I was looking at getting the bubble type of caster/camber gauge to do my own alignment but since I have aluminum wheels with aluminum hub that won't work. What are you guys using?
Alignment Help
- Thread starter Ricks70Duster340
- Start date
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Alignment shop
THe best way.
I agree, but have had mixed results. A lot depends on the guy who does the alignment. The shop I normally use has a guy that did it for a dealership for many years, but he is as flakey as a $3 bill.
Just hold the gauge firmly against the hub to take the reading. Might need an assistant for caster swings or use your knee to hold the tire so you have both hands free. Are you planning on using turn tables? What is your plan for setting toe?
I agree, depends on the guy doing the alignment.
Following
Holding the magnetic gauges to an aluminum wheel is a hack idea. Unbelievable.
Would removing the wheels and loading the control arms with jack stands allow an accurate alignment measurement with the gauge attached to the hubs?
In 50 years of being in automotive shops, I have never seen that done. I wonder why?
grimreaper
Cross Member
Make yourself one of these. It can be held to almost any rims with springs or small bungie cords. I use mine on Cragars, American Racing wheels and various others. And yes. you will get a better alignment with less hassle doing it yourself.
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"Automotive shop" being the operative word. We are Just a bunch of gearheads trying to get it done with what we have.......I'll take your response as being "no it won't".In 50 years of being in automotive shops, I have never seen that done. I wonder why?
Scody21
Just send it
There are “toe plates” sold by a few places. You place them against the tires and use 2 tape measures, one front and one rear. When we were younger we used 2 pieces of alum box tube on milk crates for height with 2 tapes. Did the same thing as the toe plates.
Use an adapter that attaches directly to the spindle. You need to remove the dust cap and the hub cap on your wheel. Screw on the adapter and attach your magnetic mount gauge.
Longacre Racing Products 52-78414 Longacre Caster Camber Gauge Adapters | Summit Racing
Longacre Racing Products 52-78414 Longacre Caster Camber Gauge Adapters | Summit Racing
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I have a Joe's Racing caster/camber gauge. The avatar has Weld ProStar wheels. All I have to do is remove the center caps then the dust caps and the gauge magnetically attaches to the hub without issue.
For turning plates, this hack uses heavy, thick garbage bags folded over multiple times. Plastic on plastic on plastic on plastic really is quite low friction! Turned the avatar into a car that could not be safely driven down the track to one that leaves and goes dead straight.
For turning plates, this hack uses heavy, thick garbage bags folded over multiple times. Plastic on plastic on plastic on plastic really is quite low friction! Turned the avatar into a car that could not be safely driven down the track to one that leaves and goes dead straight.
I use one of these
SPC Performance 91000 SPC Performance FasTrax Camber Caster Gauges | Summit Racing
I have a set of toe plates and a a used set of old Hunter turn plates that I got pretty cheaply, they're out of a professional alignment shop and weigh a ton. But there are lots of cheap turn plates available now too, they don't have to be fancy. You can also just use a teflon sheet and some dish soap, the wheels just have to turn smoothly.
As far as the alignment shop most of them are totally useless nowadays for these cars. If they'll do the alignment at all most insist on using factory specs because that's what's in the their computer, but those specs are totally wrong for radial tires. And if you have aftermarket suspension parts a lot of shops won't touch the car at all unless they did the install.
It takes a little practice to get accurate, repeatable results at home, but it's time well spent and it's really not that hard. Just a little bit of a learning curve with the equipment. Once you get past that, you'll be better than the kids at the alignment shop will give you anyway. "Alignment tech" is about one half step above "oil change tech" in terms of mechanical skill, and most places won't let the "oil change techs" even remove the drain plug anymore, so that tells you their skill level. Most "alignment techs" have no concept of suspension geometry, they just twiddle the adjustments until the computer turns the box green. Which is why it's a waste of time to try and tell them that the factory specs are for bias ply tires and are actually completely backward for radials, and that sending one of these cars out with radial tires and the alignment set to factory specs is in fact far worse than using the SKOSH chart. But they don't know enough about tire construction or suspension geometry to understand that.
SPC Performance 91000 SPC Performance FasTrax Camber Caster Gauges | Summit Racing
I have a set of toe plates and a a used set of old Hunter turn plates that I got pretty cheaply, they're out of a professional alignment shop and weigh a ton. But there are lots of cheap turn plates available now too, they don't have to be fancy. You can also just use a teflon sheet and some dish soap, the wheels just have to turn smoothly.
As far as the alignment shop most of them are totally useless nowadays for these cars. If they'll do the alignment at all most insist on using factory specs because that's what's in the their computer, but those specs are totally wrong for radial tires. And if you have aftermarket suspension parts a lot of shops won't touch the car at all unless they did the install.
It takes a little practice to get accurate, repeatable results at home, but it's time well spent and it's really not that hard. Just a little bit of a learning curve with the equipment. Once you get past that, you'll be better than the kids at the alignment shop will give you anyway. "Alignment tech" is about one half step above "oil change tech" in terms of mechanical skill, and most places won't let the "oil change techs" even remove the drain plug anymore, so that tells you their skill level. Most "alignment techs" have no concept of suspension geometry, they just twiddle the adjustments until the computer turns the box green. Which is why it's a waste of time to try and tell them that the factory specs are for bias ply tires and are actually completely backward for radials, and that sending one of these cars out with radial tires and the alignment set to factory specs is in fact far worse than using the SKOSH chart. But they don't know enough about tire construction or suspension geometry to understand that.
I had tried a quicktrick setup once but was frustrated by a couple of things with it. First, had to bungee it to the wheel because it was an aluminum frame and kept falling off. Could not get enough tension on it. Second was the digital gauge setup. To measure caster, you got the vertical bar at 90*, then got the horizontal bar to 0.00. Turn the wheel all the way one way about 20*, zero'd the gauge, then turned the wheel the opposite way 20* and read the gauge. The instructions say to take that reading and multiply by 1.5. As I recall, the gauge read 17.5 or so and when multiplied by 1.5 it said my caster was ~26. Ummm, don't think so.
The Fastraxx is a bubble set up, it works just like the hub gauges but with the different attachment points. Getting it solidly attached to the wheel is definitely part of the learning curve, and some of that depends on the wheel itself and what the lip/spoke design kind of looks like. If the lip is flatter it works better. Getting the right tension is a little fiddly sometimes but you can use a bungee. The RPF1's on my car have a pretty decent lip for attaching it though so I don't have to do that on my Duster at least. Reading caster is always like that, you turn the wheel 15-20° depending on the gauge, zero it, and then turn in 15-20° the other way. The bubble gauge on the Fastraxx reads the actual caster though.
It's not perfect by any means but with some practice it works fine. And since most shops won't touch my car with its adjustable SPC UCA's and tubular LCA's, and certainly won't set my -1° camber, +6.5° caster it's better that I got the practice.
I should have added that, like your car, my avatar has the fully adjustable SPC UCA's so doing this at home is quite the necessity to me. And by having the gauge magnetically attach to the hub as I noted in my post above, repeatable results were quite easy once I got the knack of how to adjust those UCA's. (They really do make the job easy!!)
Hub, not the wheel.
Be sure to do a rim/tire compensation before you set toe.
My only concern with using strings would be if the strings stretch, changing the length depending on how hard you pull. If stretching isn't an issue I guess that would work.
michiganpat
Well-Known Member
I had some leftover laminate flooring that is a simulated 12x12 tile and 12x48". cut it into 4 12x12 pieces on my table saw, and put grease between 2 of them, top face-to-top face....works great.
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