robcarync
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- Location
- Raleigh, NC
As often as I have rebuilt my steering and adjusted the torsion bars...I surely am wearing out my budget for alignments. I tried the firestone lifetime alignment deal, but they wouldn't let me given the condition of the modified suspension.
It got me thinking of a way to do an alignment without using the fancy computer and rack that shops have. I have googled and found some ideas for adjusting the toe-in by running string in a big "U" shape around the car, wrapping it around the back tires and looping it on some jack stands in front of the front tires. If you space the string perfectly parallel to the truck, you can measure the string gap from the front side of the tire to the back side of the tire to figure out how angled in each tire is.
I did this yesterday after I replaced the center link, all tie rod ends, and tie rod adjusters. I wrapped the string around the back tires 16" off the ground (32" tires, through the center). The question then comes to ... how do you know when the string is parallel to the "truck"?
You can try to align them by bringing the string in to where it barely touches both edges of the back tire...and this would help you gauge how your front tire sits relative to the back tire. That didn't quite work to me because it almost seemed like my back tires were further in board than the front. I decided to measure the distance the string was from the frame rail...front and back of my slider. I got that gap straight, and adjusted the tie rods so that the front tires were basically parallel but ever so slightly toed in. Repeat on each side, made sure gaps were even. I parked the front tires on pieces of card board in my garage so that the tires pivoted easier while adjusting tie rods. Also, after you make an adjustment to a tie rod, I recommend grabbing the tire and pulling it out or pushing it in some to "re-center" the ball joints in the tie rod ends. Sometimes you adjust the tie rod and it just flexes the ball joints without moving the tire. You can also just cycle the steering wheel or back up and pull forward a few times, but that requires you to take the string down and re-measure...
Anyway, I test drove the Xterra, and it is awesome (mostly because of the new center link). My center link was shot which was why I could not keep an alignment, and why I had so much slop and why my tie rod ends were banging into the frame rail and UCA mount. This was the best DIY alignment I have done at home...but usually I do a ghetto alignment and drive to a shop. I don't think I need to go pay 80 bucks for another alignment this time, though.
I still am not sure how the "actual" alignment numbers turned out, but it drives great. Of course, all I did was adjust the toe in...but I had a recent alignment, so I figured the tie rods would not affect the camber or caster too much.
Has anyone figured out a similar way to try to adjust camber or caster? Anyone try the DIY alignment? If I could figure out a jig or method for camber/caster adjustments at home, I would never get an alignment again...I know there has to be some geometric way to do this without a computer...
It got me thinking of a way to do an alignment without using the fancy computer and rack that shops have. I have googled and found some ideas for adjusting the toe-in by running string in a big "U" shape around the car, wrapping it around the back tires and looping it on some jack stands in front of the front tires. If you space the string perfectly parallel to the truck, you can measure the string gap from the front side of the tire to the back side of the tire to figure out how angled in each tire is.
I did this yesterday after I replaced the center link, all tie rod ends, and tie rod adjusters. I wrapped the string around the back tires 16" off the ground (32" tires, through the center). The question then comes to ... how do you know when the string is parallel to the "truck"?
You can try to align them by bringing the string in to where it barely touches both edges of the back tire...and this would help you gauge how your front tire sits relative to the back tire. That didn't quite work to me because it almost seemed like my back tires were further in board than the front. I decided to measure the distance the string was from the frame rail...front and back of my slider. I got that gap straight, and adjusted the tie rods so that the front tires were basically parallel but ever so slightly toed in. Repeat on each side, made sure gaps were even. I parked the front tires on pieces of card board in my garage so that the tires pivoted easier while adjusting tie rods. Also, after you make an adjustment to a tie rod, I recommend grabbing the tire and pulling it out or pushing it in some to "re-center" the ball joints in the tie rod ends. Sometimes you adjust the tie rod and it just flexes the ball joints without moving the tire. You can also just cycle the steering wheel or back up and pull forward a few times, but that requires you to take the string down and re-measure...
Anyway, I test drove the Xterra, and it is awesome (mostly because of the new center link). My center link was shot which was why I could not keep an alignment, and why I had so much slop and why my tie rod ends were banging into the frame rail and UCA mount. This was the best DIY alignment I have done at home...but usually I do a ghetto alignment and drive to a shop. I don't think I need to go pay 80 bucks for another alignment this time, though.
I still am not sure how the "actual" alignment numbers turned out, but it drives great. Of course, all I did was adjust the toe in...but I had a recent alignment, so I figured the tie rods would not affect the camber or caster too much.
Has anyone figured out a similar way to try to adjust camber or caster? Anyone try the DIY alignment? If I could figure out a jig or method for camber/caster adjustments at home, I would never get an alignment again...I know there has to be some geometric way to do this without a computer...
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