Norm Peterson

No joke. Been doing all of my own alignments using various cheapie equipment for, oh, a little over 25 years at this point. I get nice, even tire wear, straight tracking, better than stock cornering, and I haven't been making the tire companies rich in the meantime. What's not to like?

You need to stop kidding yourself that you have to first be trained as an alignment tech and then have access to the expensive equipment in order to do this job with any success. It's not beyond the abilities of any reasonably intelligent, mechanically-minded individual. Feel free to look for evidence that I might not make the cut here.

Don't bet on it. With a scale that reads to 1/64", you're looking at 0.07° resolution. I was using the 0.01" scale on the other side . . .


My dial indicator device is repeatable to under 0.05°, under 0.02° on a good day. Yeah, I built it myself.


And the latest . . . I'll tell you that the angle is steel and let you figure out why.




Let me toss out a little something to keep in mind. A 1/64" shim is worth about 0.10°, maybe 0.12°, and that's the best resolution you can even adjust to on shim-set designs no matter how accurately you can measure the angle. IOW, if you're down to ±0.1° or less with your measurements, you're down to acceptable adjustment tolerance.

Yes, I know that errors can creep in if your setup is off, and I'll admit that if you aren't paying attention it's easier for these to creep into a DIY method. By the same token, you have to admit that not all alignment techs get their heads/targets spot-on every single time, inspect for wheel damage, or set tire pressures. Heads and targets get bumped or dropped. I've also worked at a dealership in a position with normal access to the shop, so you can't put that one past me.


I'm not going to get into this any deeper with you, other than to suggest that if I came into your shop and asked you to set my car to specific settings I don't have a comfortable feeling at all that you'd do it. You'd set yours, or whatever is in the machine's database, tell me you set mine, and send me on my merry way just like the guy 35 years ago did. That's one of the reasons I started DIY'ing this in the first place - the tech who thinks that just because some customers are clueless morons about automotive work and then assumes that they all must be (has Mitch Schneider written a column on this yet? I don't remember and can't be bothered to look). Or that no customer could ever know anything about stuff like this. Another is that if I want to change it for any reason, I just set up and do it.

I used to autocross a car that I maintained two sets of specs for. You can't bring your machine to the lot, can you? (didn't think so)

You call me a cheap bastard - I prefer to look at it as being independent, knowing that I really can do this stuff. Even if I get to an age where I do get it done professionally, I'll always have the satisfaction of knowing that I could have done the job. Ummm, no, I don't begrudge the couple hundred $ I've got tied up in all the stuff in the pictures combined at all.


Norm

Chopper

GOOD GOD, SPEND THE MONEY AND GET AN ALIGNMENT.

You can benefit from CC plates also.MM are the ones I have.

Stoenr

Lol, nice Norm. And you are totally right about the

"to suggest that if I came into your shop and asked you to set my car to specific settings I don't have a comfortable feeling at all that you'd do it. You'd set yours, or whatever is in the machine's database, tell me you set mine, and send me on my merry way just like the guy 35 years ago did."

Just gotta ask for a before/after printout.

It helps working in a shop with the latest equipment. But its only as good as the guy doing it, and the maintenance on the equipment. Although anytime a head has been bumped good, we get someone out to calibrate it. We do too many high end, and body shop alignments to have comebacks.

wicked stang

I agree with Norm. I took my car to ford for an alignment after I installed my whole suspension and I took them a spec sheet on what to set everything to which I got from another forum member and after I got it back, I had all kinds of clunks and bad sounds. They also charged me $130 because they said they coudn't get it to my specs and it took them along time. There actually is alot online about how to do your own alignment.

BTW Norm, could you post or pm me the details of how you made your device if its not to big of a problem.

Norm Peterson

Which one?

The one that uses the HF angle finder is nothing more than that $40 HF part screwed to a length of steel angle. If I was going to do it again, I'd tap-drill and thread the holes in the angle so I wouldn't need the nuts (sometimes they foul the wheel spokes and I have to move the gauge off the axle centerline a little). The screw at the HF hinge end has to be a flathead and the hole you drill in the HF tool there has to be countersunk, else the tool won't fully "close" and you won't be able to measure small cambers.

The dial indicator one is a lot "fussier" to build.



Stoenr - when I worked at the dealership I was amazed to overhear how poor the printer reliability supposedly was - and how fast it had apparently run through the last package of paper shortly afterward


Norm

07CS

Thanks for the input everyone. Do you think that I should get it aligned now, or wait till I put my other wheels I use for nice weather to get the car aligned?

07 GT E UPP

Yes....NOOOOOOOOOOW..!! lol

Norm Peterson

I'd definitely get it checked and adjusted ASAP, and suggest that you find a place that has some experience with lowered cars.

I think the factory range for camber on these cars goes all the way to -1.25° with -0.75° being preferred. If you're slightly beyond that, say -1.5°, I'd be more concerned that the toe was pushed out than the fact that camber is too negative for most driving.

As far as that goes, how hard do you typically take corners? Be honest. The harder you normally corner the more negative you should probably be setting camber (and by that I don't mean a quickie-lowered-Honda-Civic kind of crazy amount). If most of your driving is Interstate cruising, less negative.


Stoenr - I apologize for being a little harsh in my previous post. I didn't mean to imply that that sort of thing was as common as I might have made it sound, or how much of it might have been "shop banter". But made-up excuses and other end-runs do happen (I've been handed a few over the years in various things both automotive and other). Again, offense not intended.


Norm

Stoenr

Didnt take it that way at all, gave me a good laugh, it is true. we have ink problems here, lol.

Simon1

The FRPP springs are the same as Eibach Pro springs. Whoever told you you did not need an alignment does not know what the hell they are talking about. A quality alignement should only cost $40.