[Jonestead]

Wow, the collaboration and ambitious undertakings in this group are never cease to amaze me. Thank you for the detailed writeup

[Richard]

Final Segment, I hope.

I bailed on setting the front end alignment after the rebuild because of my lack of confidence in setting the camber with my digital level. Today, Russ White and I took it over to Josam’s in Orlando for the setup.


First, it drove just fine with the backyard tape measure initial setup. Second, the only real difference that I noted was that a metallic knocking I had in the front end was gone. After seeing the innards of a failed bushing, I am certain the knocking was the metal inner and outer pieces of the bushing making contact.

Josam was efficient, making one small adjustment to the camber, and setting the toe in at 3.3 mm (1/8 for the non metric crowd). It drove just fine heading home.

New 365 tires with beads are smooth as glass. Woo Hoo!

I hope this chapter is closed.

[[email protected]]

Final Segment, I hope.

I bailed on setting the front end alignment after the rebuild because of my lack of confidence in setting the camber with my digital level. Today, Russ White and I took it over to Josam’s in Orlando for the setup.


First, it drove just fine with the backyard tape measure initial setup. Second, the only real difference that I noted was that a metallic knocking I had in the front end was gone. After seeing the innards of a failed bushing, I am certain the knocking was the metal inner and outer pieces of the bushing making contact.

Josam was efficient, making one small adjustment to the camber, and setting the toe in at 3.3 mm (1/8 for the non metric crowd). It drove just fine heading home.

New 365 tires with beads are smooth as glass. Woo Hoo!

I hope this chapter is closed.

Glad to hear you are back on the road again. 
I assume the camber adjustment is done with shims behind the A-arm mounts? I was looking at this the other day to figure out how you would adjust the camber.

[Richard]

Yes and you can tweak the caster by only shimming one side of the A arm. That was a new piece of info for me.

[Jack Houpe]

Congratulations now stay away from Alaska.

[chadsuv]

My 1998 Coach #485 appears to need the left upper A-Arm bushing replaced. Dana IFS 84 suspension. 
The clip has pushed out and there is some play like the bushing is trying to work its way out. 
Planning to order the part sourced earlier in this thread and take the coach to a heavy duty truck shop to complete the repair. Are there any other bushings that should be addressed while completing this job? Any recommended suspension /alignment shops near Indianapolis, Louisville, or Cincinnati? 
Pic attached showing my issue.

[Richard]

Well of course do all of the front A arms while in there.

And have the bushings replaced in the tag axle.

And the panhard bar for the drive axle.

Part numbers for the above here on gurus, if you use the search engine.

[chadsuv]

My front end rebuild is coming along nicely. The A-arm bushings are in, new shocks installed, new brake rotors are ready. However, we are having trouble finding seals for the kingpins. Newell does not seem to be much help. Has anyone sourced new seals lately?  Parts needed are circled in the attached picture

[[email protected]]

My front end rebuild is coming along nicely. The A-arm bushings are in, new shocks installed, new brake rotors are ready. However, we are having trouble finding seals for the kingpins. Newell does not seem to be much help. Has anyone sourced new seals lately?  Parts needed are circled in the attached picture

Check out these guys, it appears that they may carry them:
https://www.pgttruckparts.com/dana-spice...-F4477-32/
https://www.pgttruckparts.com/dana-spice...-F4921-32/

They have an expert hotline, I will give them a call and see if you can get all the parts from them.

[Richard]

Hmmm, there is no way that DANA had a seal made just for that application. You may be able to pull a number from the old seal and use that.

OK, I am about to get knee deep in the woods here on a quirk of that specific front end. The literature says the castor is not adjustable. That is true. But some some shops will cock the A arms with unequal shims to achieve the desired castor. Josam did this to my coach. BUT>>>>>that only works if the upper and lower A arm joints are ball joints. My Prevost has ball joints so this technique works. HOWEVER, the DANA IFS 84 front end has robust tapered roller bearings in the pivot area. If you cock the A arms, you put the bearings in a misalignment bind. Why do you care, because that bind makes the steering wheel hard to self center when at freeway speed. I know this is an esoteric point, but you should know.

The castor is adjustable but the mount where the A arm attaches to the frame must be tilted up or down relative to the frame on both the upper and lower A arms. This can be done by slotting the mount and using shims to between the frame and the horizontal section of the mount. It’s not trivial.