I would like to do my own alignment, mostly because shops are charging 100-125 bucks now. How hard is it to do your own? Please give me your input on what alignment "tools" I need to buy and how to do it. Thanks, Kit
Never done it myself, but one of our guys comes home from the alignment shop - then "fixes" it himself "because they didn't do it right". Of course, he has never been happy with any alignment he's gotten from any shop. Obviously it's going to feel different after it's been aligned properly than it did before...
You can also get a caster/camber gauge. I haven't gotten one yet but it also seems pretty straightforward. Between the two, that should be all you need. I like this one because it attaches to the wheel face: http://www.amazon.com/Speci...eywords=camber+gauge
But they should pay for themselves in about two visits.
If I know its way out of alignment, Ill go to a shop and they will get it close enough I can work with. I basicly need a level floor, some string or twine, a carpenters square (at least 1'x2' and an angle gauge or protractor. Im never satisified with a shop alignment. car ALWAYS pulls one way or the other or steering wheel is off center...and both really bug me. Ill pull in straight with the steering wheel centered. Then run my string from the front of the front tire to the rear of the rear tire, string will rest on the highest part of the sidewall. Then I make sure the rear of the front tire and the front of the rear tire also just touch that string...so its making contact at 4 points. I adjust the tie rod ends in or out till its correct. For toe-in, I lift the front on both sides and support the control arms at the wheel end so the tires are just off the ground. Then I take a white grease marker and hold it on the floor while i turn the tires to make a mark all the way around on the tread. Then I use a tape measure to measure the distance between the front of the tires and the rear of the tires. If it calls for 1/4" of toe-in, i adjust the tire rod end in 1/8' on both sides. I use the square with one side on the floor and the other against the tire sidewall vertically so it touches at top and bottom and use an angle gauge to adjust camber if you can, to whatever degree. For caster I use trial and error. I drive down a known flat street and see if the car runs straight or pulls to one side. I add caster to the opposite front wheel from the pull untill I get it to go straight by itself. Very minor adjustments have a big effect. Ive never had any issues and get awesome tire wear...usually over 100K on a set of tires. Some cars especially newer ones dont have any caster or camber adjustments. Ive had cars I actually had to use a porta power and tweek a control arm to get a good alignment.
Many pages on Inet that can work. Use google etc. Use PFF search too.
Depending how bad... Many shops can take some time to set any car's alignment. I took my car back to the shop 2 more times to get it right after change engine and cradle. You can take allot of time for DIY this job.
You need strut adjusting bolts to make this allot easier. Worse some setting are not really adjustable like 84-87 front caster or camber w/ OE UBJ. You can get aftermarket UBJ that allow some camber. Caster is a major job if that's off and many shops do not cover this as part of alignment price.
(edit to fix cave links) ------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
I did a string alignment on my 88 duke back in March. Some people poo-pooed the idea, but, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. My tire wear has been practically non-existent since then, compared to before the alignment, and the car does not wander on ruts like it did before. So as far as I'm concerned, it worked.
In 40 years, Ive never found a shop that did a wheel alignment to MY satisfaction. I expect the steering wheel to be perfectly centered, and to go straight with my hands off the wheel on a straight level road. If it goes off to one side, thats NOT to my satisfaction. Doing my own caster adjustments also does away with the problem of tires causing a pull. If I have a pull, the first thing I start doing is rotating ALL the tires to different positions to see if its correctable.Sometimes that will work. Ill switch both front tires, then both rear tires. If that dont do it, ill move the fronts to the rear and even switch sides again. If none work, its time to mess with the caster.
I now feel very LUCKY, I have a shop that I go to that when they are doing it, I stand there and oversee/ correct what they are doing. Now the guy "Knows" how to do a Fiero "correctly", so for $70. total, I don't have to touch them.
Originally posted by rogergarrison: In 40 years, Ive never found a shop that did a wheel alignment to MY satisfaction. I expect the steering wheel to be perfectly centered, and to go straight with my hands off the wheel on a straight level road. If it goes off to one side, thats NOT to my satisfaction.
That's if the road is flat straight w/ very little crown. (Google that...)
Depend on road design and lane you drive... crowning can push you left, right or nothing. Road around here and many other places have "deep" crowns (4% or more grade/slope) that can and will push cars of the road.
