So i finished up the 80 a few weeks ago, put new tyres on the wheels, and took it for 4 wheel alignment. I give the guy the alignment specs i want (stolen from VB&P) and off i go. I get it back two days later, i pick it up after hours (i told the guy to just leave the key under his door mat) And i can tell right away something is wrong.

The car is pulling to the left like crazy. I call up the shop and the guys says "well the specs you gave me were wrong, i looked up the factory specs, and they didn't match so i went ahead and alignment it to factory"

I have the VB&P fancy suspension under it, and explained that it was pulling to the left, and that i was annoyed that it was not done well, or per my instructions.

He tells me there is nothing wrong with the alignment, and that that there is a problem with the power steering is causing the car to pull left. He refuses to redo the alignment to my specs because they are "wrong"


now before i take this guy to the mattresses, is there ANY chance that the power steering could cause this problem??




Cliff notes
-Guy doesnt align the car to my specs
-Car pulls left
-Says its a problem with the power steering
-Is he full of it?

 

NO, not necessarily, on a stock shark p/s system there is a control valve on the end of the pitman arm into that main cross link, that valve has the two hoses into it, on the end is a grease cup looking little cover...you need take that off, and inside there is a nut to turn to set that valve to neutral posiiton....best done with the p/s assist ram uncoupled from the frame....just a nut and some shock absorber looking rubber washers....

turn the nut until the ram stays still with engine running, NOT at one extreme or the other, just mid point and not moving....

a lazy way is to just get the tires up in the air and adjust for the same thing, but ti's not as accurate....due to extra steering drag....

 

He's probably right and you're FOS.

Now that your car is aligned properly, you have an accurate baseline to evaluate the rest of the car. Most probably your power steering control valve needs to be recentered, procedure is in the shop manual.

I'd suggest you buy the alignment guy a case of beer.

 

If you have the original type steering valve, yes, it can cause it to pull. You need to adjust the valve.

Now, I would still be a little concerned about his attitude.

 

well here is the deal, i just ran outside, jacked the front of the car up, turned the engine on, and the wheel did NOT pull left

So i am assuming this means the alignment is the problem??

irregardless he did not align the car as per my specs so he is either re-doing it anyway, or giving me my money back.

car was supposed to be set up for auto cross, so this is where the problem is

 

No, I think the problem is the nut behind the wheel. You took a short cut with centering the P/S valve, so you still don't know why it's pulling.

Even if that is not the problem, being aligned to factory specs will not cause a car to pull, irrespective of what type of zoomie suspension you have.

 

BINGO.... even a bad alignment won't make it "pull like crazy". your problem is not the alignment

 

Ok wiseguy, so i pulled the PS ram off the frame as suggested by

turned the engine on again, and it stayed centered, the ram didn't move at all...
it isnt pulling hard, just drifting to the left when i am driving, i am just going to take it to another shop and have them check it



believe it or not, i do know what i am doing... i paid for a 4 wheel alignment, i am guessing maybe they accidentally only did a front alignment or something.

 

Hard to say what exactly is causing the drift,but I will say that shop is full of idiots and you should stay away.I bet they did a "set the toe and let it go" alignment,if you take a good look they likely did no real adjustments to anything else,and what they did touch they did wrong.

 

So which is it?

 

any pull is too much

 

Wow, not quick to judge are we? Any half decent alignment shop will give you a print out of the final settings. Some give you a before and after.

If the tech found that the before settings were within spec, why would he adjust them? If they were not within spec, why would he give the customer a set of readouts showing that he didn't complete the job?

In any case, the OP has not posted the 'after' specs to help identify what the problem might be. On the assumption that it's only drifting to the left, it might be a bad tire belt, low tire pressure, dragging brake etc etc.

 

I think the question which needs to be answered is, did it pull before the alignment?

I've had bad tires cause a pretty decent pull.

 

He did not give me any printout, just said he "set it to factory", this is a small local garage. Only about 3 people work there. And yes, there could reasonably be other things causing it.

i don't think there is a dragging brake. and believe it or not i do check my tyre pressure.

in any event i am heading out to take it to another shop in town, so we will see what is up in a bit.

It drifted right before the alignment hahah

 

How do you know he put the right side tire back on the right. Maybe he switched them. Like I said, I've had bad tires cause this. Switch them and see what happens.

 

Non-directional tread on your tires by any chance, Bowers?

 

I would be concerned if I gave the shop particular specs and they ignored and did it the way they felt was right. After I rebuilt my suspension, I took to local alignment shop and explained that I wanted more aggressive settings (VanSteel Advanced Street specs). He looked them over and said "can do." They spent 4 hours working on it and called and told me they could not get front to MY specs and I would need to get some off-set shafts for the A-arm. The point here is find a shop that is willing to work with your non-factory setup. Good luck.

 

If you made it clear you wanted altered specs and even handed it to them on paper to the tech and he disobeyed what you wanted, you should either get a refund or at you choice, let him redo it and put it where you want it spec wise!

If you took your car in to have it painted, and you wanted it painted red, you go to pick it up after its done and now the car is green, would you pay the bill, I don't thing so!

They did it their way not yours, if they had a issue about doing what you said they should have called you first before doing it different then the way you asked.

After what the shop did, I wouldn't let him touch it again for fear that he might accidently fug something up on purpose of course.

Problem is a lot of these shops that have front end alignment machines that get used quite frequently, they get a lot of abuse and how often are the machines calibrated? The wheel heads are very sensitive and one little slip or drop can knock them out of calibration. Most people would not even be able to tell if the alignment was performed incorrectly until they notice abnormal wear on their tires, usually its too late then to take it back then.

I am a hobbyist and I have a Hunter P211 in my garage because I got tired of paying folks good money for inferior alignments and paying for BS.

To do an alignment properly, it takes a lot of time just to set up the equipment correctly, time is money so shortcuts are ofter to blame for a shabby alignment, many shops will look at the tires, if they look fine and have no signs of any drastic wear, they may set the toe and let them go, quick money for some, a good boink'in for the one paying for a service

Another issues here is you made a lot of changes all at once, kinda hard to narrow it down as to what the real issues here of dealing with the slight pull to the left, could be new tires, most definately could be and probably is alignment.

I would take the car to another shop that local street racers use and get a before and after printout of the alignment, explain to them what you are looking for performance wise and hand them the specs VB&P provided and see what they think.

You do know an agressive alignment will wear tires a lot faster then a factory alignment and cause issues when driving on uneven surfaces or in rutted or crowned roads. Unless you do a lot of track time, I'd stick with a close to factory settings for drivability.

Good luck,

Gibby

 

It is also a issue of Liability... they set it to factory specs to cover their butts... if set to other specs and tires wear too fast or car oversteers or understeers causing an accident.. then this litigation happy good ol' USA will see another lawsuit clogging up the courts. now perhaps there was miscommunication and the OP did not stress hard enough to 'do it my way or not at all'.. remember, a good part of the labor is getting it on the rack and checking the 'old' specs...

 

All the shop has to do is keep a copy of the "specs" the owner gave them with the order when they file it. That is done all the time.