Doing your own alignment?

[haygood@aemail4u.com (Haygood)]

I do my own.  Toe is really easy.  Among the suggestions I've found most useful is to run a string from the back wheel to the past the front wheels, making sure it is spaced out from each wheel equally.  This should give you a nice parallel line from which to measure (assuming your front and rear track are equal).  The biggest error I have had with toe is that the steering wheel might end up at a slight angle, so you often have to fiddle a bit afterwards to get it perfectly straight (have had same problem with $49.95 jobs as well though).

Harborfreight sells the world's crappiest camber gage for $9.99 or so.  It seems to work.  Magnetic base and good-enough resolution.  Goofy thing about it is that the angle between the base and the gage is adjustable, so you have to make sure it is zero'd and not bumped.  Still, not at all bad for the price.  You can also get carpenter's angle gages (big round dial with a needle that points straight up to show the angle), but they might be harder to get an accurate reading on.  On the up-side, they might be usefull for other tasks as well (if you are the carpenter type).  If you get one of those, spring for a larger one to increase accuracy.  

For a real camber-caster gage, check out www.rebcoracing.com   $111, and not that usefull to you since you prolly won't be measuring kingpin inclination and caster.

BH

--- "Rhett Farnum" <rocco_crossing@hotmail.com> wrote:
>I'm 20 and just did my first toe adjustment in early march. Piece of cake 
>and I can tell the difference (+1/16"). I neve checker the camber but I know 
>my buddy does have the tool.
>
>
>Peace Out,
>Rhett
>Rocco_crossing
>'83 Rocco (autocross ready, tune up, harness bar, rear wheel bearings, and 
>finally I may get to makeing it look better!!)
>
>
>
>
>
>>From: "Joe Doty" <Joe.Doty@lcnetwork.com>
>>To: "scirocco list" <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
>>Subject: Doing your own alignment?
>>Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 12:55:50 -0700
>>
>>Does anyone do trust their own front end alignment skills?  I'm not all
>>about fronting $49.95 for the local wheel and tire place to put my car
>>on the rack and spend 20 minutes aligning it.  I feel pretty confident
>>with at least the toe using a tape measure, but I've never set camber
>>before.  Anyone ever used a camber gauge?
>>Suggestions/thoughts/comments?
>>
>>Joe Doty
>>IT/Development
>>joe@lcnetwork.com
>>
>>
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