please help with DIY Alignment

cvcsmkr

cvcsmkr

Donating Member
i had an alignment done by a shop, they supposedly did it by the enhancend specs.
i found one of the upper control arm nuts completely loose, and after some more hassle.
i am going to do the alignment myself.
i bought a caster camber gauge from summit.
left front wheel slightly neg camber and 4* of caster
right front wheel slightly neg camber 7* of caster (the tech did this cause of pulling to one side)

setting up the toe is confusing me.
i put a 2x6 tight against each front wheel and measured about 4" from ground.
this was for toe in(towards front of car) i got 70 3/4
i marked tire where measurement was taken,
rolled truck back a few feet till the mark was 4" off floor.
and then measured(towards rear of car) i got 71 1/2

so this tells me that my truck has toe in of 3/4".
from what i understand thats way too much.

what i dont understand is how do i know if my front wheels
look like this |----\ or like this /-----|
i could still have toe in, right?
they only way i could think of getting the wheels to be straight, would to measure some kind of reference to the tie rods??? will that work?


also right now the truck doesnt pull much to one side or the other.
the front end was completely re-done as the steering, including i added on a steering stabilizer.
 
Last edited:
Luke

Luke

Fish sticks SUCK !!!
Re: please help with DIY Alignment

take it back and tell them to re-align it for free, 3 degrees of cross caster is waaaay too much, 1degree max to comp for road crown, align shouldnt be more than 40-50$, and trell them to use factory specs, itll drive way better than having 5-6 deg of caster :2cents:
 
dgoodhue

dgoodhue

BuSTeD 4.3
Re: please help with DIY Alignment

cvcsmkr said:
setting up the toe is confusing me.
i put a 2x6 tight against each front wheel and measured about 4" from ground.
this was for toe in(towards front of car) i got 70 3/4
i marked tire where measurement was taken,
rolled truck back a few feet till the mark was 4" off floor.
and then measured(towards rear of car) i got 71 1/2

so this tells me that my truck has toe in of 3/4".
from what i understand thats way too much.
Click to expand...

I measured Toe from the front of the tire (I used a straight section the tread) to teh Rear of the tire. I did mine about 1/4 up the tire so I doubled the difference. As for caster, I would try to get them closers, but otherwise I am running 0 degree of cambers, ~4.5 degree of caster and 1/4" of toe on my truck.
 
G

gmcturbo

Active member
Re: please help with DIY Alignment

actually its the axis between the upper and lower balljoint. it will cause a sla type suspension to pull
 
dgoodhue

dgoodhue

BuSTeD 4.3
Re: please help with DIY Alignment

I never really thought about it, but that makes sense on what going on. I don't know that additonal caster helps with larger wheels and wandering.
 
TYTILIDIE

TYTILIDIE

METH HEAD
Re: please help with DIY Alignment

SOLOPERFORMANCE.com. George Blake sent me a link yesturday and they sell DIY alignment kits. $210. I know im gettign one as soon as I get a couple extra bucks after this friggin snow melts here. But FWIW, I never take my truck to get alignments done unless I do a lot of front end work. Even then It seem s I have to go abck and do itmyself. Which entails going to a big prk lot and holding the wheel straight and stopping with the ebrake then getting out and seeing how the tires are relating then making adjustments. Best alignment Ive ever had that way.
 
turbodig

turbodig

Active member
Re: please help with DIY Alignment

Another thing I wondered...

If you took one of the dunlop-style wheel adapters, and mounted a couple laser levels on
them on a plate, you could have a fairly cheap laser toe setup...
 
George Blake

George Blake

DONATING MEMBER
Re: please help with DIY Alignment

That first kit is the same kit I sent to Tytilidi in that link.

If Jeff Scott gets a few minutes, hopefully he will chime in, as this is how he aligns trucks he's done the control arms in.:tup:
I'm getting one of these for myself.
 
turbodig

turbodig

Active member
Re: please help with DIY Alignment

George Blake said:
That first kit is the same kit I sent to Tytilidi in that link.

If Jeff Scott gets a few minutes, hopefully he will chime in, as this is how he aligns trucks he's done the control arms in.:tup:
I'm getting one of these for myself.
Click to expand...

I thought this was interesting, too, for the DIY approach.
Could combine the magnetic caster/camber gauge with it.

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/05/how_to_make_a_hands_free_cambe.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/ESX0AJ5N6HEP287DYZ/
 
turbodig

turbodig

Active member
Re: please help with DIY Alignment

George Blake said:
That first kit is the same kit I sent to Tytilidi in that link.
Click to expand...

Only thing I notice, I don't find that kit on their new site... maybe they stopped carrying it?

I actually like the idea of the digital gauge, takes the bubble/perspective thing out of the loop.
 
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