Thought I would share my recent "Shop Alignment" woes with the crowd. I Rebuilt entire front suspension, shocks, ball joints, bushings, tie rods and sleeves, idler arm, 4 new tires, sway bar bushings, brakes and hoses, also, rebuilt power steering slave cylinder all at home myself with no problems. Aligned it at home good enough to get to the "shop" (about 30 miles). This shop has done work for me for over 15 years (but never a Corvette). He said a 4 wheel alignment was no problem!!
Got it back with these things wrong:
1. One tie-rod was in the front hole in the spindle the other side was in the rear hole.
2. Steering wheel not centered.
3. Toe was set "out" not "toed-in" as suggested by everything I have read.
4. Caster was within tolerance, but off a whole degree from one side to the other.
5. One tie-Rod set was put on backwards (should have a right hand thread on the outer of both left and right sets so the sleeves will turn the same direction for easy steering wheel alignment)
6. The "shop" never attempted to align the rear, they said it would be too diffucult because the shims "were rusted" (I paid for 4-wheels)


Valuable lesson learned by me: I got more mechanical ability in my left wingnut than these monkeys working at the "shop" will ever have. Never again will I pay for a simple alignment that can be done at home better and quicker.

While I got your attention I do have a small question on the rear toe setting. Can I measure off the frame to the tire tread on each side? Since the rear wheels do not turn you cannot just measure from tire to tire since they may be skewed, hence you go down the road sideways.

 

If you have a local Corvette club in your area, find out who they like to use for alignments. You still need to get that done. Off-set caster is used to compensate for road-crown. If properly used, todays modern alignment equipment can do a good job. Give them the specs. you want, ask for a before and after print-out. You may want to make sure the rear shims and trailing arm bushing bolts are free of rust and can move freely before you do the alignment. Vette Brakes and Products has good alignment specs. on their web-site. G/L

 

I don't know the answer to that, but I know somewhere online I saw some detailed instructions on how to align you own car.

The tools required aren't terible expensive. It is just VERY time consuming. When I take my car to Guldstrand for an alignment they do it the old fasioned way. It takes 2 to 3 hours if ther are no problems.

What makes it so time consuming is that every time you jack up the car to make an adjustment you need to drive it around the block to settle the suspension before you measure again.

One thing they do at Guldstrand is to cut the shims for the trailing arms so they can slide in and out without removing the bolt. Most alignment shops won't adjust the rear toe because it's just too much work for them.

The specs for these old cars is a very wide range. Just because it's "in spec" doesn't mean it's very well aligned. You need to determine your specs and acheive them perfectly.

The stock strut bars I think they're called are very hard to adjust, so some quality aftermarket ones will help. If they have a lot of rubber in them then your camber will vary while you drive.. not good.. use something more solid like heim joint.

~Jay

 

For the last 30+ years GM has sold the slotted shims!! "heim joints" on an everyday street car would be an expensive proposition as they don`t like dirt and they wear quickly...use new rubber or poly bushings.
...redvetracr

 

 

Thanks for the replys. I will do more research on the rear toe. I have already replaced strut rods with the after-market adjustable type. Easy to set camber with those. In above post I said the caster was a degree off.... My mistake I should have said camber......I know the difference, just mis-spoke. Sorry.

 

The LAST time I took my Vette to get aligned it came back with every adjustment out of spec! Every Freekin one! It was like driveing a clown car with the wheels wobbleing and all pointing different directions.
and with 450 hp in the rain I almost killed myself.

I now do ALL my own alignments. It's faster better and far far cheaper.

 

I guess thats what I wanted to hear! Have you got any advice on the procedure for setting the rear toe. Just ordered new shim pack. bolts, bushings, bushing tool.... can't wait to get dirty! I have already had the shock mounts off, I previously replaced the strut rods (before the failed alignment). Used a blue flame wrench to melt the old strut rubber bushings out of the mounts. then beat them out with a big alignment punch and a bigger hammer. Reassembled with a bunch of never Seize on every metal to metal connection, and poly bushing grease on the rubber connections. Also had to replace the trailing arm brake lines at the same time. All this stuff should come off easily so I can get right at the t-arm bushings and shims.

Thanks
Thom W. in AL (the Vette Girl is my Daughter, we both have '77's)

 

try these links......should clear things up

you really should establish the cars centerline and work from there

time consuming to do it right
Jim


click

again

keep clickin'

 

Every car is like this. If it's up on an alignment rack, grabbing the undercarriage and springing the suspension a few times should let everything settle back in. That's one advantage of using a rack, too - you can make adjustments while the car is on slip plates, no lifting necessary.

The specs for bias ply tires are fairly loose. But if your using radial tires, those specs are worthless - use the later radial specs (which don't have much slop). I used to work on the software for a major manufacturer's aligners, and radial Corvette specs are no more or less "wide" than most other cars. When I would align my cars at work, "in spec" wasn't good enough for me if it was an adjustable spec. Anything that could be adjusted had to be on the nose.