froggy47

Regarding centering the wheel. I start with it centered, but by the time I'm done it's off.

When I used to go to a shop I would sit in the car & hold it.

I look at the steering wheel at the end & it still seems straight.

The alignment itself seems pretty decent, Smart camber & strings.

The car tracks nice & straight if I let go of the wheel. No pulls.

But I feel like FAIL if the steering wheel is not straight.

What do you all do?

Don't say buy some $300 tool, I am looking for diy tricks.

flink

I get the toe right and then if the wheel if off-center, fix it up by turning each side by the same number of 1/6-turns. It's quite accurate if done carefully - I don't even bother rechecking the toe afterwards.

And it's too damn hard to get the wheel centered perfectly in the garage anyway - you have to take it for a drive to be sure. Afterwards, fine-tune it by jacking one side at a time and giving it a quick tweak - it takes no time at all.

That's on the street car. On the race car ... meh. I don't care if it's a bit off-center - I have more important things to be looking at

sperkins

I used to cut two 2x4's and wedge them on either side of the steering wheel to keep it from moving. I haven't done that in years though. The vette doesn't seem to have that problem. What kind of "slip plates" are you using? Maybe there's still too much friction under the tire.

froggy47

I think you have it there, my slip plates are just shiny finish kitchen shelf (partical) board.

I need to come up with something more slippery.

L98Terror

Take two pieces of Plexiglas and put some grease in between

Kubs

I use two thick magazines with shiny covers. It seems to work pretty good.

geerookie

I use heavy duty 4 mil garbage bags folded in 1/4's.
Someone told me about this and I kinda laughed.
After I tried it.....the laugh was on me! For the money I have found nothing better and there is no mess.
Just make sure you have a flat surface.
Put the garbage bag between your kitchen shelf and the tire, it should work awesome.

aggie_corvette

for slip plates cut some metal plate from home depot/lowes with grease in between.

To hold the steering wheel i use a bungy cord coiled around the wheel and then (the rubber part) around the driver mirror. Pulled tight it holds the steering in place.

davidfarmer

It is so easy to cOrrect steering when done (just make even but opposite adjustments on each side to correct), why call it a fail

Sure fire way to keep it centered is to just do one corner at a time.


Personally I done worry about the steerig wheen until the end, but practice and experience make my adjustments such that I'm usually quite close

froggy47

Thanks all, will do the opposite 1/6 turns to correct & next time add some slip using one of the above. The 710 slicks on the front must have been stuck down pretty good, I learn something every time I do the alignment & they are coming out better each time I think.

fatbillybob

If you center your wheel after doing your toe you can just "thrust" the car from front to back and you will know how much you are off. Make half the correction on one wheel and half the correction on the other wheel and you are perfect. No guessing this way.

fatbillybob

I use 15x15" 3/16" steel slip plates and they are heavy!!!! I'm going to try your method.

froggy47

I am not following how this works, can you elaborate?

fatbillybob

Well if you were aligning your car you would start by scaling, then chassis rake, then zeroing the thrust at the rear. This is done before the rest of the alignments. Then you set the rear toe and camber. Then you set the front toe and camber. Caster is usually "what you get" but that can be tweeked too then you go back and confirm/tweek your toe and camber. You can correct for the steering wheel being off by now pretending that your rear wheels are front wheels and shooting your laser from front to rear and basically making sure the measure is equal on both sides while your wheel is straight will make sure your wheel is straight when you drive off. So if you get mismatched numbers which you should because the wheel "was" not straight now you know which side needs more toe in and which side needs more tow out. Keeping the "absolute value" adjustment the same for both sides keeps the toe your dialed in before you found your wheel off to be exactly the same.

sperkins

I find it easier to set the rear toe/thrust first by shooting a laser to a yardstick touching on the side of the front cradle (since it never moves) instead of the front tires. It always gets me really close - especially after major suspension upgrades or changes. Then I set the front toe/thrust and center the steering wheel. Just a thought.

fatbillybob

I don't use the front tires I use the hub center. Not a fan of using craddle because I think all should be related to the axle positions.

froggy47

What do you adjust to zero thrust at the rear? Should it be correct if no wrecks/worn parts?

BEZ06

I use David Farmer's method for checking thrust. Take a look at page 3 in this link to his alignment info:

http://www.davidfarmerstuff.com/align.pdf


Also, on David's homepage he's got a link to a guide on "Suspension Setup", and "Why Toe Out", and his great torque spec sheets.

Bob

froggy47

I don't see a way to adjust thrust with the links, do you loosen up the sub frame?

fatbillybob

I'm not sure I understand your question. But you want zero thrust at the rear relative to the front axles. This prevents a car from "dog tracking". If you google that term you will see pictures of what I mean. You can have a well aligned car with caster,toe,camber etc but if the critical 1st step thrust is off your car will do weird things and you will not understand why.