Hey HP2, between defending the country from terrorist, ensuring no sicko messes with my kids, ensure my kids do well in school, balance a marriage and work on two other hot rods, I think I do pretty well to find time to get on the internet.
Agreed and no mal-intent intended. Just pointing it out as it appeared we were hitting you with a bunch of questions all at once that is common among regular posters who anticipate quick follow up and easy answers to their questions.
Here's a run down of the parts replaced: upper/lower ball joints, all bushings and bolts, front disc brake conversion (all bearings, etc), steering box from Year One, outer/inner tie rods, adjusting sleeve, pitman arm, 1 1/8" front sway bar, sway bar links, Mopar torsion bars, Mopar leafs, 1"rear sway bar with links, shackles, shocks all around and Boss rims with 245/45Z-18s all around.
Here's the alignment specs: Camber - left= 0.1; right= 0.2, Caster - left= 1.4; right= 1.1; Toe - left= 0.17; right= 0.16. It does seem like its "crowning", meaning, I reach a happy spot in the middle but I have to fight it. Its like the tires are pointing away from each other. Now the guys that did the alignment said hes worked on Mopars for a 100 yrs, blah, blah, same old story.
Decent list of parts that just about covers any/all requirements for a rebuild/upgrade. Assumption here, but that rear sway bar does mount under axle, correct?
Are your alignment measurements in inches, mm, or degrees? Readings in degrees will appear out of wack compared to inches or mm. Looking at these, regardless of inches or degrees, it appears that you have postive camber, positive caster and negative toe ("out" is the more common term). Not exactly a bias ply alignment, but close to it. Modern radials will tolerate a wider range of adjustment before they wear oddly, so in this case the 100 years of mopar knowledge your alignment guy has may be working against the poor guy. If that is the case, then there are a few issues you might want to address.
Camber-depending on how aggresive you drive, you want to go negative here. For a casual cruiser, 0 to -1 degree on both sides is good. If you really want to get after it in corners, maybe bump that up to -2. Add even more if you autocross it regularly. With your wide tire selection, I'd say stick with no more than -1*.
For caster, you want as much positive as possible. This becomes a compromise with camber because of the mopar design, so gaining one means you'll have to give up the other. Other makes seperate these two specs with shims, but the mopar lacks teh ability to do that, hence the require compromise. +2 degrees may be the max you can get with the stock arms and centric bushings, but I've read of some guys getting into the 3 degree range. A reasonably quick and inexpensive way to work araound this is to use Moog offset upper control arm bushings installed the opposite way the instructions say may allow you to get into at least the 3* range, maybe even in to the 4* area. If you want to go whole hog on this one, aftermarket tubular arms are typically built with additional caster built in the ball joint mount. Budget may dictate the choice here-two sets of offset bushings are $60. A pair of tubular arms start around $300 and go up from there.
Toe, if you indeed have negative toe, that may be where a big part of the problem lies. While toe out assists with and creates more stability on turn in on a corner, it is a race only spec that will make the average street car feel dangerously touchy. Toe out is great for a continues radius corners at high speed, but scary on slight turns like lane changes. All it takes is a slight flick of the wheel and the car reacts unexpectedly quickly to the input. Combine that with the wide tire you have and a road that may not be perfectly flat, and it may suddenly feel like the car has a mind of its own. Definetly want positive or toe in measurements here. Total toe would be -.06" per side for a total combine toe of no more than -.125 inches, not degrees.
The 35 series rubber on the 18" wheels will also magnify the changes in alignment because the short sidewall does not deflect much and will translate even the slightest movements more directly. Combine this is the toe out spec and it could be a real handful to drive.
The torque steer still has me scratching my head. Typically this is caused by deteriorating spring bushings. Since yours are new, that isn't a factor. You might eyeball all the mounting brackets to ensure that there are no cracks developing there, or as suggested, make sure motor mounts are good. I think the motor mounts may be a stretch for this fix, but they are worth looking at as well as the trans mount.
