The page did a live special about home alignments maybe a few weeks ago if I remember right. Does anyone know if they turned it into an article or a video. Made blocks out of would as a "rack " to get the car level and higher of the ground.
The page did a live special about home alignments maybe a few weeks ago if I remember right. Does anyone know if they turned it into an article or a video. Made blocks out of would as a "rack " to get the car level and higher of the ground.
In reply to 79rex :
The easiest way is to buy some Longacre toe plates and a camber gage. You don't need to do all the shenanigans the magazine did.
awesome thanks, I somehow skipped over it when I searched the page the 1st time
smokindav said:In reply to 79rex :
The easiest way is to cut two appropriately-sized pieces of straight wood and cut slots on each side of each board at the exact same place, and have two tape measures.... and a camber gage. You don't need to do all the shenanigans the magazine did.
Fixed for a bit more GRM-ness....
I was mostly intrested in what worked best for a cheap turnplate solution. Ill ne using some toeplates that I lasered at work for setting toe.
In reply to 79rex :
Well if you want to be grassroots you use a stack of newspapers. When the weight of the car presses down on the paper the ink acts as a lubricant and voila fancy alignment plates.
As someone who does their own alignments and really geeks out about getting it totally perfect, this thread hurts me. I can accurately dial in toe down to 0.05* without lasers.
Toe plates are a poor substitute for a real alignment since they only take into account one axle. It would be extremely easy to setup your car with a thrust angle and you'd never even know. Toe plates might be fine for a quick checkup to see if anything has moved but I wouldn't use them for anything beyond that.
I didn't watch the entire GRM video but the segments I did watch seemed to be very well thought out. Much better and more detail oriented than most of the DIY guides I've seen elsewhere. I cannot overstress the importance of getting the box around the car totally parallel with the car centerline. One detail you should keep in mind is that (depending on how your car's adjusters are) is that making an adjustment can alter the distance to the string. For instance, If I make a large camber adjustment on the rear of my s2000, it actually produces a noticeable and measurable change in track width. You must keep an eye on this and make sure the car stays centered between the strings, even with variable track width.
In reply to 79rex :
I have a set of longacre turnplates but I honestly only use them when I have a need to check or adjust caster. 95% of the time I stick with linoleum tiles with some kind of lubricant between them.
freetors said:As someone who does their own alignments and really geeks out about getting it totally perfect, this thread hurts me. I can accurately dial in toe down to 0.05* without lasers.
Toe plates are a poor substitute for a real alignment since they only take into account one axle. It would be extremely easy to setup your car with a thrust angle and you'd never even know. Toe plates might be fine for a quick checkup to see if anything has moved but I wouldn't use them for anything beyond that.
I didn't watch the entire GRM video but the segments I did watch seemed to be very well thought out. Much better and more detail oriented than most of the DIY guides I've seen elsewhere. I cannot overstress the importance of getting the box around the car totally parallel with the car centerline. One detail you should keep in mind is that (depending on how your car's adjusters are) is that making an adjustment can alter the distance to the string. For instance, If I make a large camber adjustment on the rear of my s2000, it actually produces a noticeable and measurable change in track width. You must keep an eye on this and make sure the car stays centered between the strings, even with variable track width.
I would note, however, that rear toe and camber isn't adjustable on all cars, at least with stock hardware (e30, for example).
My $0.02
I've been doing my own recently, and recently found cheap, accurate, magnetic digital angle gauges, coupled with a rigid frame to square (ok, triangulate.. pedants.) against the wheels does 90% of my work. The gauges are stupid accurate, small, and easily readable, and many work on 2 or 3 axies so less repositioning. Compare 40 bucks with over 100 for some bubble gauges from longacre and its a no brainer.
Add toe plates, and string (or laser), and some chassis center marks and you can measure anything, and adjust what moves. Note on toe plates, for some tires, they suck, I now use a plate that centers on my rim with some bolts, as wonky tires had me chasing my tail one weekend. That said, a week later I found half my wheels had excessive runout and had them repaired. Trusting Anything to be straight and true on a used car is futility.
For turn plates, I too use a dab of grease between sheets of plastic/lineoleum/even paper in a pinch. I think it works better than "real" turn plates as their pivot point is self centering to your suspension, no guessing scrub radius centers, etc.
I highly suggest having a local friendly shop double check your work on occasion until you are confident and competent. I identified a few mistakes in my own methods. But I also won a small bet against the tech by being closer than he thought I could get. Ymmv.
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