Let my car down from the jack and looking from the rear, it looks like my rear tires are both crooked, slightly slated in. Any ideas?

 

Drive it. They'll straighten up.

 

your rear camber is out of wack. look at your rear suspenion and there is a steel rod that connects your differential to the trailing arm. there is a oblong shaped bolt that is movable to adjust it. if the car has a lot of miles on it the arms may be bent aswell. as the side yokes on the rear wear you get a lot of pressure on these control ams and they will bend

 

They do straighten out when I drive it....should I be overly concerned right now?

 

thanks, I am going to go check it right now.

 

they always look like that when u let em down from the jack! Drive it, They'll straighten up

 

Maybe..maybe not....

 

Drive it a bit...if they don't settle into the right position, get it to a good alignment shop. Your camber eccentrics might be turned wrong.

 

Thanks everyone, they do return to normal after driving. I just noticed it doing that after jacking it up a few times. Thanks.

 

Can I do that myself? What would I need?

 

To do it as accurately as possible? $10k worth of alignment equipment.

 

OK then, guess not. Thanks.

 

Setting rear wheel camber yourself is easy if you've got a fairly level garage floor. Duct tape a couple of equal length sockets to a 2 foot level, spaced so that they touch the wheel lip top and bottom. Use the setup to check how out of plumb each wheel is with weight on wheels. Jack the wheel off the floor and use the cam at the inner end of the tie rod to move the wheel in or out at the bottom as required. Lower the wheel, drive in and out of the garage and recheck. It's trial and error but it shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 tries to get it right. Setting it plumb for zero degrees camber is easiest but with a little right triangle trig you can set whatever negative camber you prefer.

 

That's basically how I use do it. Instead of using two equally spaced sockets I use two beer cans (always got emptys one around) taped to the level. Pull one side of the level away from the rim and measure that distance and with trig, convert it to degrees. Now I have bubble alignment gauge with a magnetic base. It is accurate and cost $9860 less than the $10k alignment machine.

 

I would really like to see some pics!!!!


There are several threads in the archives and articles about DIY alignment. I have never tried it, but many forum members do their own without mega expensive equipment.

 

part of doing your own alignments is driving the car at least around the block after you make any changes because the suspension needs to settle before you can get an accurate measurement. You can still get pretty damn close yourself with levels, strings, and tape measures, it will just take some time because of the check-adjust-settle process. The only way your wheels will be straight after you take them off the jack is if the floor is covered with grease(tires have zero traction)
bottom line, its normal

 

A good alignment machine and a good tech, and you can get your alignment dialed in into the hundreths or even thousandths of an inch. Far, far more accurate than any homebrew technique. Get it close at home, then drive it to a good alignment shop for final tweaking. Anything else and you're guessing.

 

We used two thin metal plates with grease between them when we did small aircraft wheels, so they'd settle right away, then measure and readjust. They wouldn't let us take them around the block

You guys think it might work for what you want to do? That is, before taking it to an alignment shop.

 

I've heard of doing that with a couple of vinyl floor tiles.

 

I heard they can get it down to 1 millionth of an inch.

Even if the machine they use measure to 3 decimal points, it doesn't mean they can adjust to it. They could make a reading, back the car off the machine, drive it back on, and the readings will be different. Shims only come in certain thickness, so they are stuck using what is available. They nomally do not have any passenger(s) in the car. Have them do an alignment to the thousandths of an inch and sit in the car and watch the numbers change.
The caster/camber gauge is fairly accurate, I believe to a 1/4 degree. No need to take it somewhere and pay $100-$200 to have them set it to 1/4 degree.
I only ever had one car aligned at a shop. I was having new tires put on. The cost of a front end alignment for $29. A four wheel alignment was $39. I said do the four wheel. After they were done they said the rear was out a little but there were no adjustments for it (rear wheel drive car). I thought to myself 'Why did they do a four wheel alignment knowing only the front were adjustabel?'. I guess it was for the extra $10 they put in the bank.
Once you buy a gauge you will never go back to a service center. Create a level surface, pull the dust cap off, attach the magnetic gauge, take the reading, and adjust shims. If the suspension was taken all apart, it will take a little longer the first time. Doing it later is much quicker since things will be much closer to begin with. The most difficult thing is setting the thrust angle of the rear. I use Norval's way using a laser beam.