hey guys. I have seen the tool to do your own alignment either in eastwood catalog or summit. Savitske sells it to. It is roughly $150. Has anyone ever done there own with this tool?? I am tired of these assclowns that have no pride in their work, you cant trust alot of these shops!
Do you do your own alignment??
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If I had a rack I'd be doing my own but I don't right now. Maybe later when the shop gets up and operating. You need to talk to the guy doing the alignment first to see if he understands what you need from the car. Most of them now don't understand how the suspension works so they can't set it right. They just get it in the green and let it go. Sad that I've worked with some of them with this mentallity.
John Larkin
Sublime Master of Turbology
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charlief1, explain more what you mean. I will be getting an alignment soon.
TURBOTWIN2
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"Set the Toe and let it Go" mentality or "It's within specs, what the problem?"
The side to side relationship between between camber and caster can cause unwanted pulling/wear problems. If you have a specification range of 1 degree for both caster and camber, a vehicle could possibly be set with, say left camber +3/4*, right camber -1/4* and left caster +1*, right caster +2.5*, you would have a 2.5 degree pull to the left built in with possible outside tire wear on the left front tire.
It could be "in specs" but you wouldn't be happy.
I like about 1/2* pull to the left built in between camber/caster together to offset road crown from the right lane. If you're going straight down the race track, matching left/right caster and camber would be ideal.
The alignment machines nowadays, show green "in specs" and red 'out of specs". That's all the monkeys know, the color. If it's green, it must be good.
If I took your car and set it with the left at the lower end of the range and the right side at the upper end, it would be "in specs" but it wouldn't go straight down the road and could wear the tires.
I could also put the left side barely past specs but matching the right side and it would go straight with minimal tire wear.
In a nutshell, it ain't the machine, it's the man.
Charlie F knows what he's talking about and has posted about preferred track specs. Do a search on his name.
Edit, Charllie already did his own search.
The side to side relationship between between camber and caster can cause unwanted pulling/wear problems. If you have a specification range of 1 degree for both caster and camber, a vehicle could possibly be set with, say left camber +3/4*, right camber -1/4* and left caster +1*, right caster +2.5*, you would have a 2.5 degree pull to the left built in with possible outside tire wear on the left front tire.
It could be "in specs" but you wouldn't be happy.
I like about 1/2* pull to the left built in between camber/caster together to offset road crown from the right lane. If you're going straight down the race track, matching left/right caster and camber would be ideal.
The alignment machines nowadays, show green "in specs" and red 'out of specs". That's all the monkeys know, the color. If it's green, it must be good.
If I took your car and set it with the left at the lower end of the range and the right side at the upper end, it would be "in specs" but it wouldn't go straight down the road and could wear the tires.
I could also put the left side barely past specs but matching the right side and it would go straight with minimal tire wear.
In a nutshell, it ain't the machine, it's the man.
Charlie F knows what he's talking about and has posted about preferred track specs. Do a search on his name.
Edit, Charllie already did his own search.
novaderrik
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i got pretty good at aligning my Nova with nothing but jackstands, string, a tape measue, a carpenter's square, and a $3 angle finder from Wal Mart.
i did my best to set that car up to the performance specs i read online, and it drove and handled beautifullly. then a few months later, the small shop that my cousin worked at got a fancy new alignment machine and the owner (a Nova nut) wanted to see how close i got my home brewed alignment. everything was perfect, except i was about 1/2 degree off on the camber on one side.
i did my best to set that car up to the performance specs i read online, and it drove and handled beautifullly. then a few months later, the small shop that my cousin worked at got a fancy new alignment machine and the owner (a Nova nut) wanted to see how close i got my home brewed alignment. everything was perfect, except i was about 1/2 degree off on the camber on one side.
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