DIY Alignment

I had a thread a week or two ago about being pissed at the tire shop jerks for treating me like a moron when I asked them to align my car to specs that I provided, so I want a diy option. I've read up on string alignments but being slightly garage challenged (live in an apartment), I need a easier to setup option. From the research I've done, Lakewood, Eastwood, and JC Whitney all have reasonably priced toe gauges. Does anyone have experience with any of these products? And if so, which might you recommend. Castor and camber are something I'd like to tackle at some point, but I figure setting my own toe would be a good place to start.

I'm also interested in knowing the same information.

I've been reading a lot recently about how alignment effects handling.

Canadian front end alignment:

Get a helper. Have him/her hold a hockey stick across a tire so it is against the sidewall bulge, about 4-6 inches up from the ground and parallel to the ground. Make sure he/she isnt' pushing too hard or that the hockey stick isn't contacting raised parts of the sidewall that would affect the measurement (like lettering).

You do the same on the other side of the vehicle, and measure the distance in front of the tire and behind the tire between (or to the outsides of) the hockey sticks.

It is a bit crude but I've always managed to make it work.

I use a HF toe guage. It was like five bucks or something. I use a bubble camber guage I bought from Racer Parts Wholesale, I think. A GRM subscriber. Do a search on DIY alignments and you'll come up with some threads on here.

I can do about as good an alignment as an average alignment shop. That is, better than a poor shop, not as good as a good shop. Of course, my cost is only my time.

I do my own alignments and change back and forth for street or track. I use Longacre caster camber bubble gauge and a trammel bar,since I don't have a helper. To do the camber, you need a level surface,

Toe is easy. A couple of toe plates (or hockey sticks!) and some tape measures. It helps that front toe is independent of other alignment settings. Caster is a bit harder only because it can - depending on the car - alter toe and/or caster.

I can do okay in a home alignment, but I'll bring it into my local shop to get cleaned up once I've got it close. They can always improve on my did it myself setup.

I've been doing my own alignments for over 20 years. The money I've saved in that time has allowed me to buy a better camber/caster guage then the bubble type. I bought the "Smart Camber" guage and with an addapter even use as a normal level. I also use two lengths of aluminum, either 1 inch square tubing or you can use "L" angle pieces to measure toe. To hold the "toe guages" to the tires I use bunge cords so its hands free. It helps if the wheels are of an open design.

To get things perfect I try to get the car on a level surface. My garage is not so I went and purchased some tempered hardboard and cut them into 1 foot squares. You can also use cheap vinal floor tile. It helps if you have a long straight piece of wood or metal, something that can act like a level.. It needs to be about as long as the wheelbase of you car. Put in on the floor with the ends where your wheels will go and measure the slope of the floor using the digital module from the Smart Camber guage. Add shims(tiles) until you get a "zero" . Move to the other side and then crosswise and diagonal. IF your using your garage floor try to mark where you placed the shims on the floor and how many so that next time you don't have to do this step.

Drive the car up on the shims. If your floor is really off you may have to use some extra shims to make a ramp. I also put at least 2 shims at the highest corner if it is in the front of the car as the two shims help ease the effort when I turn the steering back and forth to measure Caster.

A couple pieces of UHMW plastic with a dab of grease in between them make great cheapo turning plates for the front tires.

Sure beats having to roll the car back and forth to settle the front end every time.

Shawn

I too am interested in this stuff. Can I expect to get the toe close enough so that tires wear evenly? Both my Escorts are going to be due for an alignment soon, and hate the idea of paying for something I could do myself. There is no camber adjustment that I can tell on an Escort, and Im not sure about caster, so mainly just toe/thrust angle I think. Anyone think that's do-able?

Joey

Garbage bags with a bit of oil or cooking oil works well :)

Getting the front toe even side to side is automatic, of course. In the rear, I think you need to string the car to get the toe even and set thrust. I've seen people do it from a centerline marker as well.

Keith wrote: Garbage bags with a bit of oil or cooking oil works well :) Getting the front toe even side to side is automatic, of course. In the rear, I think you need to string the car to get the toe even and set thrust. I've seen people do it from a centerline marker as well.

That, or the large zip-loc bags with wd 40 or other sort of lubricant inside...

For toe, I also use the method described earlier, aluminum box tubing or L bar bungied to wheel. It works for me...

I did the L bar thing, my biggest complaint is that my measuring device had to be able to go through the engine and/or frame. Since that means drilling holes in those items which could affect their operation , I got a set of Longacre toe plates. If you have access to a sheet metal brake, they are easy to make, too.

Leveling's already been covered very well in this thread so far, so I'll move to finding the centerline. It's not so important for front toe, but it is important for rear toe and the thrust angle. This centerline operation only needs to be done once unless the car has to have major bodyshell repairs.

Start by getting the car at a comfortable height to work under.

It's best not to use a moveable part (control arm etc) as a reference point. Instead, use the control arm mount brackets, subframe bolt holes, etc. Run strings in an 'X' across the brackets for both front and rear. Now run a string from front to rear running through the center of the 'X's, this is your centerline. Now permanently mark the front and rear of the centerline on the underside of the car (I will use a short piece of hacksaw blade etc to make a notch). I'd look for somewhere on the body shell to put the notch, not on a removeable part like a subframe, since subframes can usually be shoved around and thus booger up your marks meaning you have to re-centerline the whole thing if you drop a subframe for some repair or other.

Once this is done, you can use a pair of plumb bobs hung from the center of the notches and put a straight line on the floor as your center reference. This can be done with a chalk line, but I prefer something a bit more substantial like 1/8" x 1 1/2" aluminum flat bar stock. You'll probably have to rivet or clamp a couple of pieces together for it to be long enough. I avoid 2x4's etc because they usually bow due to temperature and humidity changes.

Now you can use the toe plates to set your rear toe and have it centered with the car. Split your toe measurements; for instance if you want 1/16" total toe in each rear wheel should be toed in 1/32".

I use a $10 laser level and some geometry. Lay the laser level across the rim and project the laser dot onto anything at the same height - garage door, cardboard box, etc. - with the car close and the car about 12' away. Do both sides, front and rear. The difference l-r between the car-close dot distance measurement and the car-far-away dot distance measurement gives you the toe angle and therefore the total toe distance. Very accurate, very fast, very cheap.

For camber, I use a Wixey digital angle guage made for setting table saw blade angles - http://www.wixey.com/anglegauge/index.html

Again this can measure from the rim - not the tire sidewall which can be inaccurate. And slick magazines work great for toe plates..........just don't use GRM!

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