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Dads ol dodge

Finally.. it was handed over but unfortunately that wasn't the end of it. After not seeing him drive it I asked why, he said it shifts super hard and gets scary above 45mph, here we go again!

The shifting turned out to be him buying the wrong transmission fluid and the scary driving is from an alignment shop that has absolutely no idea what they're doing. Two trips to the alignment shop and it's still wrong even with me providing the specs listed in my FSM which evidently doesn't help because they're machine only reads in degrees!! The second trip in the guy tells me he didn't have the VIN# the first time around to enter into the computer, I looked at him in amazement and said it's right there in the lower corner of the windshield just like every other car.. are you kidding me??

Finally found an honest shop that flat out told me his crew was to young and unseasoned plus they're alignment equipment only does 90's and up but referred me to one of their locations that has the experience and equipment capable of getting it right. I never even considered getting it aligned would be an issue but for now half a turn more toe in on each side has it driving much better.


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Correct me but I never knew alignment spec's to be in anything but degrees. I am a little surprised they did not tell you they could not figure out how to do a 4-wheel alignment on it or asked where the struts were.
Good to know it shifts better with the automatic trans fluid that it was designed to use.
My 82 could use an alignment. It goes down the road pretty well with the eyeball and tape measure job done on it 30,000 miles back.
Hope your dad is enjoying his truck.
 
Correct me but I never knew alignment spec's to be in anything but degrees. I am a little surprised they did not tell you they could not figure out how to do a 4-wheel alignment on it or asked where the struts were.
Good to know it shifts better with the automatic trans fluid that it was designed to use.
My 82 could use an alignment. It goes down the road pretty well with the eyeball and tape measure job done on it 30,000 miles back.
Hope your dad is enjoying his truck.
The toe is listed in inches, 1/16-3/16 toed in.
 
It looks great. Too bad it's difficult to get a simple job like an alignment done these days.

I had a couple of local shops refuse to do an alignment on my GTX.....excuse was that it takes too long. :banghead:

It's going to be even more difficult to get an alignment on my A100 - with the wedges used on the beam axle, and very little else to do.
 
Nice to see the truck is done other than the alignment. You have done a great job fixing up that truck, my hat is off to you!
 
They could have just used google, most kids now are always on their phones anyways
The problem with that is most don't know how to use them for anything useful. Social media and touch screen has seen to that. Just ask one someday what a command is.
 
I agree, there are damn few shops left capable of doing a REAL alignment. The best one in my county or area just tore out the old equipment when the old man died. None of his sons or other employees who worked there had any interest in learning how to use it at all. A very sad commentary. The thumb wars generation will be the end of the human race as eventually, they will be too stupid or lazy to breathe!:banghead:
 
Sure, would be nice to find an old Bear machine that was not destroyed during removed. Note sure what one would even be worth. But if like old valve and seat grinders they don't go cheap if the right people are there and the machine has been taken care of.
 
I had a guy wheel align my A100 about 10 years ago now....he was good - old school technique, and he had the machine - a Hunter. He had all the wedges, and knew what to look for ......but he quit the business and took a job at the local steel mill. More money and less grief working for the Big Man.

Not many left who know how to wheel align properly....and even fewer who care.
 
I had a guy wheel align my A100 about 10 years ago now....he was good - old school technique, and he had the machine - a Hunter. He had all the wedges, and knew what to look for ......but he quit the business and took a job at the local steel mill. More money and less grief working for the Big Man.

Not many left who know how to wheel align properly....and even fewer who care.
It's crazy, I called numerous shops after this and was very clear that I wanted a shop that had a knowledgeable staff that knew they could get it right and just that was enough to make almost all of them bow out!!!! I've got it scheduled for another alignment this Friday, this place had zero hesitation and was very confident.. we'll see.
 
It's crazy, I called numerous shops after this and was very clear that I wanted a shop that had a knowledgeable staff that knew they could get it right and just that was enough to make almost all of them bow out!!!! I've got it scheduled for another alignment this Friday, this place had zero hesitation and was very confident.. we'll see.
I hope you have better luck this time with the new shop. The old school ways are a dying breed these days.....sad but true.
 
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