Finally got a weekend with nice weather and no kids. Spent every minute of it doing the front spindle/brake upgrade. Got it all buttoned up by noon today. The afternoon was spent aligning it. I have a Longacre bubble alignment tool and toe plates to do it myself.
Even after backing up and pulling forward to settle the suspension, I could tell by looking at it that it had positive camber so I started by moving the camber plates as far in as they would go. Lucked out on the passenger side and it was at -0.75° camber. The driver side was at -0.25°. Not quite enough so I tore it apart again and hogged out the holes in the struts then shoved the spindle in while tightening the bolts. That got the camber to -0.75°.
The next couple hours were spent setting the toe and centering the steering wheel. I'd make an adjustment, back up, pull forward, measure again, then repeat util it had 1/8" toe in. With that set, I'd drive around the block to check the centering of the steering wheel. Pull in, make adjustments, left and right, counting 1/4 turns so as not to mess up the toe, then repeat until centered. Neighbor popped over to see why I was constantly pulling out and coming back. Finally, double check that it still has 1/8" toe in.
That was a lot of work but the brakes feel really nice and it's driving better now than it ever has. It was definitely worth all the busted knuckles.
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