Back Yard Alignment

[Prime Lord]

I've been searching for hours...the only reference I can find is how to do it on 65's. heh.

Anyway, I just ordered the Maximum Motorsports C/C plates today and I'm wondering about aligning it close enough at home so I can get it to an alignment shop and have them actually do it right. Basically, the car isn't street legal yet and I want to be able to tool around the neighborhood and test things out. Right now there are NO upper alignment plates on it. The alignment is so bad, you can barely push it. The front wheels are fighting eachother the whole way.

 

[HISSIN50]

I tinker with it myself. Having 4 tiles to set under the front tires (two tiles per side, with grease in between the two tiles that are stacked together) works.

I use a straight edge and ruler for camber checking (noting angle of inclination, as calculated with trig).
You can use any matter of things for checking toe - some are more involved than others.

If you Google it, you should find lots. I got the idea for my stuff from my buddy Mustang Mike. I later saw similar thoughts/methodology from MFE on the Corral (he has a pretty long write up).

If your toe is close, you can likely toss the plates in and eyeball things (using a long straight-edge) and get close with camber (it's hard to get enough caster as it is, and caster doesnt affect tire wear).

Good luck.

 

[stang8urimport]

I tinker with it myself. Having 4 tiles to set under the front tires (two tiles per side, with grease in between the two tiles that are stacked together) works.

I use a straight edge and ruler for camber checking (noting angle of inclination, as calculated with trig).
You can use any matter of things for checking toe - some are more involved than others.

If you Google it, you should find lots. I got the idea for my stuff from my buddy Mustang Mike. I later saw similar thoughts/methodology from MFE on the Corral (he has a pretty long write up).

If your toe is close, you can likely toss the plates in and eyeball things (using a long straight-edge) and get close with camber (it's hard to get enough caster as it is, and caster doesnt affect tire wear).

Good luck.

Agreed. Just eye ball it until you get it to a shop. If you're not driving it for 1000 miles before you take it to an alignment shop, it's not going to hurt anything. I did an alignment for a friend after he put on the c/c plates... put it on the machine and he eye balled it PERFECT. I didn't need to adjust anything c/c wise, although the toe was out quite a bit.

JT, this guy's name (atleast what I call him) is Mustang Mike hahahah

 

[DMAN302]

Toe in idea I liked was putting a push pin in each tire (simular area on each tire) determine a height from ground level. Measure distance between pins, rotate tires so pins are now situated towards the oposite side of car, attain same height for pins when measured on the initial measurement and again measure the distance between pins on back of tires. Goal is to attain 1/16 'toe in' by this method and you should be set.