1. Put the car on jack stands and get the body as level as possible.

2. Mark on the floor where the jack stands are incase someone or yourself bumps the car.

3. Drop plumb-bobs from hard points on the under-body and find the center of the car and snap a chalk line. Straight lines and finding the centers of them or making diagonal lines and using intersections, either way will work.

4. Using a sqaure, make a line perdendicular to the center line previously snapped, its location really isn't very important, just make it within a foot or two of where you think the axle should be. This is a reference line so it must be 90 degrees to the center line.

5. With the wheels and drums / rotors off the (makes things easier to see), Drop a plumb-bob off each axle, the front side or the back side, it doesn't matter. Just be consistant. (This is to measure the fore and aft location of the axle in the car)

6. Now drop plumb-bobs off the end of each axle. Again the wheels and brakes must be off. (This is to measure the lateral position of the axle in the car)

Using the measurements attained from the plumb-bob locations you can now adjust the axle location.

 

A.  To move the axle fore or aft in the car, lengthen or shorten the rear lower control arms.  The thing to remember here is the measurements won't lie, do not rely totally on the visual appearance of the axle or tires position in the wheel opening of the body. These bodies are not perfect and the location of one wheel opening versus the other can and will vary from one side to the other. The bottom line is, make sure the axle is 90 degrees to the centerline of the car and is as close to being centered in the wheel opening as can be achieved with a body that cannot be controlled.

 

B.  To move the axle laterally (side to side), adjust the rear upper control arms by lengthening one and shortening the other.  Make sure after moving things around that you have not changed the pinion angle.  If the pinion angle has changed, it can be adjusted by lengthening or shorten the upper control arms.  Both must be adjusted the same amount, whether they are being lengthened or shortened.  If you are not careful in doing this, you will move the axle laterally in the car and essentially undoing everything you had done in the previous steps.

This same process should be done to front end of the car to verify it is square as well, especially if you are using an aftermarket K-member / control arms.  With the K-member in the car and the bolts snug, follow the steps below while using the same centerline that was snapped previously.

 

1. Make sure the car has not moved from its original location from when centerline was originally snapped.

 

2.  As before, make a line that is 90 degrees to the center line within a foot or so of the k-member location using a square.

 

3.  Drop plumb-bobs from the fastener locations / pivot points of the front lower control arms (A-arms).  Obviously there will be 8 holes since the majority if not all of these k-members use a clevis at these joints.  Use 4 of these 8 holes, 2 per side, but you must be consistant here.

 

Using the measurements attained from the plumb-bob locations you can now adjust the K-member location.

 

A.  To move the K-member fore or aft in the car, measure from the plumb-bobs to the line that was made 90 degrees to the centerline.  Make the necessary moves by shifting the k-member to achieve identical measurements from one side versus the other.  This will ensure that the k-member is square in the car.