Alignment is a pain...

[V]

ok, a few weeks ago, a mishap with my car led to my tie-rod getting messed up bigtime. I got it removed and swapped in a spare that i had from my original rack. I took it out after that for a test drive and it drove pretty good, except at higher speeds, on grooved roads, and under hard braking. Now yes, i know i need an alignment, but i want to get it pretty close on my own first. i cant really afford an alignment anyway just yet and in 2 months it wont even matter. tires are already wasted so thats not a concern anyway... so if you are willing to pay for or do my alignment for free... dont tell me to get one. now back on topic.

After going over the setup, i noticed the front wheels were toe out a decent amount. i then adjusted it by eye quick and pulled them in a little more. I took it out again and it did much better, but occasionally i still get some wandering. I used to chock that up to my camber with the front end being so low, but it wasnt the same feeling as before.

now this is where it gets interesting, call it ghetto or ingenuity, whatever u wish, but since i dont have an alignment shop at my disposal or even an alignment plate(yet) i was tryign to figure out a way to measure the angle of the toe on the front wheels. I ended up setting up a 8' 2x4 flush against each wheel pointing forward. I then measured how far the ends of the 2x4s were apart from each other at the far end, and then also measured how far apart they were 3 feet closer in to the car. The numbers showed the measurement closer to the car was greater, meaning the 2x4s were pointing in. yes its a crude meathod, but in theory, it wors, and yes they were flush against the wheel face. anyways.. after working out the angles and all, i got a rough calculation the toe angle is about 5 degrees.. so yeah, i was suprised it was that much. I read on LS1tech that most run 0 Toe. So the next dry day we get, i'm going back out and setting up my rig again, lol, and adjusting it to zero. hopefully thatll take care of some of the wandering.

[WildBillyT]

As crude as it is, the 2x4 method gets it pretty close. I've done the chalk-line method as well and while it wasn't a laser alignment it got the car decent enough to drive.

[Tru2Chevy]

If you are using the 2x4 method, I would use the same 2x4, held the same way against each wheel. Mark your line with chalk when you have the 2x4 against the wheel. It's pretty common to have a 2x4 warped a decent amount along it's length, so if you use the same board in the same position, you won't have to worry about it.

- Justin

[BonzoHansen]

Angle iron is straighter....

[Teds89IROC]

very interesting. As soon as I get my check from Sears I want to go with a front end rebuild. The shop that I want to do my alignment is in Lodi (where I work, about 20 minutes away from my house) I was worried my alignment would be too far off to drive it there but I could probably get it close enough using this method, thanks Paul!