Shade tree alignment
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 349
Likes: 7
From: San Diego CA
Shade tree alignment
I have been measuring toe and camber for years on my garage floor, and I could easily get 1/16" accuracy with the contraption I made. Today I had some free time, so I thought I'd try measuring caster also.
I went to Home Depot and bought a dead on ***** accurate Bosch laser level. The car was recently aligned so I had a baseline to compare with. I measured front toe, camber and caster a few times, and got the same angle numbers as the machine within one 1/10th of a degree.
I went to Home Depot and bought a dead on ***** accurate Bosch laser level. The car was recently aligned so I had a baseline to compare with. I measured front toe, camber and caster a few times, and got the same angle numbers as the machine within one 1/10th of a degree.
My wife has too many things on her to do list.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 10,962
Likes: 29
From: Van Buren Arkansas
Wounded Warrior Escort '11
Its really no different than a professional equipment alignment just slower. What would be nice is if you were willing to post pictures of each step that you went through and exactly how you accomplished the measurements. This could save us all a lot of money using your techniques.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 349
Likes: 7
From: San Diego CA
Its really no different than a professional equipment alignment just slower. What would be nice is if you were willing to post pictures of each step that you went through and exactly how you accomplished the measurements. This could save us all a lot of money using your techniques.
Here's the level I used, Bosch GPL3T:
It has three lasers and it fits snugly on the wheel for toe measurement and turn angle measurement for caster (mark the spots on the floor and measure).
For toe, instead of using a measuring tape, I use a straight plank that I put first behind the wheels, line the other end up with the passenger wheel with laser. I have a scale in the driver's end of the plank, and I point the laser there and get the reading. Repeat in the front of the wheels and I get the difference between the readings and the total toe. There are so many other ways to do it with lasers, and you can get individual toes also with some more effort.
For camber, the laser can be put on the floor, leveled off and then you can measure the distance from the rim to the laser beam.
For caster, I measure two turn angles and camber difference and use the formula: caster = (180/pi)*(camber1-camber2)/(turn angle1 - turn angle2).
