mrfred

iTrader: (50)

Anyone have any experience and recommendations for DIY wheel alignment kits?

WRC-LVR

iTrader: (1)

A lot of the SCCA guys use the Smart Strings kit.

Longacre sells camber gauges and they are very good. I would recommend getting one.

I use string, leveled garage, laser level ( with X ) and some reflection plates made of plastic. Toe plates made of clear 1/4in acrylic sheet with tire bulge cutout at the bottom. I use kitchen tiles to allow the tires to move to set the toe.

Search on Youtube for the how to level the garage to do home alignments. it uses tubing, water , yardstick and buckets. part 2 of the video shows how to use kitchen tiles with salt between them to allow the tires to rotate/move

Does it work? Yes just not as accurate as laser alignments from good shops but I certainly dont have inside/outside tire wear and car handles well with no pulling or crabbing.

If all you want to do is set the toe, you can do that with string across the axle center line from front to rear. It is best to use a level garage area or follow the Youtube video. Make sure where the string goes across the tires there is no raised letters to give an inaccurate reading. Make sure the steering is centered first. String should touch at all four points across the two tires to get zero toe . Note which way the tire has to move. Adjust front or rear toe to fix on one side, then go to the other side and re-do without moving the steering. Check back on the original side to ensure that they are still all four touching there as well. Adjust if necessary. Takes awhile but it works quite well.

Sometimes the rear suspension doesnt move well when you adjust so you might have to use a 2x4 or bar thru the wheel to move it gently. Oh and you need to loosen the rear adjusters up enough to move the arm but not enough to slip easily, clearly :-)

Raptord

iTrader: (10)

I use two straight edges across the front tires and measure the distance in front of and behind the tires to check toe.

barneyb

Make a trammel bar out of junk lumber for front toe. Accurate and the cost is nothing.

Construct

iTrader: (4)

I use a laser level along with some 12" x 12" stone garden tiles and some 12" x 12" x 1/8" commercial flooring tiles to level up the garage. For camber, I use a 2" x 1" piece of very straight clear select pine along with a digital angle gauge.

I put jackstands at the four corners of the car and spend probably way too much time insuring they're square and spaced properly from the hub centers. I plan to build a trammel bar setup next time I do an alignment. I use the strings for the first pass of toe setting to ensure toe is set properly relative to the centerline of the car. I then use the Longacre toe plates to fine-tune the toe-in as much as possible.

As the final step, I decide that it's all way too much work and next time I'm just going to pay someone to do it.

mrfred

iTrader: (50)

That was my initial action, but after three trips to the same alignment shop in about three months, its still pulling slightly to the left, and on the most recent trip, all the camber angles were shifted by about 0.4 deg compared to the previous visit despite no changes to the suspension. I've had similar experiences at other shops, so I've come to the conclusion that even with best efforts by the technicians, alignment is only as good as the quality and level of calibration of the equipment. I'm feeling like I need to take things into my own hands to make it right.

heel2toe

iTrader: (41)

Other than the string method does anyone have experience with either of these camber gauges?

http://www.longacreracing.com/catalo...d=1580&catid=5

http://www.longacreracing.com/catalo...d=1219&catid=5

If so, what have you found worked well? Is the 3 prong design necessary or can you get away with the magnetic type?

Also, when using a set of toe plates, I can visualize the process in my head however what is the process for determining individual toe? Unless it's not clicking in my head (which happens sometimes) is it possible to determine the toe of each wheel? Do you need to find the center line?

I could see dialing in/out toe to be a little tedious being that you are measuring down to the 32nd of an inch.

Construct

iTrader: (4)

I completely agree. I begrudgingly end up doing it myself each time anyway. Also, minor tweaks to the front or the rear actually aren't too bad to DIY, but paying an alignment shop for every tiny change would be too expensive to even consider.

It's really not that bad to do in your garage. Just remember to mark floor with the location and number of your leveling plates so you only have to level the floor once.

