xsiveone

When you guys get your cars aligned, do you always end up with a straight steering wheel? Or.. Do you care if the wheel is completely straight? That's always been a pet peeve of mine. Just like pulsating brakes and tires that are out of balance.

vms4evr

Yes. If not I make them fix it. It's only ever happened a couple of times.

CHJ In Virginia

If the technician knows what he is doing and does not try to take shortcuts, the wheel always should be properly centered. After the car is on the lift and suspended there is a locking bar that should be used to lock the steering wheel in place. It grabs the bottom of the wheel and has a small jack that pushes down on the seat for leverage. The guys working on flat rate often skip this step because it takes more time especially when doing a complete 4 wheel alignment as is required on a Vette.

ghoffman

The only way is to do it yourself. It is not that hard, and with our tool it is a snap to go from track to street.

xsiveone

I never heard of this before. Is this just with the Corvette or with any car?

I know.. I should probably do my own alignments. Don't you need a really level surface though?

ghoffman

This is really not that hard. It is simple geometry. Really, it is very easy to do this yourself, and it drives me crazy that people spend good money for this. Once you do this, you then you know it is correct, and you can adjust it for all conditions. Download this for free and see if you can do it:
http://hardbarusa.com/uploads/image/...%20rev1(1).pdf
http://hardbarusa.com/hardbar/produc...products_id=44

NASAblue

John Shiels

my mech uses that on all cars but they are and after 30+ years on many vehicles and equipment I never had one comeback or complaint.

gkmccready

I use the Hardbar alignment tool. My pad isn't very level, but I just set the jack stands to different heights from side-to-side to get the car level in the air. Works great. It's pretty easy to do.

Just remember to measure the difference between what you set by the alignment tool and how it measures up on the ground.

I am looking forward to having a level pad for setting camber, though!

dbratten

1/8" thick foot-square floor tiles work great to level a car, jack stands or even a lift. They're very cheap if you aren't concerned with the pattern or color. A water level is also easy to use to establish level.

--Dan

dbratten

It's really easy to straighten the wheel. Drive up onto some 2x lumber to give yourself room to reach up under the front. Loosen the 22mm jam-nut on both sides of the front tie-rods and rotate the tie-rod the same direction on both sides (either both up or both down) to move the steering wheel to center. Use the flats where you place your 13mm wrench as your reference. Usually, you need to rotate the tie-rod less than one flat. It you move it the wrong way, then just move it the other till you get it right. This will not affect your alignment if you move both sides equally.

--Dan

xsiveone

Why does the shop that does my alignments need to redo the alignment to get the steering wheel straight then?

I'd love to do my own alignments. It's too bad that I nearly flunked Geometry though in hs. I just don't feel confident doing it myself without someone showing me how to do it first.

dbratten

They may only mean that they need to get your car back up on the rack to adjust the steering wheel. Let them do it, ask to watch, and you'll see how simple it is.

You don't need geometry to align your car. Sure, somebody did at some point to figure out how to do it but now you are just taking measurements and reading and interpreting results. Check out the info Hardbar provided and also the links that David Farmer has. DIY does require some tools and it is possible to make a mess of it. If you aren't changing your alignment very often it is probably best to find a shop that does good work and entrust it to them.

--Dan