DIY alignments?

[nocones77-vw at yahoo.com (nocones77-vw@yahoo.com)]

Lots of good info! Thanks for sharing.

With the Auto-X Scirocco, I end up doing a lot of alignments. I'm in the
process of putting together a kick-butt garage alignment setup. The more I
research, the more I find new/easier/better ways of doing things.

One thing I'm actually planning to try this week for quick/easy/repeatable toe
alignment including 4-wheel thrust alignments:

- Go to Home Depot and buy two lengths of electrical conduit or some other long
straight tubing.

- Perform sufficient measurements around the car to find the exact centerline
of the body.

- Somehow mount the two lengths of conduit across the front and rear of the
car. Probably use a c-clamp or something. Maybe need to make some simple small
brackets or something to stand it off the curved bumper. Get creative In my
case, I intend to actually bolt it to the bumper or something so that I can
re-mount them precisely in the same spot any time I want. You could also scribe
a mark on the car and clamp it, or whatever method you like. The conduit must
be "normal" (90deg square) to the centerline of the car (measured above), and
the front and rear must be the same height off the ground at the same height as
the center of the wheels.

- Cut the ends of the conduit so that all four tips are exactly the same
distance from the centerline of the car that we measured above.

- Tie a string from tip-to-tip down the sides of the car. If you did everything
right, the strings should be parallel and square to the body of the car,
spanning an inch or two from the face of your wheels right across the center. 

- Now, you can easily measure toe at any wheel with a ruler from the string to
the wheel. Difference between measurements at the fore and aft edges of the
wheel rim are your toe. Easy.

Reproduce your parallel strings ANY TIME easily by just mounting the conduit to
the bumpers and tie on the strings.

Not only that, but the surface doesn't have to be perfectly level or anything,
as long as it is flat. You can jack the car up, make adjustments, and then
roll/bounce around to settle without upsetting your strings. They roll with the
car. No need to mark the ground.

With this, I decided to spend the $200 for the Longacre camber/caster tool,
which also gives me the ablity to do camber/caster on a non-level (as long as
it is flat) surface. I couldn't find a really good and cheap way to get
camber/caster without the requirement to level the surface. If you don't want
to spend the money, then use the laser level with floor tiles and grease method
mentioned earlier to level your floor.

If you really need to do this a lot, you can even do some extra measurements to
determine what all the camber/caster/toe settings should be at full suspension
droop, with the car on jack stands and the wheels off the car. I just came back
from New Zealand where we watched the World Rally Championship. This is almost
exactly what the Subaru WRC team did when they replaced Solberg's rear strut. A
rear strut, drive shaft replacement, and 4-wheel string alignment in about 10
minutes. That was cool! Left plenty of time to give the car a wash and make it
look pretty for the next stage... :)

Neal

--- Dan Bubb <jdbubb@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Some?????
> We're you anticipating me???
> I don't think my approach is jury rigged since none of my cars has seen a 
> "professional" alignment shop since 1986.
> A digital level or a regular level and an adjustable triangle are more than 
> accurate enough for camber if you have a level surface (or level pads) to 
> set your car on.
> As far as toe, which is far more critical to tire wear than camber, that can 
> be adjusted using parallel strings set up around the car.
> It takes time (less if you have some dedicated items) and you need to pay 
> attention for it to be accurate, but it's an approach used by many racers. 
> My tires have always had even wear across the tread using this method.
> As part of our GTG/tech day today we will be doing this alignment method on 
> Chris Bennet's car. We'll take pictures and post so y'all can see how simple 
> it is.
> I guess it's worth pointing out that if you don't have a level surface or 
> can't create one with 4 pads that are leveled, then this approach is not 
> good!
> That's just MY opinion ;^)
> Dan
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Julie Macfarlane" <juliemac57@hotmail.com>
> To: <doubt@inwave.com>; <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
> Sent: Saturday, May 21, 2005 8:02 AM
> Subject: RE: DIY alignments?
> 
> 
> > Tape and level will get you to the shop. Tires are WAY to expencive to 
> > ruin by jury rigged adjustment.
> > Thats my opinion anyway. SOME one on the list will disagree  :)
> >
> >
> >
> > Julie Macfarlane
> > "Its not just a car! Its an adventure!"
> > 1981 MKI 2L 16v w 2Y
> > Amsterdam NY
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>From: Nate Mellom <doubt@inwave.com>
> >>To: Scirocco list <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
> >>Subject: DIY alignments?
> >>Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 01:09:25 -0500
> >>
> >>All,
> >>I need to replace my steering rack, and when I installed my replacement 
> >>struts a couple years ago I did a very rudimentary alignment, such as 
> >>"Yep, that looks good!".  Turns out it wasn't good, my passenger front 
> >>tire is almost bald on the outside 'cause of too much positive camber. 
> >>When I do the rack, should I spend the bucks to get an alignment at a 
> >>shop, or can I use a level and tape measure to get it done in my driveway?
> >>Tips? Tricks? BTDTs?
> >>Nate
> >>
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> 
> 
> 
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