I went to all of the Firestone locations around here and asked if they could align my car to my specifications. All of them said no, they could only align to the manufacturer specifications.

 

I use a smart camber gauge(but any digital level should work fine) and long acre toe plates. making sure the alignment marks are equal side to side in the rear and the length of visible threads are equal on the steering rack gives me zero thrust angle quite reliably.

 

Short bungee cords from the back of the wheel work to hold it in place as does duct tape from the wheel spokes.

 

I'll have to try counting the threads and matching the alignment marks next time. That's a great tip, and it would certainly be much faster than setting up the strings each time.

 

Wonder why I didn't think of that.

 

Take it to a shop that caters to the autox crowd or SCCA track guys. Lots of body shops have both frame jigs and full alignment racks. Before you go ask them if they will align to your specs.

 

Swap one of the front tires to the rear. If the pull goes away, then the issue is with that one tire. If not swap the other front to the rear and see if the pull goes away. If it does go away now then the second tire is the issue. If it does not go away after both being swapped, then check the front left caliper for hanging/dragging. If it rotates as freely as the right, then you have an alignment issue. Check the thrust angle first. If the rear toe is not set properly, most likely both rear tires are pointing to the right slightly. Have them set both rear sides to zero relative to the fronts.. If that doesnt fix it then make sure they check the toe on the front and that the steering is properly centered. Although most modern rack and pinion steering systems are self centering, if the rack steering arms are not adjusted to the correct length, the rack might not be centering properly. That will show up in it wanting to move one way or the other consequently steering the car to one side. In this case the rack steering arms moves slightly to the right causing the car to steer slightly to the left.

LMK

Milburn

 

Just picked up a Longacre digital caster/camber guage and the HD toe plates. I'm going to build up my own "smart strings" setup to dial in toe in the garage and then plan on using the toe plates if I want to make quick toe changes at an event.

If I could come up with a cheap corner scale setup, I'd be in business.

 

http://www.usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?t=1300

http://robrobinette.com/corner_weight.htm how to do corner weighting

check them 2 links out. You can send the $$ saved to my EVO needs a TRE diff fund ;-)

l8r

 

Years ago I was driving a '79 Pontiac TA. About every six month the tires would show abnormal wear and I would go in for another alignment. I figured that this was just the way suspensions are - always getting out of adjustment.

One day I took the afternoon off from work for an alignment shop appointment but when I arrived they were closed for a funeral. I called around but no other place could get me in that day. So, I stopped at a parts house and bought some shims - my car used shims for alignment.

I just used whatever measuring tools I had around the garage. Suddenly my car drove great, the tires didn't wear funny anymore. I didn't need to align the front end again until years later when I replaced the bushings and ball joints.

The moral of the story is that the alignment shops with their fancy machines do crummy work. Remember, most of these places sell tires.

 

About the firestone lifetime alignment... I used to work for firestone and yes they are only suppose to align it to factory specs. Doesn't count for aftermarket adjustments/ customs specs. I used to align my buddies car a couple of times before he went to the track and I hooked him up with his specs, but my manager was the only guy I knew who would let that happen. Either way a word of advice for anyone doing an alignment at a shop, watch them. if the technician can get away with minimal adjustments they will. I have also seen faking adjustments, which is easy to do.

 

Let us know how the Longacre caster/camber gauge works out. Also, I'd love to see pictures of your strings setup.

 

I feel like if I try this I will screw everything up royally.

 

DIY alignment is hard. Working on engines is hard. Doing body work is hard. The thing with DIY alignment is that most of the hard stuff has to happen inside your head. Let me give you an example:

I figured out how measure toe. Then I figured out how to measure camber. But on the car I first aligned caster was also adjustable and changing camber also changed caster. With no caster gauge - how to measure caster? Well, when the steering wheel is turned and the front wheels are cocked, camber changes. The amount camber changes when you do this tells you caster. The rest is measurements and math.

 

I had considered the bathroom scale idea, but it doesn't seem realistic on an EVO due to the weight. Also I wouldn't trust a spring scale at all so it would need digital scales. $30 a scale and 12 scales to handle the weight means $360 in scales. I've seen used Longacre scale sets go for $500. Seems worth the extra $140.

An alternative version of this is to use some A-beam lever arms. One side pivots on the ground, the other rests on a bathroom scale. The tire sits close to the pivot side so you end up with a lever arm setup. At 4:1, the lever arm setup and bathroom scale can measure about 1300 pounds per wheel with one scale per wheel. There is a guy on ebay selling lever arm setups like this. I just wonder how accurate they are as it seems like where the tire sits and camber setting could skew the results.

EDIT: Guess I should read the whole thread...ha


On that second link, he has some bad data in one boxes where he says he's gone too far. He has the left rear as 678 pounds when it should clearly be 778. The car was actually perfectly 50.0% cross weight at that point. Worth the quick read though just to see how many adjustments he had to make to even things out.