Wheel alignment??

[John Mc]

I'm getting some strange wear on my front tires (Michelin XZL 11.00R16). From the manual, I see that the only adjustment for wheel alignment is for toe-in. I'll be checking that, but I'm also wondering if the accident where I was run off the road and into a telephone pole might had twisted the frame somehow. Does any one have information on what is normal for caster and camber on an undamaged M37?

[Argie1978]

Hi. Can you tell us more about the wear you're seeing?
I was also questioning myself a few weeks ago while checking the wheels after painting the rims.
Giving they're cousins, I ended in some MOPAR forum digging into the caster + camber of the Power Wagon. But what I got was lazy data and didn't feel confident it would apply to the 37.
Yes, the toe is positive: 1/8" or 3,2 mm

[PoW]

Camber can't readily be adjusted on a G741. The king pin stubs are welded in at the factory, and never try to bend the housing. A non-issue.

Caster only by using an axle wedge either from the front or rear of where it sits under the springs. Higher arch springs will affect camber.

Improper caster will shake everything at some speed, even with well balanced tires. If it doesn't shake or shimmy at any speed, and it comes back to center pretty well from a turn, you're OK.

Specifications don't really apply, as it is OK or not. A binary measurement.

Improper toe will eat your tires faster than a grinder. That is important

PoW

[John Mc]

Can you tell us more about the wear you're seeing?

The center band of tread blocks running around he circumference of the tire is wearing unevenly. Some blocks are high - up about where I'd expect tot see them (I've got about 10,000 miles on the tires). Others are worn low. IT seems to alternate high and low. It's not exactly every other block, but it's close to that. There is enough difference that it can easily be seen by eye. I doubt a photo would show it. The picture below is an old one, before the wear was apparent. I'm including it just to show what the tread pattern is. There are 3 bands of tread running around the circumference of the tire. Only the middle band shows the wear at this point. (I suspect the tires are running mostly on the middle band of tread at the moment. I'm running 40 PSI. I probably could be running a good bit lower than that: the tires are designed for much heavier loads than an M37. From the specs for these tires I found online, at 40 PSI they are rated high enough to carry the full weight of the truck on just one axle.) The rear wheels are wearing normally.
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Back Together Again1 sm.jpg (156.92 KiB) Viewed 811 times

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Camber can't readily be adjusted on a G741. The king pin stubs are welded in at the factory, and never try to bend the housing. A non-issue.

I know there is no camber adjustment. However, in the accident I mentioned in my initial post, the right hand front winch bumper took out a telephone pole, mangling that bumper. I did have to get a body shop to tweak the front end of that frame rail a bit to bring it back into line so we could remount the winch. It did not appear to have tweaks the frame further back in the vehicle, but we did not take precise measurements (nor did we really know exactly what those measurements should be). I'm wondering if that might have messed up the camber a bit. I think that is probably not the case. I would expect the camber being off would shift the wear to either the inside or outside band of tread on that tire, but it seems to be all on the center band, just like the other tire.

[PoW]

Seeing the same thing on lots of old Dodges, I'd bet your toe is off.

Try this simple home test for toe-in:

Get one of those 1/2" round coaxial springy curtain rods, wide enough to fit snugly between the inner tread of your front tires. If you 'borrowed' it from your living room, make sure to put it back before your wife finds out...

With your truck on level ground, fit it as said at 0900 O'clock in the front, halfway up. Mark the place where the two pieces go together with a sharpie.

Roll the truck backward to where the rod is now in back, halfway up. Look to see where that mark is. That is your toe-in, should be around 1/8".

I've seen plenty of rigs with no toe, or too much toe. That cheap curtain rod is a very accurate tool. If I can find mine, I'll post a foto of it on here.

If your toe is right, good news. You may have a camber issue, that is tough to measure without taking the front knuckle housing apart and using a bubble level and a protractor to see what degree tilt you have. Really, there isn't much tilt there.

