Vintage Alignment Systems
Interesting where modern alignment systems have an accuracy of something like +/- .1'
Well... Maybe... Accept that they rarely are even close to that accurate.. For many reasons..
A) Operator Error
B) Calibration issues
C) Equipment issues
I worked in enough shops, They hire alignment techs based on an interview with the interviewer often having no knowledge of how to tell a tech from a poser.. So throw a guy who's been doing lube work and tune ups for five years into an alignment rack where you need training an experience to have half a chance of doing the job correctly... (BTW in the interview he didn't mention lube rack, it was an alignment rack) Instead you have a guy that's setting the toe & letting it go.... If he even knows how to set the toe... Two months later you have customers complaining about their tires wearing and your "alignment tech" is down the road... Guess who's interviewing a new alignment tech? Think he's gonna find a skilled replacement? or another "Poser"..
Also while in the trade I saw a few alignment heads get bounce tested... Remember what Steve AKA Autoxcuda mentioned about bungy cords? Trust me, you don't want to drop an alignment head.... But you also don't want to want into the office & tell the boss you dropped the alignment head.. So usually it just gets ignored... How accurate is a head that's been bounce tested? Did it pass? Probably not...
The best alignment tech I know still uses his 1970's vintage magnetic snap gauges, He has a test plate that's perfectly vertical that he uses to test his gauges daily Will it read down to .1 degrees, yeah if you focus your eyes real hard... Does it really matter? Probably not...
