Posable DIY Alignment

[2016Dom]

I just had an alignment done (hate and don’t trust other working on my things), camber looks off and pulls a little to the left and was told the pull is rydial pull. What ever that means.

Can camber be se to 0 if the bolts used to adjust camber are loosened and a wheel without a tire set down on say a block of wood at ride high? Placing a wedge on one side or the other to get positive or negative.

Toe is easy with string.

Caster is an unknown on a way for me to set.

Just throwing an idea out.

 

[gtrslngrchris]

Doesn't look like the greatest alignment I've ever seen but it isn't super far out of whack. What I will say is that even though the amount of each setting is slight it does actually appear like the vehicle would tend to push the rear of the car to the right and the front of the car to the left ever so slightly and when combined that's probably something you could feel.

 

[2016Dom]

I just had an alignment done (hate and don’t trust other working on my things), camber looks off and pulls a little to the left and was told the pull is rydial pull. What ever that means.

Can camber be se to 0 if the bolts used to adjust camber are loosened and a wheel without a tire set down on say a block of wood at ride high? Placing a wedge on one side or the other to get positive or negative.

Any opinion on if this would work?

 

[gtrslngrchris]

Any opinion on if this would work?

Honestly no idea. I understand the theory and it may well work but you're talking about correcting a third of a degree by eye and I don't see that being an easy thing to get right without being lucky. I would find a shop local to you that handles at least some performance alignments either for race or offroad or at least pavement queen SUVs and explain that you're looking to fine tune your alignment. I know that any random shop around here will not do any better than that without getting lucky but there are multiple performance shops or performance-oriented muffler/alignment shops that will do whatever you want and get it as right as it is possible to be.

For what it's worth my drift car with full aftermarket adjustable suspension can be dialed in to the hundredth of a degree without much issue but even my Corvette with stock control arms is nowhere near that level of precision. I wouldn't sweat the specific numbers and set to finding a quality shop. I've always had amazing feeling alignments from my dealership friend and the numbers are never perfect unless it's the aforementioned fully custom suspension but the vehicle always drives straight without help.

 

[2016Dom]

I was thinking what I can do for the next time in stead of spending $180 and for others

 

[Marky Dissod]

I just had an alignment done (hate and don’t trust other working on my things), camber looks off and pulls a little to the left,
and was told the pull is radial pull. Whatever that means ...

I was thinking what I can do for the next time in stead of spending $180 and for others

Ask for the following:
MAX possible positive caster - makes wheels want to return to straight ahead, improves high speed stability
Somewhere between a pinch and a dash of negative camber - improves high speed stability
Somewhere between a pinch and a dash of toe-IN or positive toe - also improves high speed stability as well

Could swear that 'radial pull' has to do with tires - not wheels, TIRES.
See if rotating your tires to your taste helps?

 

[2016Dom]

After researching on line some, seams that the same bolts used to lock in caster are the same bolts holding the camber.
So the camber adjustment theory I stated in the first post could mess with caster.

 

[OR VietVet]

Move the front tires/wheels to the back and back to front and see if slight pull/drift to left goes away. A radial tire pull or push is possible. I like to see a slight more positive caster on the right/passenger side to account for road crown. The after/current readings do not look to me like would cause a slight pull to left. The tires may be the problem. I am sure after you do that and if the pull is still there, you can take back to the shop for a recheck.

By the way, where you live in the country can dictate how much is charged for mechanical work. Did they tell you $180 before the alignment and you ok'd it? Why are you having an alignment? Because of abnormal tire wear that you saw? Just did steering/suspension work? Just bought new tires?

 

[2016Dom]

Move the front tires/wheels to the back and back to front and see if slight pull/drift to left goes away. A radial tire pull or push is possible. I like to see a slight more positive caster on the right/passenger side to account for road crown. The after/current readings do not look to me like would cause a slight pull to left. The tires may be the problem. I am sure after you do that and if the pull is still there, you can take back to the shop for a recheck.

By the way, where you live in the country can dictate how much is charged for mechanical work. Did they tell you $180 before the alignment and you ok'd it? Why are you having an alignment? Because of abnormal tire wear that you saw? Just did steering/suspension work? Just bought new tires

I just installed a leveling kit (2 inch up front) needed an alignment.
Did not ask how much, would have not matter if it was closer and more even from side to side. +3 and -3 caster I am not to happy with but it is with in spec, drives ok, steering wheel is a little off. Went there because I did not need an apiontment and was not my first choice. Had a bad experience there years ago hoping for better results (Big-0).

 

[OR VietVet]

I just installed a leveling kit (2 inch up front) needed an alignment.
Did not ask how much, would have not matter if it was closer and more even from side to side. +3 and -3 caster I am not to happy with but it is with in spec, drives ok, steering wheel is a little off. Went there because I did not need an apiontment and was not my first choice. Had a bad experience there years ago hoping for better results (Big-0).

Better info now. "steering wheel is a little off." Let me guess, it is off to the right, correct?

 

[2016Dom]

No steering wheel is left, very little.

 

[OR VietVet]

No steering wheel is left, very little.

Is the steering wheel being off to the left, the reason you are saying it pulls a little left?

 

[2016Dom]

Is the steering wheel being off to the left, the reason you are saying it pulls a little left?

No, hands off it wants to drift left, when I correct the steering wheel is striate.

The tech test drove it after he worked on it, why he had no intention to put it back on the rack since every thing was in spec.
They do free alignment checks, thinking of going to another branch and see what they say then show them the receipt.

 

[89Suburban]

No, hands off it wants to drift left, when I correct the steering wheel is striate.

The tech test drove it after he worked on it, why he had no intention to put it back on the rack since every thing was in spec.
They do free alignment checks, thinking of going to another branch and see what they say then show them the receipt.

I got sick of playing this game with these shops and learned how do it myself. It aint perfect but at least I aint getting charged for haff ass work. I haff ass it myself and it drives better than the last 2 shops I tried. They don't care and are lazy.

 

[Coveman]

I do my own alignments since I rebuilt the front end of my ‘99 burb and wanted to ‘get it close’ before taking it for alignment. Well, it was balls-on and since alignments in my area are about what you paid I thought why not just do it myself. I have since watched a couple youtubes and honed my approach. I used to use a bubble level for camber/caster but then got a magnetic level on amazon https://a.co/d/2m7t41R for 10 bucks and sometimes I use a laser level for the 4 wheel alignment if I don’t want to set up string (which works just fine). I park in my garage on some slippery plastic (like the floppy notebook kind) and that helps with avoiding suspension binding.

When I worked as a wrench turner I played with the alignment racks and noticed that hanging the wheel sensor made a huge difference in the alignment results; so if one of the stops is on a wheel weight, if the rim has damage / dirty it totally changes the specs even though the nifty print out makes it seem like rocket science. So if you’re willing to take your time and set things up properly you can really get good results at home