I had a similar slight pulling-to-the-left issue with my last set of tires. I checked and re-checked my alignment and never could find anything out of spec. Finally I changed my tires and the problem disappeared. As far as I can tell, it was due to uneven wear on one of my very worn front tires after too many clockwise AutoXs.

Construct

iTrader: (4)

Ideally you would find the center line of the car and use that as a reference, but it is possible to set up parallel strings on either side of the car and work with those. I start by setting up a string on either side of the car using jackstands with heavy weights on the base. I then square the strings up with the sides of the car in the following process:

1. Measure distance between the strings in front of the car and again behind the car. Move them in & out until they're parallel with each other.
2. Measure the distance from each string to the inside of the center of the front wheel hub. Remove your wheel center caps (if applicable) and use a narrow, deep ruler to make sure you hit the lowest point inside the hub. Adjust the strings in & out as necessary until the distance from hub to string is the same on each side of the car.
3. Repeat the above step for the rear wheels. Note that the distance from the hub to the string will be different than up front due to the different track width front to rear.
4. Start again from step 1 because your strings probably aren't parallel with each other after the tweaking you did in steps 2 & 3. Repeat all steps until the strings are parallel to each other and equidistant from the hub center on each side front & rear.

This isn't 100% perfect, as adjustments to the rear multilink suspension can actually move one wheel in or out slightly relative to the centerline of the car. However, if you use this as a reference you will end up with all four wheels aligned relative to each other, which is good enough.

After this process, I switch to the toe plates for fine tuning. It's easier to measure the toe accurately with this method, so it's perfect for fine tuning. You are correct that the toe plate method alone won't properly set the toe relative to the vehicle centerline, which is why I always use the string method for coarse adjustments.

heel2toe

iTrader: (41)

^Ah ok brilliant that makes perfect sense, thanks. So essentially once you have the strings parallel to each other and equidistant to each side of the car the differences from the front and rear of the tire will illuminate whether its currently toed in or out.

Now what about calculating camber? Does anyone have experience with the two tools I linked above? Can anyone comment on ease of use, accuracy and anything else that you think may be applicable?

I've got a great guy who does my alignments to my specs as I sit in the car and it always comes out perfect. My only gripe is that each alignment is $100 bucks a pop so it adds up quickly. If I could align my car myself it would certainly save money in the long run. I will not however compromise quality and I am not sure how these DIY methods stack up to a laser aligned vehicle.

nollij

iTrader: (21)

My Longacre 3 prong doesn't stick in the wheel very well. I have to hold it typically. Not sure if I am just not doing it right. No matter how hard I try to jam it on there, it just pops off at the slightest inclination.

heel2toe

iTrader: (41)

^Interesting. Does your wheels have some sort of unique lip? Aside from it not holding itself on there sturdy, can you comment on ease of use and accuracy?

barneyb

When doing front toe if you start with the steering wheel straight and after adjustment the steering wheel is still straight the wheels are straight with the car.

As for camber, with the car level (garage floor survey) something as simple as a short carpenter's level will do. Sprinkle sand on the floor and stand the level on end next to the wheel. The sand is so you can adjust the level until vertical. Use a machinist's scale to measure over to the rim at top and bottom and find the difference. Now you have a trig problem. Use a spreadsheet function to arrive at the angle.

mithrandir7533

iTrader: (1)

I went with Firestone Lifetime Alignment plan for $175 and have gotten my money's worth. I have it checked every time I go to the track.

Best thing to do is get friendly with the guys that do it and just join them when they do the work. Alignment is tricky no matter what. I've seen the numbers change while they were tightening the bolts.

03whitegsr

iTrader: (8)

Anybody made something similar to the smart strings setup but just made it vechicle specific?

I just like that you can put it on then move and bounce the car and it's still setup. Seems like it would be fairly straight forward to build something like that out of 1" square aluminum tubing and a little welding.