Help Needed On Alignment Issues

[Jeremiah]

1/4" toe in is way too much. That will start to feather the outside tread on the tires. 1/8" max!

If you want to get rid of the alignment shop buy a caster/camber gauge from Longacre, use some greased 16ga sheet metal as turn plates and to make things easy on yourself and get repeatable results get some toe plates to lean against the tires so you have a static measuring point. When I first started doing alignments at home with the above listed equipment I would take them in and have my work checked. It was always very close and the money I have saved since then has paid for lots of other goodies.

That said, how does the car drive? Straight as an arrow? Does it feel like it wants to excessively wander? Have you had another knowledgeable gear-head drive the car for a second opinion?

 

[RustyRatRod]

Who said anything about 1/4" toe?

1/4" toe in is way too much. That will start to feather the outside tread on the tires. 1/8" max!

If you want to get rid of the alignment shop buy a caster/camber gauge from Longacre, use some greased 16ga sheet metal as turn plates and to make things easy on yourself and get repeatable results get some toe plates to lean against the tires so you have a static measuring point. When I first started doing alignments at home with the above listed equipment I would take them in and have my work checked. It was always very close and the money I have saved since then has paid for lots of other goodies.

That said, how does the car drive? Straight as an arrow? Does it feel like it wants to excessively wander? Have you had another knowledgeable gear-head drive the car for a second opinion?

 

[Jeremiah]

You post at the beginning of the thread said total toe = .25

That is too much unless you are talking degrees, which is not going to help a guy working in his garage to double check things.

 

[RustyRatRod]

Go back and look. I said .25*. As in DEGREES. I was not even thinkin about WHERE he was doing it. That was irrelevent to me. I was simply giving acceptable specs. Had I meant one quarter inch, it would have read so.

You post at the beginning of the thread said total toe = .25

That is too much unless you are talking degrees, which is not going to help a guy working in his garage to double check things.

 

[Jeremiah]

Go back and look. I said .25*. As in DEGREES. I was not even thinkin about WHERE he was doing it. That was irrelevent to me. I was simply giving acceptable specs. Had I meant one quarter inch, it would have read so.

What can I say...I went to public school.

 

[RustyRatRod]

What can I say...I went to public school.

Damn, that was funny. Well.....I don't know my *** from a hole in the ground with a computer....if I knew how to make a degree symbol, I wouldda done it. lol

 

[Jeremiah]

When you figure it out let me know!

 

[HawkRod]

Results are in!

Sure enough the alignment on the front was way off. It was:
Camber: Left = .8*, Right = .3*
Caster: Left = .3*, Right = .5*
Toe in: Left = .5*, Right = .57*, so total toe in = 1.07* :sad4:

Ouch, so total toe in was the culprit. I asked what he thought was wrong, and he was very clear that the front end was tight and good. His comment was that there are many alignment people who don't know what they are doing. He emphasized that this will be fine. I tend to believe him. He is finicky, detail oriented and very thorough.

The results:
Camber: Left = -.2*, Right = -.2*
Caster: Left = 1.9*, Right = 2.2*
Toe in: Left = .14*, Right = .11*, so total toe in = 0.25*

So, we now have new tires on the car and it's ready to go again!

Once again, THANK YOU to all those who contributed! :VB toast:

All the great information helped me to navigate through this issue and get it resolved properly. Plus, the front end is now better aligned for radial tires. Good stuff!

Hawk