Driveway wheel alignment.

[chrger1967]

I finally put together the front end and put the wheels on. I tried moving the car back and forth and feel and sounds like the damn wheels are going to fall off. I put a level and it was a couple of inches off, it not more. I want to get it a little squared away, but what's the best way to give an alignment to get me to the alignment shop? I was thinking of putting it on its weight, do the string thing and try to get the wheels closer to being level. What do you guys usually do?

 

[70rrclone]

How assembled is the car? What do you mean by "on its weight" Pics will help. What is a couple inches off. Caster? Camber? Toe?

 

[WileE]

With full weight, just use a regular level on each side to get 0 camber, tape measure across the front of the tires vs. the back of the tires to get an approximate toe. That will get you to the alignment shop.

 

[Cranky]

Geez....been doing my own alignment for years. Lots of into on the net way before me doing it!

 

[chrger1967]

How assembled is the car? What do you mean by "on its weight" Pics will help. What is a couple inches off. Caster? Camber? Toe?

When I say on its weight, I just mean sitting with the wheels on. I will take some pics tomorrow. I am thinking the caster, camber and toe is way out of whack and causing the problems I'm feeling and hearing. I replaced the upper control arms and had to change the tie rod sleeves, the prior owner must have used the wrong ones. The sleeves would never tighten, but now they are good, nice and tight. I tried to keep the rotor straight as I was installing the sleeves, but who the hell knows.

 

[chrger1967]

Geez....been doing my own alignment for years. Lots of into on the net way before me doing it!

Ok, I will check it out then.

 

[Kern Dog]

You'll need to wade through a bit but I started to do my own alignments last year.

Alignment at home and aftermarket UCAS too.

If you have moderate experience with cars, you can do this and you will know that it is done the way that you want it. The start up costs to get the tools will equal the cost to get 1 to 2 alignments. In other words, after spending the money for this stuff, by the 3rd alignment you'll have the stuff paid for.

 

[RemCharger]

Read through kerns thread for sure but g e n e r a l l y speaking....
........ crank the fronts out, the rears in.. roll it too and fro, with the ride height fairly flat,, dial in the toes, according to the wheel being straight

 

[gkent]

I use two 30" 2x4's, a laser level and a ruler and a helper. Before doing the alignment you want to set your ride height then tighten the UCA pivots

1) get the steering box centered
2) center the steering wheel
3) adjust both front wheels so they look close to being straight
4) hold 2x4 level and flat across centerline of rear tire
5) turn on laser level and hold flat against the 2x4 pointing forward
6) hold 2x4 level and flat across centerline of front tire
7) with the ruler measure the laser distance at the rear of the tire then the front of the tire. Adjust until measurements are equal front and back.
8) do the same on the other side
9) tighten the adjusters

Do not be concerned if the side to side measurements are different. In fact they most likely will be

This is strictly an alignment - not caster or camber. You can eyeball camber good enough to get you to the alignment shop.

 

[chrger1967]

With full weight, just use a regular level on each side to get 0 camber, tape measure across the front of the tires vs. the back of the tires to get an approximate toe. That will get you to the alignment shop.

Ok, I will try measuring the front and back tires then.

I use two 30" 2x4's, a laser level and a ruler and a helper. Before doing the alignment you want to set your ride height then tighten the UCA pivots

1) get the steering box centered
2) center the steering wheel
3) adjust both front wheels so they look close to being straight
4) hold 2x4 level and flat across centerline of rear tire
5) turn on laser level and hold flat against the 2x4 pointing forward
6) hold 2x4 level and flat across centerline of front tire
7) with the ruler measure the laser distance at the rear of the tire then the front of the tire. Adjust until measurements are equal front and back.
8) do the same on the other side
9) tighten the adjusters

Do not be concerned if the side to side measurements are different. In fact they most likely will be

This is strictly an alignment - not caster or camber. You can eyeball camber good enough to get you to the alignment shop.

Read through kerns thread for sure but g e n e r a l l y speaking....
........ crank the fronts out, the rears in.. roll it too and fro, with the ride height fairly flat,, dial in the toes, according to the wheel being straight

This is after moving the control arm bushings. The front is all the way out, and the rear is all the way towards the engine. I have to say, when I put the car up on the back stands and loosened the driver side control arm, it banged into where I was going to put it. Looks like it’s pretty close without the wheels on.

 

[Kern Dog]

If you're trying to align the front end with the wheels off, you're doing it wrong.

 

[chrger1967]

If you're trying to align the front end with the wheels off, you're doing it wrong.

Really just trying to get it so I can drive it to an alignment shop. I'm not expecting a perfect alignment.

 

[Kern Dog]

I did read where you were stuck on taking it to a shop but you still can get it reasonably close.
If you read through the thread that I linked you will see that with the range of suspension travel, caster and toe can change a LOT.
Checking camber at full droop is pointless.
The simplest baseline setting is to adjust the upper control arm eccentric bolts to where the frontmost bolts are as far out toward the fender as they can get and the rearmost bolts are in toward the engine. That is the starting point. Toe is important too....

There are many ways to do this and yeah, I mentioned them a few times in the thread as well.

 

[WileE]

Just sit the car on a solid, level surface and prop a level against each tire vertically, level it to zero camber. Then, measure across the front tread of the tires vs. the rear tread to set an approximate toe. See that ^^ pic... yeah, we did that.

 

[Doorkicker]

This is pretty good.

 

[Kern Dog]

That video is what inspired me to buy the stuff to do my alignments at home.

 

[matthon]

1) get the steering box centered
2) center the steering wheel

How does one do step #1?

The steering wheel on my wagon was never centered. I replaced the entire front suspension, including the steering box, and it is the same.

 

[WileE]

How does one do step #1?

The steering wheel on my wagon was never centered. I replaced the entire front suspension, including the steering box, and it is the same.

Halfway between lock-to-lock is when the box is centered.

 

[gkent]

1) get the steering box centered

Turn the wheel from one lock to the other while counting the turns.
Now turn back half way.
Look at the coupler - you should see the indexing spline at the top.
The steering wheel should now be straight as well.
Make all adjustments with the wheel returning to this position.

Alternatively you can do all adjustments with the wheel misaligned and then correct it last by adjusting each wheel in or out an equal amount.

 

[chrger1967]

Halfway between lock-to-lock is when the box is centered.

My box is 3.5 end to end. I put it at 1 3/4. It should be at center right now.