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Anyone have any tips ? I have a Longacre Camber and toe in kit that I bought from another member of my car club.
Looking on youtube and web I can see most people use the string method. Just looking to see if anyone has any other advice before I start turning wrenches.
Anything that measures off the tire or wheel will be subject to rim runout. If you aren't confident that your rims are perfectly true, you can minimze measuring errors by rolling the car enough to rotate the wheels 180.
If you jack the car to make adjustments, make sure it settles down to normal ride height before re-measuring. If you're after specific, non-standard settings, you might want to ballast the car to normal operating weight and fuel load.
For camber accuracy, you need a flat and level pad, or measure and compensate for any slope.
My $.02: unless you'll be changing things regularly (back and forth to the track?), just find a good performance shop with a conscientious tech. Trying to align a car on the ground is a pain.
I agree. I wish it was easier, but for the $150 to 200 it costs me at the start of the season to have my alignment and crossweight adjusted. It just isn't worth the trouble. It is the last thing I still pay to have done on my car, actually.
Actually another member on another forum helped me out. Truthfully, if you get the right equipment, It's not rocket science. Plus if you have a lift it's pretty easy. I just bought this kit. I'll be setting my car up for track and back to street several times a year so this will pay for itself easily.
Anyone have any tips ? I have a Longacre Camber and toe in kit that I bought from another member of my car club.
Looking on youtube and web I can see most people use the string method. Just looking to see if anyone has any other advice before I start turning wrenches.
Actually another member on another forum helped me out. Truthfully, if you get the right equipment, It's not rocket science. Plus if you have a lift it's pretty easy. I just bought this kit. I'll be setting my car up for track and back to street several times a year so this will pay for itself easily.
I level the 4 contact patches on the floor with VCT tiles, they're cheap and expendable and you can get to within 1/8"
After that its just being careful with your measurements, twice
I agree. I wish it was easier, but for the $150 to 200 it costs me at the start of the season to have my alignment and crossweight adjusted. It just isn't worth the trouble. It is the last thing I still pay to have done on my car, actually.
What he said.
Whatever DIY method you will use, you will never have the accuracy of a well calibrated alignment machine. I do my corner balancing with my scales, and a rough alignment but then I go to the closest Town Fair Tire at the beginning of the month when they got their machine calibrated and get my custom alignment with me sitting in the car for $69. The machine is accurate to 0.01 degree, takes care of camber/caster/toe and wheel alignment. I just use my camber gauge and toe kit to make sure nothing has moved at the track but it's too inaccurate for a specific alignment.
What he said.
Whatever DIY method you will use, you will never have the accuracy of a well calibrated alignment machine. I do my corner balancing with my scales, and a rough alignment but then I go to the closest Town Fair Tire at the beginning of the month when they got their machine calibrated and get my custom alignment with me sitting in the car for $69. The machine is accurate to 0.01 degree, takes care of camber/caster/toe and wheel alignment. I just use my camber gauge and toe kit to make sure nothing has moved at the track but it's too inaccurate for a specific alignment.
I have no problem how anyone decides what is the best (for them) way to do alignments. To each his own.
At almost every event I attend, a guy will ask me where to get his car aligned and I have lived 25 years in the same place, shops have come & gone, I have tried many before I taught myself how to do it & before that I had issues with almost ever one.
My favorite was the dumbazz who didn't torque to spec the eccentrics & I ruined a new set of 710's when the alignment on every corner went away.
That was when I decided to learn how to do it.
If you can "get away" with one alignment a year, that's pretty good value. I have changed mine 4x since the season started looking for perfect (probe pyrometer) tire temps. I would not expect any shop to be happy with those many alignments for one price (the lifetime deals some guys brag about) so that would start adding up.
The other issues I have is every alignment shop owner "just got it calibrated" well, maybe maybe not. Then there is the skill of the kid doing the work (refer back to the dumbazz).
So if you personally know the shop owner & TRUST him then it's all good. Otherwise IMO it's a dice roll shoot & the house always wins.
Gotta pay for that alignment rack.
As for accuracy I totally disagree with my friend LeFrog.
I do mine with strings. I use 4 heavy corner posts I built and stretch the strings very tight front to back at about 85" wide (c4 vette between strings) I went and bought a 2' level and cut it down a little made a few spacers to allow it to touch rim and not the tire then mounted a angle finder to the level... Works great. I use the sticky tiles stuck together to level it up and then I have 4 greezed pads on top of them so It can relax as the settings change...
Once you do it a couple of times it's cake. Just get the strings. Bounce the car and roll it back then forward again between changes. Don't bump your strings. Don't drink too much beer.
Once you start doing it yourself, you will quickly realize that small changes/errors are not even noticeable to 99% of us on track.
Vader like a few others here I'm curious what you're doing there with the wheels hanging in the air?
05-28-2015, 06:43 AM
DIY Car Alignments
