DIY Alignment How-to

One day I thought, 50 bucks for doing an alignment is ridiculous, especially if you have to do it after each mod. So I started doing it myself.

I am no expert nor alignment-pro, so take this info any way you like. For me it worked and I had it checked by an alignment place, and it was all spot on.

*Disclaimer; The method used, involves one pretty dangerous action, which is putting your car on cement bricks and wooden planks. The car can move off and crush you, which is a considerable risk. So either lace it up or have someone with you who can monitor and help. Or don't do any of this at all.*

*Note: Pictures have been taken from different events, so the car sometimes is turned around, but that doesn't matter, just want to avoid confusion.

Here it goes.

1. The stuff you need

- 2x plunge bob
- Red tight string (I used the one floor-layers use)
- Bevel-box (if you want to do camber too)
- Machinist ruler (a good precise ruler)
- Basic tools
- Jack-stands and a jack
- 2x Straight pipe that doesn't flex too much
- Concrete bricks or some other platform
- Wooden boards (I used linoleum) and a bit of motor oil
- 50kg of weight in the drivers seat to simulate drivers weight




2. Set up your car

Jack up your car and set all wheels on the concrete blocks, or some other platform. You need to do this, so the weight is resting on the wheels and you can get underneath.

Don't use the mentioned wooden planks yet, first we need to determine the centre line of the car.



3. Finding the centre line of the car

The first thing we will need to do, is finding the centre line of our car. This should be done as precisely as possible as a deviation in this stage can have a big impact on set up. We will mark the line so we don't have to do this in the future.

Start with the front:

Take the two plunge bobs. Now hang each plunge bob at a symmetrical suspension point. I used the suspension arm bushings as suspension pickup points. Now you have two plunge bobs pointing at two points on the floor. Take some masking tape and put that between the two points. Measure the distance between the two points. Take the exact middle and mark it with a dot.

Now take a plunge bob and hang it somewhere so it hits the dot you marked, like this:



Same story for the backside:



Now you have established two centre points. Mark where the strings hang at. I used bright yellow paint and marked where the string was AND at the roll bars for future ease of finding and in case one gets wiped off.

4. Setting up the centre line

Now that you know where the centre line should be. You should set it up, as you will be basing your measurements from it. I used two paint cans on each end and pulled the string tight in between the plunge bobs pointing down.




4.5 Wooden planks

Since we will need the wheels to be able to rotate for toe-setting. We need them to have little resistance in doing so. I take two linoleum boards (get some free at a hardware store that is thrown away) with oil sandwiched in between.

Be careful now though, the car has a decreased amount of grip.

5. Setting up 'the box'

Now we will need a 'box' around the car so we can make Toe-measurements.

Take the two jack-stands and put them in front of the wheels. Doesn't need to be ultra precise but fairly right on.



Put the metal pipe on them. Mark the exact middle of your pipe. Mine was 2 metres.



Now take some string and some weight (I used a socket) and hang it over the middle of the pipe. The string should cross your middle line so your box is going to be symmetrical on the base of your centre line. Looks like this:





Do this for the front and the back obviously.



5.5Now we need the outer edges of the box set

My pipe was 2M. So the middle was 1M. I measured 10mm from each end of the tube and marked it. That was my suspension point of the border-string. This has to be very precise on both ends and front and aft.







6. Measuring your toe angles in mm

Now the hardest work is done. Now we're going to find out what our Toe-angles really are.

Take the ruler you have and measure the front of the wheel and the rear of the wheel at the height of the string. I use the lip of the rim as that provides consistant measuerment points. The distance from string to wheel is your reading that will determine toe.



Now for instance my rear wheels have slight Toe-in as I like it. The right left has more distance from string-to-wheel at the front (6,95) as at the back (6), so it means it toe's-in .35mm



Now you just repeat the process for each wheel and set the Toe accordingly.

7. Setting toe

At the front, you undo the locknut of the Tie rod, and rotate the tie-rod so it screws out or in, thus pulling the wheel inside or pushing it outside. No pics here, sorry.

At the rear, it is a eccentric system which is a bit of trial and error.

Remeausre toe each time obviously. The handiest is having one person do the setting, while the other one reads. I have to do it by myself all the time which sucks, as you have to crawl under the ropes and car all the time.. but ey..

8. Camber

Camber can be done without all of this. Take your bevel-box (eBay, just a random one, there are many DIGITAL BEVEL BOX GAUGE ANGLE PROTRACTOR INCLINOMETER - eBay (item 330460144140 end time Aug-18-10 18:48:45 PDT) ) and a piece of metal.

Put the bevel box in the middle and the piece of metal against the edge of a wall to calibrate it (makes easier reading) to 0 degrees.

Note it reads zero, that's cause my battery is empty


Now put it against the rim edges and there you have your camber measurement. I usually rotate the wheel a quarter or a third and recheck the measurement in case the wheel edge is scuffed.



If you have top-mounts, jack up the car, reset camber. Jack it down. Give the suspension a good wobble to settle it and remeasure.

9. Final words:

- Be precise in all your measurements, I have been and that's why my set up is always good.
- It may take you one or two tries before you have it right, took me 3.
- Some say that after setting toe, the suspension has to move a bit to 'settle' it. Obviously it can't the way I do it, as it is too dangerous to bounce around a car sitting on linoleum. So I don't. And it doesn't have any ill effects, the set-up is still spot on.
- Set your camber first, toe after. As resetting camber influences toe-settings.
- Having drivers weight simulated increases precision, but the deviation is not great. So if it is a lot of trouble, you could leave it out, up to you.
- This is 'my' way of doing it, if you think there are better ways (and I bet there are) than follow what you think is better and/or safer.
- After you have your centre line determined and marked, in the future all you have to do is hang the plunge bobs from the marks and centre a string between them, you can put the wooden planks underneath right away too.


Hope to hear what you think of it and I'm happy to hear criticism as I like to learn from my shortcomings too!

Regards from Holland!

 

I think you are misunderstanding. It doesn't matter if you have stagger or not. As long as the outer edges of the 'box' (strings) are symmetrical to the centre line. That's why I stress the centre-line should be so precise. It works because you are measuring the differences of the distance from string-to-wheel-lip.

Trust me, it works, I can scan you the laser alignment report that shows its spot on (will need to dig in the attic though).

And in my final words, I do mention to do the camber first

 

How do you do it? Cause I'm sure my way is maybe too complicated but nobody has showed my anything better ..

 

Yeah that's the principle of laser-alignment, you align on the base of your wheels. The plus side is that its fast and easy, the downside is that your wheels aren't aligned to the chassis, thus your car can basically go crabbing if the thrust angle is off a lot.

So like everything pro's and con's, individuals decide what's worth.

 

Of course, however change your subframe bushes -> + 50 quid
Change coilovers -> + 50 quid
Change tie-rod -> + 50 quid
Change suspension bush or bearing or other component -> + 50 quid

after a while it starts adding up!

 

Well you can check that. Put the bevel box on a flat horizontal service using a water-level to make sure its spot on horizontal. Calibrate the gauge to read 0,0. Now if you put it against a door, it should read 180. Or somewhere near, if it is a bit off, just rotate it till it does read 180. When it does, reset the gauge back to 0,0 and there you have it.

Obviously the camber measurement needs to be done on level floor and using consistent wheel measuring points.