Setting Up Alignment for Daily Use

[Alltezza]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

I'd be surprised if they give you exactly what you want, a good shop will hit every number you request precisely, but it looks like they'll give you an alignment that's 'good enough' for a decent price, and they seem competent, it's just that for what you paid them they're not going to spend a half hour tinkering to get exactly what you ask for.

If you want it perfect, you'll have to go to a shop dedicated to performance cars and spend probably around $200, if not more. But it should be good for quite awhile.

Come on man lol youre making me sad af, I just spent 200 on it for their life time alignment plan........I'll fix the front and then see if they can get it taken care of.

is a -1 Rear good or bad? That's basially where I'm sitting at right now lol

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Alltezza

Come on man lol youre making me sad af, I just spent 200 on it for their life time alignment plan........I'll fix the front and then see if they can get it taken care of.

is a -1 Rear good or bad? That's basially where I'm sitting at right now lol

Maybe I'm wrong and he was wise to not get it dialed in just right knowing you'd be back. But if it was a quality shop they would have nailed the rear end knowing it wouldn't need to be changed when you came back next time. The camber and toe variance left/right on the rear leads me to believe they won't put in a serious effort next time you visit, but hey I could be wrong.

-1 Rear camber is a good streetable number imo, which is the topic of this thread. OE tends to land between -1 and -1.5 from the factory, pick a number that feels good in that range, more negative for more aggressive driving, less negative to get a touch more life out of the tires (and we're talking like a couple hundred miles here tops).

Be explicit about what you want otherwise you may not get it. I don't know what you want, but asking to match left and right sides is a reasonable request with regards to camber and toe given the parts you've put on the car, there's no reason they should deny you.

Edit: It should be clear that I'm talking about nailing it, perfectly equal numbers left to right (at most 0.02 different), less than 1/10 away from what you requested if not spot on. What they've provided you is totally acceptable for a DD and occasional fun car.

[jamal]

-1.5 in the rear, -2 up front is a good starting point that will keep your tires in good shape shape improve how the car handles.

Go out and find a fun road and take a few trips down it before you bring it back in. Then go do it again, you should be able to notice a difference.

[Alltezza]

Yeah I'm gonna go back when I get time to go back and rotate the Front Left Coil.

I'm starting to think he does say "MAXED OUT" is that he's probably thinking that's the lowest "Positive" camber he can get it to, in terms of getting it close to zero.

I'm confused though....I gave them these instructions.

-2 Front camber
-1.6 Rear camber
0 Toe front
1/16 total toe-in rear.

But I'm looking at the paper it came out in this format.

"-2 Front camber -1.6 Rear camber 0 Toe front 1/16 total toe-in rear."

Maybe it's just a misunderstanding, but either way the car drives fine, and I don't have to hold my steering wheel in a "turning" position to drive straight anymore lmao.

Thanks guys, I'll be back with an update. You guys are awesome lol

[Ry.ruzn]

Originally Posted by Alltezza

I thought I'd come in, now. When I first turned on my car and started driving it.....damn was the car wobbly af. Also My steering wheel had to be turned slightly to the left to drive straight, and then my ABS and TC light came on lol I was freaking out but I figured it was because I most likely needed and alignment.

Anyways I finally got my alignment done....kinda LOL turns out I'm a dumbass and installed one of my coils wrong.....

The tech came out and wanted to talk to me and was like "Yeah I can't adjust your camber, one of the camber plate is wrong."

Basically my right coil is PERFECT but then my left is......yeah.





Well you live and you learn, to everyone installing coils for the first time....it should look exactly like the first picture above. Make sure you check the weather that it doesn't randomly rain and get cold.....damn it TN weather LOL.

Well this is awkward, both my coils are wrong then. I had mine installed by a incompetent shop in PA. Both left and right look like the bottom pic 😑, I still got a good alignment the way it is at AZP though. Do you know if anything negative comes of having the coils on this way or is it as simple as lifting the vehicle holding the suspension up from(where?) and rotating the plates to the correct position?

[jamal]

Putting them at an angle can be a good thing. On a street car, you're not going to be using all of the adjustment anyway. So putting the top of the strut in and farther back gets some extra caster but not as much negative camber. It needs to be like this though:

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Ry.ruzn

Do you know if anything negative comes of having the coils on this way or is it as simple as lifting the vehicle holding the suspension up from(where?) and rotating the plates to the correct position?

If the alignment is where you want it, then there's no problem leaving it as is.

Rotating the top hats will mean your camber, toe, and caster are likely to change. I'd bet it would still be drivable but it would be out of whack, potentially causing the car to pull or wear tires unevenly, strange handling quirks, etc. You'd want to have it aligned after you do them, I'm surprised the alignment person didn't comment on it...

Like Jamal said, it can be advantageous on some setups to get some additional caster, but I wouldn't say the 86 is a car where it's worth it.

[Ry.ruzn]

Originally Posted by jamal

Putting them at an angle can be a good thing. On a street car, you're not going to be using all of the adjustment anyway. So putting the top of the strut in and farther back gets some extra caster but not as much negative camber. It needs to be like this though:

Originally Posted by strat61caster

If the alignment is where you want it, then there's no problem leaving it as is.

Rotating the top hats will mean your camber, toe, and caster are likely to change. I'd bet it would still be drivable but it would be out of whack, potentially causing the car to pull or wear tires unevenly, strange handling quirks, etc. You'd want to have it aligned after you do them, I'm surprised the alignment person didn't comment on it...

Like Jamal said, it can be advantageous on some setups to get some additional caster, but I wouldn't say the 86 is a car where it's worth it.

This is mine. Guess I'll be alright then without the added benefit of extra caster. Ill get it redone the correct way when I go to AZP once I put my summers back on.







Thanks Guys.

[finch1750]

Originally Posted by Alltezza

Come on man lol youre making me sad af, I just spent 200 on it for their life time alignment plan........I'll fix the front and then see if they can get it taken care of.

is a -1 Rear good or bad? That's basially where I'm sitting at right now lol

I use Firestone to ballpark stuff in between getting real alignments. Sometimes the hit my numbers and Im good. Other times not so much. But For the amount of times Ive changed suspension and dont have a good alignment place close by its worth it for me so i dont destroy my tires waiting to get a real alignement

[FaDuck]

So after reading all the excellent info given in this thread, I have 1 question.

Does all the info given apply to staggered setups as well? As far as camber and toe go.

[cjd]

Originally Posted by FaDuck

So after reading all the excellent info given in this thread, I have 1 question.

Does all the info given apply to staggered setups as well? As far as camber and toe go.

Staggered just screw's things up... But it should not need a different approach. Alignment is about optimizing contact patch, wider tires doesn't materially change the dynamics.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by FaDuck

Does all the info given apply to staggered setups as well? As far as camber and toe go.

Relatively speaking yes since this is DD oriented.

[Alltezza]

Alright it finally stopped raining....after it was pouring all day.

I'm not sure what you guys will say to me or think this is dumb as hell but this probably took 10 minutes MAX. I literally just unbolted those 3 damn bolts at the top hat and lifted the car up with and pressed down on the wheel/tire to where I can get the coilover down and basically rotated it. I had to lift the car up a few more times though. I'm not taking that entire thing apart again just to rotate it.....this honestly made the most sense.

Not sure if it will damage the coilover or not but I don't think it will.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Alltezza

I literally just unbolted those 3 damn bolts at the top hat and lifted the car up with and pressed down on the wheel/tire to where I can get the coilover down and basically rotated it.

Yup. That's all there is to it.