Hi everyone,
I have been adjusting the alignment on my 1985 Sovereign after restoring / re-bushing both the front and rear suspensions. The book settings are below, but would like everyone's opinions on what they like or do differently and why. It's been a long time since I've driven a Jag or any other rear wheel drive vehicle other than trucks so I'm getting re-accustomed to a car that doesn't ride like a go-cart ! I've read the other threads about how to adjust everything but though it would be interesting to get everyone's thoughts on actual settings, likes, dislikes etc in one thread.

1983 and up
Castor 3 1/2 degree plus/minus 1/4 degree positive
Camber 1/2 degree plus/minus 1/4 degree negative
Toe 0 to 1/8"

Interesting that the older cars with as I understand it the same suspension ran less castor and positive camber instead of negative ?

Thanks for any info !

 

Specs for my Series 2 are:
Caster specs; +2 degrees, plus or minus 1/4 degree.
I personally like the high end of the specs, or a little more.

Camber specs; 0 degrees, plus or minus 1/4 degree.
I personally don't like the Look of negative camber, in these parts it looks like Boy Racer.
Some might way you can't see a mere 1/4 degree, but I can so I shoot for Zero.

Toe In of 1/8" sounds about right.
(';')

 

I always ask the alignment guy to get as close as possible to the 3.5º positive or up to the 3.75º positive if he can. Same with the negative camber...take the spec to the max, if possible.

I find this gives sharper steering feel.

I tell him decide the toe-in on his own

Cheers
DD

 

Doug, where do you get your alignment done?
Around here they get all wheezy when I mention (shudder) Jaguar and refuse to even try. Which is why I've had to resort to DIY.
(';')

 

I've been fortunate over the years to find some shops who are not scared off by the word "Jaguar" and will listen to what a customer wants. But, I've also been turned away many times....particularly by high volume/mass merchandising chain stores. They're into volume production and low-hanging fruit, not special interest cars. That's not a criticism, really. It's just that their business model drives them in a certain direction, that's all.

Presently I use a shop in Salem that caters to the hot rod/race car/custom car crowd. They're not fazed by weird cars. They'll do an alignment on anything with wheels....including trailers, motor homes, pre-war cars....you name it. Wonderful people and the shop is a car nut's heaven. Every nook and cranny stuffed with equipment, tools, and parts. Wood floors in some areas. Decades of history inside those walls...and that smell that only an old workshop has. It's delicious.

Cheers
DD

 

After i left my after class college job, I left for army service.
when i came back, my old boss had leased the shop next door and installed a real mechanic. and a Bear alignment rack. Part of the system was a tool board. Various devices to enable bending the forged suspension arms to achieve the desired camber and castor. Toe was measured by a long rule across the front of the wheels. Castor and camber by a bubble level like device that fastened to the wheels. No beams and lights. And fancy displays.

Circa 58, I discovered the front axle pickup was bent back. I recalled his method. I used a chain and a bottle jack . neat, I got it straight cold!!!!

Decades later. My 85 F150 4x4. Not anything but toe that I could do anything with.
I used a string from the rear wheel to the front. Deflection at a front wheel denoted toe. It worked...

 

The shop manuals for these cars is pretty good for doing your own settings, IMO.
Most of my racer friends do their own. As one of them said, most retail tire outlets with fancy machines are only willing/able to handle moderns.
Can't quite see how a $60 "full wheel alignment" on an XJ6 would work out, esp. doing camber changes on the rear .

Pete

 

Never let a "tire shop" near your rear alignment... I have had good luck with the "Large Chain Tire" store as long as they know "I will move my tire purchases to another store, if I don't get a satisfactory Front Wheel Alignment." Go in to lobby set down and listen to service reps handle a few customers, One will be cute, but have to ask some one else all the questions asked by customers. See who they are asking... wait for that rep to be available... Ask for prices on the most expensive Pirellis that fit your model, then ask about a front wheel alignment, specifically if they have your make and model in their alignment computer data base. One store's data base only went back to 1990s, but they had a mid 90s XJS with the same specs as 84 XJ6 S3. Like others here, I asked them to aim for the high side of range. Let them use U shaped shims, if you are a purist, you can take them out later, measure them with Micrometer, then replace them with Jag shims.

I actually had more trouble finding shops the would mount and balance a tube tire to my E-Type wire wheels. Don't take the E to the shop: take two wheels at a time, have them demount the tries, take them home to replace bad spokes and tighten reminder, until they all had same short and long spoke ring tone. Then back to shop for mount and balance. "Legally" they never installed the tire on my car!!! .....which made them happy..... and they never put a jack under my car, which made me happy!!!!
Rgds
David

 

Thanks for everyone's input !

I have the factory ROM's and have followed most of the threads, links, PDF's etc posted on the forum as well. I bought a hand held alignment gauge that works fairly well using doubled up cutting boards as slip plates. I then set up a string box to check the toe in.
Since I replaced all the bushings and upgraded the ball joints to the newer sealed units, I had to adjust the front settings a bit. The rear might need some further camber adjustment since I installed new rotors as well as cage mounts.
I tried to take it by a couple shops to double check my readings before adjusting the IRS shims and so far no luck ! One place I called said I would need to leave it there and they would adjust it while on the rack instead of just giving me readings -- don't think so ! A chain tire store was going to just check it until the tech pulled it in and couldn't find a listing in their machine because it's too old. According to them, this gee-wiz machine would not give useable readings unless it had the car in memory ? Wasn't going to argue, but wonder what they do for say a 50's Chevy ?

Decided to just go borrow some better gauges plus real slip plates and just double check it myself before doing more adjustments. I have also decided to find / install a small XJS rear sway bar and maybe GAZ adjustable shocks after getting everything else sorted out.

What's the deference between a boat and a old Jag ? They are both holes you throw money into but at least the Jaguar can't sink while parked ! It might drool just a little though

Cheers,
Brian

 

Kudzu
A very cheap and accurate way of measuring camber at home is to use an electronic angle gauge (about 10 USD on ebay or Amazon) and a piece of aluminium square tube from rim to rim, just as close to the wheel centre as the bulge will allow. I can accurately and repeatably measure camber with this setup: