A friend just purchased a 1978 Corvette. The car is pulling to one side so he's going to get it aligned. He asked me but I couldn't answer his question. Does the 1978 have rear alignment as well as front alignment?

 

I'm no vette expert and I'm sure that some will chime in but the short answer is "yes".

 

Absolutely!!!
All four wheels have adjustable camber and toe. The caster on the front wheels can also be adjusted.
A good alignment shop will know this already. The C2/C3 chassis has been on the street for over 50 years.

 

Thanks for the replies.

 

Make sure you ask the alignment shop if they have the proper shims to do the alignment. Most shops cheat you my not doing rear toe alignment.

For the front there are 3 adjustments. Caster / Camber. This requires shims. Most times these are within specs but as the car ages they should be adjusted. Toe is the one most shops only do, due to not having shims or don't want to spend the time to adjust to specs.

Now the rear is where most shops will not touch or say they cannot adjust to specs. Read Toe adjustments requires the most effort and also requires good trailing arm bushings. If they do not having any shims in stock they cannot adjust unless your shims are in good shape. Most of the time the shims are rusted in and the pivot bolt cannot be removed / loosened to remove shims.

The best way to make sure the shop can do the alignment purchase your own shim kit and pivot bolts for the rear.

Make sure you get a before and after print out and compare to what good specs for a C3 corvette is.

Use this as a reference.

http://tech.corvettecentral.com/2011...ignment-specs/

Shim Kit for the rear.

http://www.vbandp.com/index.php?page...emart&Itemid=1

Be careful most shops do a very poor job on C3 alignments due to not have people that know how to work on C3 corvette's. I have stopped taking my car to a shop and now do my own alignments.

Most shops only do front toe and rear camber because they are easy to adjust.

To get a c3 to drive straight the rear toe and front toe must be in specs to produce a very minimal trust angle. Meaning the front and rear wheels are both pointing in the same direction. A poor thrust angle can be noticed during acceleration where the rear end on the car wants to push the front left or right. When the car is coasting then the front steering will pull the car side to side. Proper caster setting provides high speed stability and camber provides cornering and handling response.

Post the before and after sheets so we can see how they did.

 

Don't forget step 1 in any alignment.
Check the tire pressure. Make sure it is at you you want it to be at.

 

Yes I agree this is very important.
I found most shops inflate to 32 PSI so, I think you need to tell them what pressure you what, or tell them to not adjust the tire pressure.

 

After rebuilding the front and rear suspension on my 78. I checked around at some local chevy dealerships and found one that had a mechanic that has been doing alignments for a long time. He was doing alignments on C3 vettes when they were new. He did a great job, probably paid to much, but the guy did know how to get around and old vette.

 

Would you please care to elaborate (or link...) on procedure & special tools needed? Thank you.

 

Good info here. Thx

 

I am in the process to document my procedure, but here is a quick list of tools I use.
http://www.longacreracing.com/catalo...d=1299&catid=5
Camber caster adjustments.
This tool is great because I don't need to level the car. I level the gauge to the floor.
Also
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-laser...2&blockType=G2
Used to attach to the wheel to mark the position (toe in or out ) beaming against a reference ruler that is centered to the car.

Its impossible for any DIY system to be as consistent and good as an Alignment tech with a good alignment rack. But when you do the work yourself you know you have set all the settings.

I track drive my car so it makes sense for me to learn the DIY methods at $100+ per alignment it would get expensive.

The big failing of DIY methods is the ability to get consistent reference points and setup quickly. To over come this I bolt on guides to the frame or use magnets to hold the guides as a reference point. This allows quick and consistent reference points.

If you do a google search for "DIY Alignments" you will find many different ways of doing the same thing. The ideas / theory are the same but the results vary greatly. Only time and time testing will determine what works for you.