First Alignment with new Suspension-Epic Fail!!!

[70ChargerRT]

I knew it was going to happen. Just had that bad feeling. Took it to a reputable (supposedly) alignment guy. Told him to get me as much Caster as possible, 1/8 toe in and .50-.75 camber if possible and I told him to stick his final alignment numbers in the car. Well when I got back home there was no alignment sheet to see the final numbers. The car drove awful, pulled
To the right and it wouldn’t return to center because there was no center I’m telling you, you can’t make this crap up. I called the guy and told him I wanted my money back, said I was crazy and the car drove good I asked for my alignment sheet and he couldn’t provide one. I talked to Peter Bergman and he suspects the guy probably messed with my Qa1 adjustable strut rods after I told the alignment guy they’re for not getting any caster and gave him instructions from Qa1 explaining what they are meant for. Well let’s try another alignment guy. It never ends.

 

[Kern Dog]

Alignments should have a 90 day, 3000 mile warranty. That is state law in California, maybe your state too?

 

[R413]

I went to auto mechanics school in the old days when cars were fully adjustable. Doing an alignment meant setting all 3 factors, caster, camber and toe. You had to think to do this and make the car drive good.

Now an “alignment“ is setting the toe. These people have no idea what the word means.

 

[pnora]

Any decent alignment machine will have your data stored so he still can print out a sheet. Unless he purposely deleted the data as he did not want you to see a copy. I would not of paid him if he did not have the sheet. Cancel or dispute the payment.

 

[dan juhasz]

agree with pnora, the hunter machine I work with daily keeps every receipt for reprinting if need be.

 

[Kern Dog]

I don’t know the machine used for my car but I didn’t get a printout either. They wrote the specs on the invoice.
I would have liked a printed sheet but mine steers great.

 

[pnora]

I don’t know the machine used for my car but I didn’t get a printout either. They wrote the specs on the invoice.
I would have liked a printed sheet but mine steers great.

Printer problems can happen. At least they were smart enough and cared enough to give you something.

 

[QuickBpBp]

Alignments should have a 90 day, 3000 mile warranty. That is state law in California, maybe your state too?

They would go broke here in Pa. We have some potholes like this that rarely get attention… Last one this big someone literally place a balled tree in it.
https://www.abc27.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2015/03/potholefile_39108805_ver1.0.jpg?w=650

 

[WileERobby]

You go for an alignment. You get a spec sheet, shows BEFORE and AFTER specs. You pay the establishment.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

The guy who does all my alignments doesn't have a modern digital computerized alignment machine... He has the same old school gauges he was using back in the 70's... But as soon as you drive the car you'll know he knows WTF he's doing...

 

[Sam69sat]

Some of these guys don't know **** from apple butter. I took my Nissan hardbody in and the guy said he'd never aligned a vehicle that used shims. I figured that wasn't a good sign but it's the only shop in town. It drove straight on a flat road but i couldn't figure out why it would be all over the place on a slightly uneven road. Come to find out he'd totally backed off the passenger side strut/tension rod that connects the frame to the lower control arm and it had absolutely zero tension on it leaving the control arm to move forward and backward with any bump and dip in the road. Dumb ***.

 

[#41]

Now an “alignment“ is setting the toe. These people have no idea what the word means.

Yup. Just found this out the other day... I was shocked. No wonder alignments on old cars is becoming an arcane art.

To the OP: You can actually buy some rudimentary tools and do it yourself. I have not been to an alignment shop in decades.

 

[WileERobby]

Yup. Just found this out the other day... I was shocked. No wonder alignments on old cars is becoming an arcane art.

To the OP: You can actually buy some rudimentary tools and do it yourself. I have not been to an alignment shop in decades.

Yup. As we did decades ago, I use bubble gauges, pivot the tires on greased tiles, and measure out toe-in. I'm good.

