Anyone do DIY alignments? More specifically toe?

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Fri Feb 26, 2010 8:09 pm

IMPRESSIVE ! Much better than my old camber guage. Maybe it is time to upgrade mine by adding a digital level and/or building a copy of yours.

Has someone tried using "Sears" quality laser levels for stringing a car?

Maybe add a "target" to one end of your camber guage (or build a similar separate tool) with calibrated marking on it. Place the target at tire OD. Mount the laser to a "jack stand" at the other end of the car and "shoot" down the side just like a string.

Scott Lusted · **Joined:** Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:52 am **Posts:** 215

Wow! Nice level! I think I'll find myself at Lowes this weekend!

Hopefully everyone will be able to do alignments now!!

Scott

JamesShort · **Posted:** Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:05 pm

I used 5/16-18 bolts FYI....I wanted enough 'face' so that the distance between them does not have to be perfect.

I'm going to make this a combo toe device as well.

http://www.saferacer.com/art-dream-stic ... uctid=1815

If you see that, all I will do is bolt two rulers a set distance away from each other on the non bolt side of the bar and then all I will do is set the device on the wheel at left and right on the wheel and measure where the string shows up on the rulers. Anyway...this might not be worth the hassle because if you have your string line setup and a good ruler (in my case I'm going to use some mm calipers....the part that comes out the back end of the calipers) then this is really no easier....anyway, we'll see.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Sat Feb 27, 2010 4:37 pm

Well finished it up....only was able to pull -0.9 deg camber on each side.....the guy who was able to pull off -1.3 used a chevy manifold spreader and loosened the strut top bolts...I didn't feel like getting that crazy. At least it is symmetrical.

After doing the camber and rolling the car around to let it setting and the tires relax, I set up my strings.....the toe in the front was essentially 0 before messing with the camber....after the adjustment it was toe-ed out 1/32" on each side......that's good enough for me

. I didn't even try to get it down to 0 because it's well within the error realm of the tooling I was using

.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 4:18 pm

I was thinking about it yesterday and now that I've messed with the camber in the front, doesn't that mean my track measurements will no longer be valid as the center cap of my front wheels are now slight further inboard than they were before? I guess I can measure the distance from the center of the lower ball joint to the center of the wheel and do the trig to figure out how far the center of the wheel was moved inward....probably not a lot.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:32 pm

James,

When I did the same thing before this past weekend's T&T, there's such little movement in the wheel hub i don't think your front track was changed. The spindle/hub is just so close to the fulcrum of the strut (where the eccentric bolt is the outer edge of the lever/knuckle) that it makes little if any difference.

BTW, I cheaped out a little by using an old carpenter square I had instead of your steel bar. Not as tidy, but I like tools that have multiple purposes.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:51 pm

Steven Carter wrote:

James,

When I did the same thing before this past weekend's T&T, there's such little movement in the wheel hub i don't think your front track was changed. The spindle/hub is just so close to the fulcrum of the strut (where the eccentric bolt is the outer edge of the lever/knuckle) that it makes little if any difference.

BTW, I cheaped out a little by using an old carpenter square I had instead of your steel bar. Not as tidy, but I like tools that have multiple purposes.

Reading Richard's post on page 1 alleviates this. Honestly I don't trust those track measurements anyway

.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:46 am

So in the future, this is how I'll do my strings (instead of relying on track), which is similar to what Richard mentioned minus the bars.

First, I'll have to setup lines on both sides of the car at the same time. To guarantee that the lines are parallel to themselves AND the theoretical center line of the car, I will set the rear jack stands so that the lines are say 3" front the center cap of the rear wheels, then measure from string to string in the front and back and adjust the front stands until the string is the same distance from one another in the front and back (strings are parallel). In doing so, the distance b/t the rear wheel caps and strings may no longer be equal so a few iterations of readjustment might be needed, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Then, assuming a fixed camber, if the only thing you are adjusting is rear thrust angle/toe or front toe, you can measure the distance from string to front wheel centercap so you know the 'true' track for easier setup in the future.

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Anyone do DIY alignments? More specifically toe?

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