Alignment Question
 

I just had my 67 BB Vert aligned and paid what I feel was way too much to have it done ($230.00). Aside from the fact that I may have been screwed, when I got the car home I noticed that the rear wheels are leaning in. I called the shop and asked them about it and they told me that the car was set to factory specs and the lean is normal. They said that although it looks weird, it is correct and it will not cause abnormal tire wear. I've seen other Corvettes on the road with the rear tires leaning like this but I thought they just had something wearing out in the rear suspension causing it. Is the lean normal?

At $50 an hour it adds up fast. I don't think thats too much for a 4 wheel alignment on a C2. I set my rear camber to 0 or stright up. This page gives other options.
http://www.vbandp.com/instructions/h...ruct/align.htm

The factory shop manual calls for Neg.1/2 degree, plus or minus 1/2 degree. I don't think this small amount of camber would be visible to the naked eye. Why not lay a framers square up against the tire, take a measurement and let us know what it is.

WoW, I am going up on my prices. That price seems out of line unless the bolts and shims in the rear were a problem. If you see that much negative camber, it aint right. A half degree is barely detectable.

Goodyear charged $110, here in Ohio for alignment

Here in South Florida you will pay $85.00 per hour for a competent alignment. If yours was a 4 wheel alighnment, the price is in line.

I put a square on the LR and came up with a measurement of 3.62 degrees. I layed the framing square on the ground, measured the vertical distance between common points on the tire (basically from top of redline to bottom of redline because I have old school tires) and measured the horizontal distance at the top. I did a little quick trig and came up with that measurement. Before I took it in the wheels were straight up and down and now they lean in. If I can use such crude tools to measure this and they have all of the high tech equipment, how could this have been messed up? Or am I doing something wrong in my measurements? I can post pics if it will help solve the problem.

I want to post some pics of my back wheels for you all but I'm not sure how to do it. Can anybody help?

Coincidentally, I just had mine done yesterday. Front and rear alignment, camber adjustment, etc., plus I had him raise the rear slightly (he put in extra washers at the bottom of the shocks). He also put new shims in where needed. $148 all in, and that's New Jersey!!!

The factory specs are definitely negative camber on the rear. The link provided in this thread says that those specs are recommended - not necessarily factory. But it's either 1/2 or 3/4 in the rear from my recollection. The factory specs according to my guy was positive on the front - different than the link, but I don't remember what degree.

From the rear, you can see that mine lean in a slight bit but not to the point where it's overly noticeable unless you're really staring at it. The fronts look straight up and down desite a slightly postive camber. Car drives straight as an arrow and handles great.

Absent a reply on this thread with the exact factory specs, I'd get ahold of a 1967 shop or assembly manual and compare them to what your guy did. For $230, he ought to be willing to take a look at it again - particularly if you're saying that the negative camber in the rear is so pronounced.

I'm also not sure if the BB alignment specs are different than the SB specs due to the extra weight of the engine in the front but what the hell do I know - I'm just speculating on that one. :crazy:

Good luck - let us know how you make out.

:cheers:

Almost forgot - here's the link to how to post pics. I use tinypic.com

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1110207

Hopefully myself or others will be able to judge by your picture whether it's too much or not.

:thumbs:

Thanks for the input SMR 67 - I will check that out. I hate to complain too much because the car drives 1000 times better than before. It was so far out of whack that it was chewing up the front tires bad which was going on when I got the car. From what the shop told me it took them 8 hrs to align but they only charged me for 4 because that's what they quoted me upfront. I guess I'm just used to the $50 - $75 alignment I get on modern cars. Anyway, after spending $300 on new front tires, another $250 to get it aligned, and the time money and labor I spent rebuilding, blasting, painting, etc, etc the front suspension prior to that (which I did myself) I hate to have the same thing happen with the rear tires if, in fact, it is improperly aligned. The back tires were in perfect condition wearwise prior to this alignment.

These are the spec's for today's radial tires (provided by JohnZ).

Front:
Camber - 0 degrees
Caster - 1 1/2 degrees
Toe-In - 0 to 1/16" total

Rear:
camber - 0 to 1/2 degree negative
Toe-In - 1/16" total

Had my 67 Coupe aligned at the local Goodyear this spring. $75.00 for front & rear. They did a very good job and let me on the alignment rack while they did it.

With these alignment specifications, my rear wheels do not lean in to the naked eye.
Roy :thumbs:

Maddoe, Since you have new tires on your car, go and get yourself a small carpenters level. One that will fit sitting on top of the rear tires in between the wheel wells to see if they are sitting level. I bought one for less then 4 dollars.
About a month or two ago I replaced my rear strut rods on my 67' because the bushing's were shot. Of course I would need an alignment after doing this job. I was about to take it out to have it done and just happened to mention about it on this forum when a forum member here gave me the idea of doing it myself. With the aid of my lift in my pole barn (although a floor jack would of worked fine) it was pretty easy and my wheels are straight up and down, no lean. The advice I got was to go to my local hardware store, Home Depot and purchase four 12" floor tiles to make two greased sandwiches to put under the rear wheels. With the new rear struts lose at the cam setting I was told to just let the car down on the greased tile sandwiches which slid the tiles apart with the weight of the car straightening the rear wheels. Doing this and pushing down on the rear bumper I used the small level on the top of the rear tires on both side as a guide. With the bubble centered on the level I just reached under the car to tighten the Cam bolts some until being able to raise the car up to tighten properly. I then did rechecks to tweak it some. The car handles great and when viewing the car from the rear there is no tipping in or out of the rear wheels that I can notice. Prior to doing this job the wheels where straight up also.
After driving your car if the rear wheels are leaning enough where you can see it I am willing to bet the rear alignment is off since you never noticed this before you had the alignment done. As I said go and get a small carpenters level and check your rear wheels on a level surface.
It cost me roughly 6 dollars to do this rear alignment on my own and I am very happy with the results.

I will respectfully disagree that any midyear Corvette handles "great" when it's rear tires are "straight up and down"............unless you are talking about parallel parking, or driving your grandmother to church.

Sounds like your rear camber is WAY excessive - that's the easiest part of the whole job, takes about two minutes per side to set rear camber. I'd take it back and have them set it correctly (1/2* negative). :thumbs:

got all four done on my 64 for $95.00, tax included. the guy that worked on my car was 80 years old, and has owned the shop for 55 years. he's a little slow and likes to talk about old cars. his stories were werth the $95!!!!

The difference in alignment prices may be tied to the rear toe in adjustment. Even it the bolt and shims are new, it still takes more time to get it right. If rusted, more time, lots more time.

The plot thickens
 

In addition to the rears leaning in, I noticed today that the front tires are rubbing the top of the fender when I turn. It's much worse on the RF than LF. It's worn the paint off of the lip of the fender on both sides and damaged the new tires somewhat. What can be done to fix this? Could the ride height be too low in the front? Does anybody know what the measurement from the ground to the fender should be at the center of the wheel?

With the correct size wheels and tires, there is no way that could happen. just what size tires are we dealing with here?

:iagree: What size tires did you have put on your car and what wheels are you using? Give us that info and we might be able to tell you something here.