Speaking of front ends, I once had a'56 Chevy half ton pickup with a .060 over "Corvetteed" 261 and a stock front end. It drove terrible, if you stepped on the brake at an intersection, you would never know in which lane it would land! I adjusted the brakes, put in new kingpins,shackle bushings, caster shims, tightened the tierods, had the toe adjusted, even found a new drag link at the local Chevy house-nothing helped much. Finally when I went to sell it, I swapped my offset chrome wheels for my bro-in-law's '57 half ton stockers, and it drove like a Caddy! (WTH?) The chrome wheels had an offset that altered the Kingpin/Wheel Centerline Intersection Point. That is when viewed from the front, if you draw a line thru the kingpin, and another thru the centerline of the wheel you find that they will intersect some where, either above the road surface or below it.
What you want is for this point to be AT, or close the road surface. Mine was way below, this allowed any road bump or ridge to have a mechanical advantage and allow the wheel to be pushed back (thus pivoting backward about the kingpin) changing the"aim" of that wheel, (and with the tierod dutifully doing its job by making the other wheel do the same) it would cause the truck to take off in a new (and usually not desired) direction. Looking back, I could have had the desired good looking chrome wheel look and good driving manners if I had less offset OR a less diameter tire. The biggest part of wanting to get rid of the truck was its evil wandering ways (and a short wide '67 chevy I had my eye on). Just something to watchout for.
