Completely removed front suspension; A-arms, springs, shocks, sway bar, disconnected tie rods. Replaced lower arms with new, rebuilt uppers with bushings alone. Omitted washer-type shims on reassembly amounting to one or two tenths on each side, as shops like to use U-shaped shims for easy removal. Installed new shocks. Repacked and adjusted wheel bearings.
Car would barely stay on the driveway, let alone the highway home. Bump-steer incredible. Made it to the garage down the street for a pre-arranged alignment appointment. This shop has good equipment and good people, and has successfully worked on all my cars over the last 20 years, including an alignment on the Spider when first purchased.
Get a call from them saying "we can't get this even close; we are inches out of caster spec. As most of you know, alignment is typically a matter of eighths and sixteenths - no wonder I couldn't drive it! Mechanic noticed new lowers and suggested that maybe supplier shipped wrong part, although sway bar studs were perfectly located. "Maybe they used different ones for coupe and roadster?" he guessed. I measured distances between dogbone bushings and ball joint of new vs. old, and as best as I can determine, they are identical.
What can explain this? Is it even possible to reverse the upper A-arms left-to-right? If we had bent them during bushing removal/install, they wouldn't have mounted up at all. Not my first screw-up in this restoration, but the new leader in the embarrasment category.
