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How would I align my front end?

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#22 ·
Theres plenty of YouTube videos one of the better ones shows you how to get your garage floor perfectly level using tiles a bucket of water and a measuring stick. I would drop the link in butbim using our godforsaken iPad and it's not very apparent to me how to grab a link with out emailing it to my self arg!
 
#24 ·
Just pay to get it done properly. Setting the toe is one thing but I hope you know how to set camber + caster and where the adjustments are made. You will also want to find out the range (on toe, camber and caster) you are allowed if you plan on doing it yourself.

Sure I've done alignments in my driveway.. but that was with lifted vehicles with front solid axles.. way easier. Any bafoon could toe those in.
 
#25 ·
Mustang_Girl_32 said:
Man I was hoping for closer, guess I'll just have to find something local dang it
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There are a few really good places in the St. Louis area, notably TomKat in House Springs, MO.
 
#26 ·
Kohrs93 said:
Jesus christ man... you need to get your alignments done out of the city lol!

My shop charges 64.99 for an alignment and we have two brand spankin new hunter machines this year (not sure which model), and I'm only about 3 hours southwest of you...
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What is stupid is there is a different price for stock suspension and aftermarket. I dont get that. I called a place yesterday that charges $54 for stock and $84 if you have aftermarket stuff.
 
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#28 ·
ytngt said:
Toe adjustements are easy. Search online and you will find numerous examples of using jackstands, string, tape measure.

I installed steeda bumpsteer kit and X2 baljoints recently and had to adjust toe.

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Jesus Christ i thought my wheels were dirty lol
 
#31 ·
I use the string method, however make sure you take measurements with the car sitting on the ground, not in the air!
When the car is sitting on it's springs suspension geometry changes, so all readings and changes should be done with the car supporting it's weight to be accurate.
I use a Level to adjust camber, and for caster I set my CC plates halfway which is ballpark, but the Maximum Motorsports instructions says not to go more than halfway positive for caster.
When I do the string method I set the front tires a touch (1\16th) toe-in, since that is original spec.
 
#32 ·
We convinced the wheel alignment class at my school to use my car as a diag example cause I just changed my A arms and my alignment is SUPER ****ED, if I drove anywhere i think my car would split in half lol, also had a hell of a time adjust my coilovers on an unlevel as **** parking lot lol big pain, but I think I got it all right!! my ball joints were so bad you could hold the old a arms in your hand and shake em and the ball joints would slap around lol. kinda excited to see what a proper alignment and good ball joints along with new A-Arms and coilover installed CORRECTLY will do, espcially seeeing as how when I did the coilovers the first time I left the coil springs in
 
#33 ·
sillyrabbit0420 said:
It can be done. It's just painstaking as f*ck and you likely won't get it absolutely perfect, but you can get close. My brother and I did it after installing a 6" lift on my F150. This was a temporary fix to drive it home (1 1/2 hour drive) until I could get a real alignment. The dude about **** after he attached all his fancy laser gear alignment stuff because we got it within spec. We could've just gotten lucky though. I dunno.

We raised the front end, marked the centerline of the tires with a nail while I spun the tire to mark it all the way around. Then start adjusting the tie rods until the measurement from centerline to centerline on the front and rear of the tires is equal. Then drop the car and measure again. The weight of the car on the suspension will affect the toe-in or toe-out. So you'll have to raise it up and adjust for that multiple times until you get it right.

As I stated, it's a pain in the dick, but you can do it.

If you mess up and fry your tires, then you know you did it wrong.
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Put a 10inch lift on my f350 and aligned it myself :) perfect cruising at 85 on the highway hands off the wheel straight as an arrow. My pops had some old timer trick with measuring between the rear of the front tires across and front across then adjust til they are the same wont be perfect but pretty damn close, drove it like that for 20,000 miles too

Image
 
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#34 ·
blownstang said:
What is stupid is there is a different price for stock suspension and aftermarket. I dont get that. I called a place yesterday that charges $54 for stock and $84 if you have aftermarket stuff.
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The new machines have data logs where you just type in the year make model and it has all the setting set in they strap these big ass mirror/solar panel looking things to the wheels and wala adjust to computer specs. But with after market suspension they cant use the computer so its back to the labor way where they dont sit on there ass and watch the computer do it
 
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#36 ·
Marcs99GT said:
The new machines have data logs where you just type in the year make model and it has all the setting set in they strap these big ass mirror/solar panel looking things to the wheels and wala adjust to computer specs. But with after market suspension they cant use the computer so its back to the labor way where they dont sit on there ass and watch the computer do it
Click to expand...

So people with aftermarket suspension might as well try doing their own alignments since the shops can't use the computers right? They just use manual tools same as us?
 
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#37 ·
Well the computer tells them measure ments for your year make and model to factory specs . When you have different suspension (aftermarket) the computer no longer has the alignment specs for the suspension. They change the computer to manual mode and these big disc are mounted to each wheel that measure the distances and wheel spread. You adjust tie rods in the front until the 4 discs communicate an even distance between them. I just finished an ASE cert class for chassis and suspension and this was a huge part of it haha so learned how to use the new machines.
 
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