool. after a few months one of the ball joints backed itself out this is a poor design imo. i pressed it back in and tack-welded it in a few spots. so far its holding just fine. in order to do the weld i removed the upper a-frame. of course i didnt think to mark its position uses no shims just slotted bolt holes to adjust caster/camber until id already loosened the bolts and let things shift. id like to get the truck properly in alignment. if thats not possible at least driveably close until i buy new tires and have a shop fine-tune it. i think i can measure camber with a plumb bob and toe-ins a no-brainer but how in the devil can i measure caster also is there an online reference where i can find the alignment specs for my vehicle best regards martin .