If you set any amount Cross-Camber and/or Cross-Caster that can make car move too. If a car w/ either/both is fine in a right lane, crown can pushed off the road in a left lane on the same road. See http://www.tirerack.com/tir...echpage.jsp?techid=4 Google for more
Using cross-camber and cross-caster was common when people drive mostly on two lane roads. Many shops now will not set much of either because of the road crown. (Many machines get updates from Bear etc that minimize both for this reason.)
There used to be a standard for road crown for water run off. That I remembered, if it was a single lane(each direction) the crown was 3 degrees from center to shoulder. If 2 lanes, the inside was 1.5 and outside 3. Most cars specs would have around 1/2 degree more positive camber on left side. For a while PA stuck to this and the cars I set for that worked. MD's roads seemed to be all over, so I would set them according to where they drove most. Now, most roads are being constructed depending on terrain and hyper elevation (turn banking). So I set them even.
I will shortly be setting the alignment in my 87 after an engine swap. I have the rear suspension out of a 85 that handled and the little extra weight better. I will be putting the rear struts and springs from the 85 in the 87 after I get the frozen bolts out of the spindles. When I aligned the 85 I set the rear about 1/4 degree negative camber and toe at .06" out. The front camber was about 0.0 and .13" total toe in. Seemed to have the least tire wear with decent handling. You can increase the negative camber for better cornering, but you loose it in tire wear. Not to mention increased wear on the bearings. I can visually see that the camber on the rear of the 87 is 1/2 degree or more negative in the rear. And definately will be decreasing that when I put the struts and springs in. You can get the camber very close to where you want to with a string alignment, but getting the toe is a bit harder. Also make sure all your suspension is in good shape, car normally loaded(without 200lbs of crap in the trunk), front bearings have been serviced and rear hub/bearings are torqued right. Any of which will throw your readings off.
I have done my own alignments on my Fiero, my Firebird, my daughter's HHR, my wife's Montana and my friend's CRV. I put the car on the lift and remove the front wheels then lower the front lower control arms onto wood blocks (to compress the suspension). Obviously, you must be careful so nothing gets damaged. I use a surveyors laser with a magnetic base and (with the steering wheel centered) I point the laser forward and put marks on the wall (about 30' away) for each front tire. The magnetic base of the laser attaches nicely to the brake rotors. Then I point the laser rearward and mark where the laser hits the rear tires. When the marks on the wall (forward) and the marks on the rear tires are the same distance apart and the marks on the rear tires are mirrors of each side… I'm done. This takes me less time to do this than the waiting period the last time I took it to the shop and I have probably saved $700 or $800 with this technique over the last year.
As I said above, Many Shop get updated tables for machines from Bear etc. Makers for machines often do not get TSB from car makers. Mean Their machines often use only SM data and not any changes in the TSB.
By default, Many shops will only follow machine's data. SM settings are ok and works for many people.
TSB data for Fiero makes minor change to toe. If you really want TSB toe then then print the data in my cave to show TSBs to them. Most can over-ride toe settings.
TSB says toe = 0 ±x... For Fiero front toe, any toe out can wear out the tires and causes handling issues. rear toe is harder because of engine load on the rear suspension.
Some roads do have more or less crown. I know that. I know the local roads that are pretty level. If it pulls only one way on every road...all the time...it needs fixed. I generally drive in the right lane, so I adjust my car to go straight in that lane. Yes, if im in the passing lane, it MIGHT try to pull slightly to the left. I just want my car going straight where Im driving most of the time. Its a pita to drive a long trip and constantly have to keep pressure on one side of the wheel to keep going straight. In my oval track race car, I liked it to pull to the left quite a bit by itself while I had to hold pressure on the wheel to keep it straight on the straightaways. I did that by putting quite a bit more caster on the left wheel.
I've done it myself at home. Its super easy. All you need is a long piece of string, a jackstand and a five dollar magnetic angle finder from Home Depot or any home improvement store in the tool section. PM me if you haven't done it yet as it's a long write up. If you use my technique it's laser accurate and costs only about $5
I've done it myself at home. Its super easy. All you need is a long piece of string, a jackstand and a five dollar magnetic angle finder from Home Depot or any home improvement store in the tool section. PM me if you haven't done it yet as it's a long write up. If you use my technique it's laser accurate and costs only about $5
Don't doubt you but you are claiming results that are achieved with a $20,000 alignment machine? I just find a shop where the operator does these all day. My local Goodyear Store has had the same alignment technician for the last 15 years. When I leave that place after an alignment, the car indeed drives straight and the steering wheel is absolutely on center. I am hesitant to try the DIY approach as it requires a perfectly level garage floor. How many of us have that?
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