Home alignment setup

[JRouche]

Some great info guys!!!!

Basically I was wanting to set up some lines so I could have a parallel referance of the car to transfer the lines to the front wheels. I put in a full rear quarter frame for the 4-link in the rear. I think I did my install correctly. But for the lines I was thinking of taking measurements from the frame rails to the lines (as far fore and aft as possible) and comparing them to the rear wheels (for axle fore and aft displacement) and the pinch welds of the car body along the lower section (the rockers).

Why so much work. Well, just to double check the work I did before, to see if the rear end is square to the body, Im hoping it is. And to have a verified reference from the rear and the body to carry on to the front. Then work from that reference.

I like the monofilament idea for lines but after using plastic lines and seeing how they can be easily moved I was thinking of using some of the 1000s of feet of SS wire I have on hand. What I will do is map out the floor (yes, checking for flatness and level, side to side and front to rear) and mount some red head sinkers in the floor to bolt some homemade uprights to. The uprights will allow me to tighten the wire to its max straining point before breaking and still have some detailed adjustments to essentially make a parallel box (minus two sides) to set the car in.

And lasers would be nice. But by the time I order them I think I can map out the floor and set some sinkers in and weld the uprights. The lasers would be a nice addition to the tooling but money is a question and I really do enjoy making up some fixtures.



Now. After rigging up some parallels (they will be far enough out from the wheels for clearance) I am gonna move the front wheels to parallel just to get them close.

I wanted to work on the less critical specs first. In my case I think its the caster. I can set it anywhere between 0 and 6* positive. I am shooting for 3* right now. Three degrees is not the best for camber gain. When I checked it statically (wheels up, no load (air springs)) 5* of caster gave me the best camber gain for the travel I have. But I have manual steering and I dont know how 5* of caster will be on the road. I dont want too tight of a steering.

So Ill set the caster for 3*. Then set the camber after seeing the changes the caster makes. My toe will prolly be way out at that point so Ill pull it in to zero, for the time being.

Ok.. I have another issue. Bump steer. I have some Baer tracker tie rod ends. So Im gonna have to deal with checking that adjustment. Im gonna do that after I have the camber set. If it turns out that I need to shim the tie rod ends up or down for BS then Ill readjust the control arms for that change too. I dont think the shimming of the tie rod ends will affect the camber.

Yeah, yeah.. It sounds like alot of checking and changing. But to be honest, I dont mind it. This is my lil retirement project car. I dont mind spending a few days on the alignment..

And yup, this is for a final alignment. It wont go to a shop for a proper alignment. I think I would have to be under the car with the tech just to show what I wanted. Might as well do it myself.

And this is gonna be a straight up alignment. No tweaks for road crown yet. If it becomes a problem later with pulling then I will tweak it for crown...

Thanks for all the input guys...... I appreciate the help!! JR