DIY Alignment

[darreng505]

Anyone do their own alignment?
How?

Are there any good guides for adjusting camber plates? Its my first time trying.

Thanks for any tips

 

[wheelhopper]

Darren, I have been doing most of my alignments the past couple of years. It wasn't hard, just took a little time and patience to learn and do. I did a lot of internet research and book reading to figure it out. Wish I could point you in one direction for the answers.

You'll need to get yourself some toe plates and some camber gauges. OG racing has both of them. You'll also need a couple tape measures and a nice level place to do the alignment.

 

[MFE]

Easy peasy. And along the way you can take note of the strut's distance from the fender edge and translate that into degrees of camber, and then study and record and how much toe adjustment you have to make to compensate for the changes in camber. It really is quick and easy once you get the hang of it.

I write this before smartphones with anglefinder apps, or even decent cheap mechanical anglefinders. But you'll get the drift:

http://forums.corral.net/forums/handling/931155-how-do-your-own-alignments-low-cost-effective.html

 

[darreng505]

Thanks boys. Will give it a shot.

For the camber plate adjustment do i just loosen the nuts on the strut top mount and move the strut. Tighten and remeasure? Repeat?

 

[MFE]

Yes, but to do it right, you need the car at ride height, which can make the plates tricky to move. As for toe plates, pieces of newspaper between two floor tiles works great, but I prefer to just drive the car around the block, park it, and re-measure

 

[darreng505]

How do you move the camber plates then? With a screwdriver/pry bar?

I was surprised youtube has nothing on this matter, but I'll keep looking.

 

[MFE]

Before I measured and recorded everything, yes, I loosened the nuts only enough to allow movement, and used a prybar against the STB. But now that I know exactly how much plate movement = how much camber change, and have it written on gorilla tape next to the plate, I just jack the wheel off the ground, loosen the plate, and move the strut to whichever setting I want using finger pressure alone, then tighten the plate down.

 

[darreng505]

So is the rule of thumb when i move the plate inward it adds negative camber? I read somewhere the suspension shouldnt be loaded....

 

[MFE]

Yes, inward is negative camber, back is positive caster. You should not take your readings with the suspension unloaded. The camber changes as the suspension compresses and extends, so your reading unloaded will be very different than the loaded one.

 

[darreng505]

Yes, inward is negative camber, back is positive caster. You should not take your readings with the suspension unloaded. The camber changes as the suspension compresses and extends, so your reading unloaded will be very different than the loaded one.

Yep. I should have clarified that what i read was that the suspension should be unloaded when adjusting only.