Alignment again and again

[toomanymodz]

I'm taking my GN to have it aligned for the 4th time. It's been aligned three times already earlier this year, once done by Tuffy (and they broke my shifter detent button), and two other times by Tire Kingdom. Each time they point out the mistakes made by the previous tech, yet each time I pick up the car and drive it home it pulls to the right as always.

I can visually see positive camber in the front wheels just comparing them to the rear. Not sure if that is normal. This morning I felt the tread and there is feathering on the outside edges already, and it only has about 1100 miles on the tires. They shouldn't be feathered already.

Is there some special secret trick to aligning these cars, or are all of these shops just incompetent?

 

[charlief1]

Read the stickys once in a while.

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/suspension-and-brake-recipes.326227/

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/g-body-drag-car-alignment-settings.290592/

 

[scot w.]

I'm taking my GN to have it aligned for the 4th time. It's been aligned three times already earlier this year, once done by Tuffy (and they broke my shifter detent button), and two other times by Tire Kingdom. Each time they point out the mistakes made by the previous tech, yet each time I pick up the car and drive it home it pulls to the right as always.

I can visually see positive camber in the front wheels just comparing them to the rear. Not sure if that is normal. This morning I felt the tread and there is feathering on the outside edges already, and it only has about 1100 miles on the tires. They shouldn't be feathered already.

Is there some special secret trick to aligning these cars, or are all of these shops just incompetent?

Try these specs and let me know how it turns out. I will have this made as a sticky but here are our recommended Alignment specs for a stock Grand National / TR. These don't have to be exactly right on as many alignment shops are limited on alignments via the shims. I just sent a customer to have his car aligned using these specs and the shop could get kind of close to these numbers but he is Very pleased with how well it drives & handles now.

If you need some nice shims like what I use they can be purchased here -> http://www.gnsperformance.com/products/suspen_dse_frnt_shmkit.html

Camber: - .75 ( + or - .2 )

Caster: + 7.0 ( + or - .5 )

Toe In: 1/16 ( + or - 1/16 )


.

 

[toomanymodz]

Excellent. Thanks for the info. Let's see how it goes this time

 

[John Larkin]

I took mine to a Chrysler dealer that has alot of classic cars on display. They knew how to deal with older cars and did a great job on mine. Drives excellent.

 

[toomanymodz]

The verdict was that the toe-in was way off on one side. He said that would cause the feathering on the tread since the wheels were pointed inward too much. Caster and camber both were within factory spec. The steering box is a little loose so that might be an item to replace sometime in the future, but it's good enough for now. It just makes the steering a little sloppy. Tomorrow morning I take in the Nova to get the speedometer drive gear and driven gears swapped out. I'd normally do that myself but right now I'm just too dang lazy.

 

[scot w.]

The verdict was that the toe-in was way off on one side. He said that would cause the feathering on the tread since the wheels were pointed inward too much. Caster and camber both were within factory spec. The steering box is a little loose so that might be an item to replace sometime in the future, but it's good enough for now. It just makes the steering a little sloppy. Tomorrow morning I take in the Nova to get the speedometer drive gear and driven gears swapped out. I'd normally do that myself but right now I'm just too dang lazy.

So did the shop give you a print out of what your specs are on your car? Did they at least write them down for you?

The reason I ask is because I would like to know how close they got to the specs I gave you.. I have seen it time and time again where places use the "Factory Specs" and more times than not they come out of there all wrong..

.

 

[charlief1]

So did the shop give you a print out of what your specs are on your car? Did they at least write them down for you?

The reason I ask is because I would like to know how close they got to the specs I gave you.. I have seen it time and time again where places use the "Factory Specs" and more times than not they come out of there all wrong...

I'd bet he's got a lot of camber since the outsides of the tires are getting feathered. Toe by itself will wear a tire but if a G body's set right it will be across the tire and not on the edges.

 

[toomanymodz]

He didn't give me the specs, but I'll be going back there tomorrow with the Nova so I can ask for them. I do remember that the camber was slightly positive instead of negative. And he wasn't comfortable going 7 degrees with the caster. I think it's around 3.5 or so.

 

[charlief1]

That was one of the issues with the last RWD impalla SS's. The caster was so high that it induced some tire wear issues. I think it was around 4.5 degrees stock and the camber was .2 positive. That with the way the stock suspension was set up caused outer/inner tire wear if you drove in the city much. If all you did was highway driving it wasn't an issue.

 

[scot w.]

He didn't give me the specs, but I'll be going back there tomorrow with the Nova so I can ask for them. I do remember that the camber was slightly positive instead of negative. And he wasn't comfortable going 7 degrees with the caster. I think it's around 3.5 or so.

Your camber should be in the negative not positive even if it's a small amount. The caster is okay if they try to get as close to the 7.0 as possible and the toe in should be as close to 1/16 or 3/32 as possible.

The customer that I just sent in to get his alignment came out with the following specs. which he said Really made a difference and it rides a lot better now. Most alignment shops do not like to stray from the stock specs but the stock specs obviously were not too good...

Camber: ( - .04 )
Caster : ( +4.5 )
Toe-in : ( .08 )