 

[ckessel]

Wherever you go, they need to hang targets on all four wheels, not just the front. You don't want the car swinging its tail out as it's going down the road. The shop also need to verify the "thrust angle". Thats the measurement between the front and rear wheels in the center. If this is off, you'll have issues with the alignment and how the car drives. If it's way off, that can point to structural issues with the car which can mean frame/body shop time. Also it could be a bent diff housing. If it's off minor, you can buy shims that go between the front spring hanger and the body mount. When you rebuild/upgrade the front suspension, getting all of the settings squared away takes a fair amount of time. More so than what the $69.95 alignment shop is going to want to spend. They need to get em in, get em out on the alignments otherwise that cuts into revenue. One of the sources of "set the toe, let it go" you may be experiencing. You need to be aware that you'll most likely be getting charged by the hour for all of this to be correct. Shop labor rate times how many hours it takes.

 

[mrmolding]

I made a post a few months ago about after my front end alignment the toe was zero and the steering wheel was off center. In the past two months I've been reading posts, watching videos, and bought a home alignment kit. Everything is now sorted and I will never take it back to an alignment shop without serious references from the mopar community. Took me a while to get my head around centering the wheel, but this video made it really simple. Just things I'd never had to think about before -- but once it sinks in, it's pretty straightforward.

Here's the link to the video and a screen cap of the centering portion:

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I made a post a few months ago about after my front end alignment the toe was zero and the steering wheel was off center. In the past two months I've been reading posts and bought a home alignment kit. Everything is now sorted and I will never take it back to an alignment shop without serious references from the mopar community.

I did alignments professionally at two previous jobs.. But for me these days I know Dwayne will make my stuff just how I want it & I don't have to fool with it...

 

[mrmolding]

I did alignments professionally at two previous jobs.. But for me these days I know Dwayne will make my stuff just how I want it & I don't have to fool with it...

I wish I had someone local that I can really trust. There are lots of shops in Lancaster and in the Valley, but I'm in between near Redline in Newhall. My shop was very willing to fix it, but he put in something to hold the steering wheel straight and I'm pretty sure that he bent the rare as h*ll hazard switch on my 70 column. It took me a while and broke the bank to find a replacement switch. So, I decided to figure out the alignment on my own.
I will say all of this made me rediscover the 11/16 tie rod upgrade that we all did in the 80s. I guess I'll get around to that with my new alignment bravery.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I wish I had someone local that I can really trust. There are lots of shops in Lancaster and in the Valley, but I'm in between near Redline in Newhall. My shop was very willing to fix it, but he put in something to hold the steering wheel straight and I'm pretty sure that he bent the rare as h*ll hazard switch on my 70 column. It took me a while and broke the bank to find a replacement switch. So, I decided to figure out the alignment on my own.
I will say all of this made me rediscover the 11/16 tie rod upgrade that we all did in the 80s. I guess I'll get around to that with my new alignment bravery.

Yeah, we're lucky here in Modesto, Dwayne's day opened his shop in 1946 right after he came home from WWII, Dwayne came to work for him after school starting in 1972 and took the business over in 1981... Back then he drove a 70 Chevelle that he auto-crossed for years, he also set up a lot of cars for the road courses at Laguna Seca & Sears Point...

Dwayne still hasn't invested in all the fancy new equipment but he knows how to use what he has, he knows what does what & why it's important & as an added bonus he's a damn nice guy... (Even if he's still a Chevy guy)

 

[mrmolding]

Yeah, we're lucky here in Modesto, Dwayne's day opened his shop in 1946 right after he came home from WWII, Dwayne came to work for him after school starting in 1972 and took the business over in 1981... Back then he drove a 70 Chevelle that he auto-crossed for years, he also set up a lot of cars for the road courses at Laguna Seca & Sears Point...

Dwayne still hasn't invested in all the fancy new equipment but he knows how to use what he has, he knows what does what & why it's important & as an added bonus he's a damn nice guy... (Even if he's still a Chevy guy)

So I had to see the distance from Newhall to Modesto. It's about 282 miles so I guess I'll still do this in the garage!

 

[mrmolding]

So I thought I'd share how I did not know how far to turn the tie rods to make a difference. It was originally to the left off center at about -15 degrees from the top. I turned each tie rod two full turns differently based on the video, and went way too far to the right. In time I got it but thought I’d share how easy it is to get things out of whack! This was my first test drive in the picture below. I put them back and it only took 1/4 of a turn on each side (in different directions as per the video), checked toe and made a few small adjustments and back to center.