Quote:
Originally Posted by mstg007
I did not know if it was possible to do an alignment at home rather than taking it to a shop? I have a 65, and I was curious. Also, what basically consits of doing an alignment?
Thanks for the input!
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The process consists of two basic parts. Measuring, and adjusting. Measure to see what you have, adjust to where you think it all needs to be moved to, remeasure everything. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
Adjusting is basic wrenching once you know what to move in order to accomplish the desired adjustment.
Measuring is usually the tougher task for the DIY'er, and you need to have a flat area to set up on; otherwise the measurements you make won't necessarily mean what you think they do.
It isn't all that difficult to DIY your alignment once you understand what caster, camber, and toe settings are, and what sorts of error can creep into your measurements. You will need patience and a willingness to re-check your measurements. Caster is something that you usually have to calculate from two camber measurements - the math isn't tough at all, but the caster determination isn't exactly obvious either. $40 will buy you a Harbor Freight angle finder with 0.1° resolution which is adequate for most purposes here.
If you know ahead of time what you want to set the various alignment parameters to, you won't have to drive it around to see if it's satisfactory. I can tell you that with radial tires you'll likely want camber that's somewhere between less positive than OE spec and slightly negative, and possibly less toe-in as well. Any closer than that needs some knowledge about how the car will be driven (in particular how hard will it be taking corners), more about the car itself and perhaps the specific drivers (i.e. power vs manual steering as it applies to driver upper body strengths), what the roads around where you live look like (how much crown).
I've been DIY'ing my own alignments for . . . crap, getting close to 40 years now. I seem to have done OK by my own work, my cars have all tracked straight, handled pretty much the way I wanted them to, and I haven't had to buy tires all that often, so it's entirely do-able. It's nice not having to argue with anybody when you want to try some non-standard settings.
Norm