You guys have any cool and interesting ways to eyeball Alignment?

[DrDuquette]

So I know there are some super ingenious people on the forum. I would love to hear some easy fun and interesting ways to DIY in your garage to do a rough alignment after doing major changes in suspension. Using string, iPhone apps, levels, eyeball, friends, etc. Let's find a fun and easy way to dial in our cars for ride height, spring settling, etc, without toasting the tires during the process. Hopefully his will be a great set of ideas to make DIY easy.


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[mwjcyber]

Disclaimer...there's no substitute for an alignment machine.

With that said there are two things you can do for a "home alignment."

1. Use a digital level, like Craftsman, for camber adjustment that's accurate within 0.1°. May not be long enough on it's own, so attach to board or metal strip if needed. (It has mounting holes on bottom.)
   
   1. http://www.sears.com/craftsman-digit...p-00948295000P
2. Start with a good alignment. Place sheet of wood or other material against face of wheel and tape floor along it's bottom edge. Use this marking for each wheel's toe adjustment.

Of course these steps don't account "steer ahead" and "caster", but they will get you an alignment close to what you had before. Once you've found the ride height and camber you like, I recommend you take it in for a final professional alignment.

[bfrank1972]

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...ight=alignment

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by mwjcyber

Disclaimer...there's no substitute for an alignment machine.

With that said there are two things you can do for a "home alignment."

1. Use a digital level, like Craftsman, for camber adjustment that's accurate within 0.1°. May not be long enough on it's own, so attach to board or metal strip if needed. (It has mounting holes on bottom.)
   
   1. http://www.sears.com/craftsman-digit...p-00948295000P
2. Start with a good alignment. Place sheet of wood or other material against face of wheel and tape floor along it's bottom edge. Use this marking for each wheel's toe adjustment.

Of course these steps don't account "steer ahead" and "caster", but they will get you an alignment close to what you had before. Once you've found the ride height and camber you like, I recommend you take it in for a final professional alignment.

couldnt disagree more. the best alignment shop i know of doesnt use a machine and it seems that well over 75% of the people i see at the track use them too. we cant all be missing something

[stugray]

I use 4 jackstands (I have a 914 so 4 jackstands is a requirement) to hold straight lines (fishing line or welding wire) down each side of the car about ~4 inches out from the outside wheel surface.
This will usually take ~5 minutes to get them all the same distance from the car. (to within ~1/16 inch of each other)

I use these lines to measure Toe.
This requires some basic math & geometry to determine front & rear toe (and to get the steering rack centered).

And I use the craftsman digital level as mentioned above to get the camber.
This also requires a little math as, chances are, the car is not sitting level to start with.

[DrDuquette]

Originally Posted by bfrank1972

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...ight=alignment

Wow. That is involved. Thanks. Maybe I should restate myself on the question.

An alignment tool just to get us buy for a few week UNTIL WE DO PROFESSIONAL ALIGNMENT.

Thanks again. So cool that use made the places for you car to sit so that it can slide around and settle the suspension. Way cool!!


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[DrDuquette]

Originally Posted by fatoni

couldnt disagree more. the best alignment shop i know of doesnt use a machine and it seems that well over 75% of the people i see at the track use them too. we cant all be missing something

Interesting. But I think he just said that to make sure no one uses that level as the only way to align.
Thanks


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[utekineir]

Toe is pretty easy to do a half assed check at home with straight edge items and tape measure

There's videos on YouTube

And as others have said a digital level works.


The jack stand string method has long been an accepted/preferred diy

[bfrank1972]

Originally Posted by DrDuquette

Wow. That is involved. Thanks. Maybe I should restate myself on the question.

An alignment tool just to get us buy for a few week UNTIL WE DO PROFESSIONAL ALIGNMENT.

Thanks again. So cool that use made the places for you car to sit so that it can slide around and settle the suspension. Way cool!!


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LOL sorry, kinda glazed over on the quick and easy part of your question. I figured you might be a tinkerer looking for a fun learning experience - why the wait for a professional alignment - just set an appointment and do your suspension a day or two before?

[DrDuquette]

I figured I might not be happy the first few adjustments. May need a few days to drive around and didn't want to burn up tires with toe issues.


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[sshole]

My local Honda dealership has a Hunter laser alignment checker. Just checked it out today - you drive your car into the service bay, they clamp on a target to each wheel, then slowly roll the car forward, and then they give you a printout of the alignment.

I also learned today that I need to get my alignment done.

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by DrDuquette

I figured I might not be happy the first few adjustments. May need a few days to drive around and didn't want to burn up tires with toe issues.


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Unless you're dropping it a lot the rear toe should be fine, and the front toe should be fine at almost any drop.

If you have adjustable rear LCA's and you adjust them to remove some camber you'll end up with more toe than you want, but if you're not adjusting camber at home then your toe should be close enough that you're not burning off tires in a week or two.

[DrDuquette]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Unless you're dropping it a lot the rear toe should be fine, and the front toe should be fine at almost any drop.

If you have adjustable rear LCA's and you adjust them to remove some camber you'll end up with more toe than you want, but if you're not adjusting camber at home then your toe should be close enough that you're not burning off tires in a week or two.

I will be adding LCAs. Will only be aiming for about 1-1.5 drop. Figured I'll need toe adjustment.


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