Wednesday, February 24, 2010 - 10:08 pm, by: Austen Menze(Mercyfulfate)
Can anyone explain this? I didn't check it when I picked the car up because I was in a hurry. I'm just concerned about that "actual" and "before" column.. does "actual" mean after the alignment has been done?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 - 10:43 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
the red indicates it is 'out of spec' meaning it is outside the ranges set to the right. Green means it is within spec.
It all depends on what you asked for. If you asked for 1 degree of neg camber, then thats what you got. If you asked for it to be aligned to spec, then you didn't get what you asked for.
Having watched these generic alignment 'technitians', I now do my own, as it can't be any worse. "Within spec" is a pretty broad range and your car could have toe in on the left, toe out on the right, some neg camber and some positive and be 'within spec' and they send it out the door.
Until I find a guy who is happy to spend the time to get it exactly right, I do it myself and spend the $80 on bourbon.
Thursday, February 25, 2010 - 08:30 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
53 minutes is pretty close to 1 degree. A degree is 60 minutes of angle, so 1degree30minutes would be 90 minutes of angle or 1.5 degrees.
To correct your steering wheel being a little off centre is quite simple. All you need to do is adjust your tie rod ends. The trick is figuring out which way you have to move the tie rod ends to get the wheel centre, and make sure you move one 'in' and one 'out' the same distance. I usually go half turns on each side for minor corrections.
Doing your own alignment just takes some thought and careful measurement. I made up an ally angle finder that fits snugly to my rim face with a pendulum and scale (worked out using trig) to measure camber, string lines down each side for toe in and out, and a little disc and ruler to measure ride height.
I googled 'DIY alignment' and researched it. As for what to adjust under the car I watched an alignment done at a tyre shop and just applied a little thought to cause and effect.
I don't measure caster as the math is pretty in depth (and I always want absolute max caster)
You can fork out for something like a longacre camber/caster gauge to make it easier, and I probably will in the future.
Thursday, February 25, 2010 - 09:44 pm, by: Austen Menze(Mercyfulfate)
Ah I guess it doesn't matter to that extent. I was under the impression that it had to be EXACT spot on both sides. yeah 53minutes is pretty close to 1 degree.
Do my current settings under the "actual" column look okay to you?
I'm reading a bit about it now, it's pretty in depth stuff! Hats off to you for doing this yourself mate!
Friday, February 26, 2010 - 07:01 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Realistically unless your suspension is in A1 order, 7 minutes of angle is going to be below the mechanical tolerances for adjustment anyway (i.e, there will be at least that much play)