[Vaughn2]

Hello, new to the forum. I frequently post on the Power Wagon form as "Vaughn," and another Vaughn posts so, I'm Vaughn2. In response to your question, the wear you are seeing indicates the tires are not rotated enough. If you notice, your rear tires never experience this kind of wear. Caster is set by the factory and should not be changed by adding wedges under the axle perch. You'll notice the front wheels are in a slight "v" position, this is so when you load the vehicle to it's maximum weight, the tires will be straight up and down. Also because of the camber, when the vehicle corners it wears the outer edge of the tire, the faster you corner the more wear. As far as alignment goes, toe-in is set at 0 to 1/8 as standard. You know if you are out of alignment when you see "rubber feathers" on the rear side of the pads, it as if you took a grinder to the pads, so if you aren't seeing those, your probably fine on the adjustment. There is the correct way to align your vehicle tires and that requires a special tool that is available. Using anything else will not result in proper alignment, and you need to be very careful if you take your truck to an alignment shop, if they use a tie-rod tool to separate the tie-rod end, it will damage the spring and rubber seal, you have to use a pry bar and hammer striking the knuckle to drop the tie-rod end. All you need to do is when you begin seeing abnormal tire wear is rotate your tires, nothing else. Here is the link to the original toe-in gauge use in WW2 and should be the tool used if you feel an alignment is in order as the wheel must be in a certain position indicated by the chains to do the alignment. Tool WA0361 [https://www.toolsource.com/wheel-alignm ... 21404.html]. Hope this helps and I hope the link works, if not copy and paste on the internet search line.

[Vaughn2]

Sorry, I didn't notice the toe-in gauge tool had been discontinued in my prior post. Here is a new link that indicates the tool is available by special order. I've used it aligning the toe-in on a Power Wagon, M37 and WW2 jeep, works well. Specialty Products Co., Part Number 99361 [https://www.toolsource.com/castercamber ... 16750.html]

[John Mc]

Get one of those 1/2" round coaxial springy curtain rods, wide enough to fit snugly between the inner tread of your front tires. If you 'borrowed' it from your living room, make sure to put it back before your wife finds out...

With your truck on level ground, fit it as said at 0900 O'clock in the front, halfway up. Mark the place where the two pieces go together with a sharpie.

Roll the truck backward to where the rod is now in back, halfway up. Look to see where that mark is. That is your toe-in, should be around 1/8".

Sounds as though I'll be curtain rod shopping. (We have mostly shades in our house, and what does have curtains does not use that style of rod.) When placing the rod, should I be trying to go close to the rim, close to the OD of the tire, or in the middle? I've checked the manuals (both TM 9-8030 and TM 9-2320-212-20). They both say to set the tool "as near hub height as possible, with the ends of the gauge bearing against the tire side walls and at equal distances from the floor." Nothing about how far toward the ID or OD of the tire the tool should go. 1/8" measured near the rim would be roughly double that amount if measured near the OD of the tire.

While searching the manuals, I did find the specs for caster and camber in TM 9-8030 (on page 315 at the top of the "Front Axle" section) I could not find that info in the newer TM 9-2320-212-20. As already noted, those are fixed settings, but at least I'll have that information to check whether the accident I had several years ago messed up the frame or something.

In case anyone else needs the alignment data:

[Vaughn2]

The important thing about using the toe-in gauge is that placing the pendant chains at just touching the floor places the gauge in an accurate position. It may be more money than most want to spend, but anytime you rebuild your knuckles, or change hub bearings, you want to re-check your alignment. If you want to use the shower curtain rod, use small chain or string raped around the rod at both ends at equal length using what ever length you want and that should help accurately align the rod. I would place it 1/2 way between the rim edge and the edge of a good tire pad, one not worn. Good Luck!

[John Mc]

The pendant chains would not work on my truck, since I have 11.00R16 tires. The chains are set with a length for 9.00-16.

[Vaughn2]

True, but wouldn't you just follow the manual and set the shower rod height as close to the rear hub height as possible and then set your pendant chain length based on that?

[just me]

Two things to add.
Dead shock absorbers will cause cupping especially with our unbalanced and heavy tire/wheel combo.
The easy toe in checking fixture.
Jack the front of the truck until the tires are off the ground.
Support on jack stands.
Grab a stick longer than the track width of the tires.
Spin the tire and paint a center stripe with light coat of silver or white spray paint.
Drive 2 nails in the stick close to the track center of the wheels.
Hold the stick on the ground for stability and also have the nail tips lightly touch the tires in the painted stripe.
Have someone spin the tire so the nails describe a line around the tire.
You can now easily measure toe by measuring the difference between the front side and rear side of the tire. (Be sure to measure at the same height from the ground and in line with the axel center in order to get a direct reading.)

[John Mc]

True, but wouldn't you just follow the manual and set the shower rod height as close to the rear hub height as possible and then set your pendant chain length based on that?

That's my plan, minus the pendant chain. If I'm measuring up from the ground to find the center of the hub height, I'll just use that same height for each end of the curtain rod.