Home alignments??

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mopowers

mopowers

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Need to get my Dart aligned. What's the easiest way of getting it close enough to drive to the shop?

Ride height and air pressure are properly adjusted.

Right now, I've got the UCA adjusters adjusted to give me the most caster possible. Should I just put a straight edge on the wheels and adjust until the are plum, then set the toe?? Seems like a lot of pulling the wheel off and on. Anyone have any tricks?
 
Front cam bolt all the way out, rear all the way in on both sides. Get the toe close as you can after adjusting the bolts. That should be fine to get you to the shop.
 
Thanks guys. The shop is only about 5 miles from my place. If setting the toe with the most caster gets me close, i'll have at it tonight.
 
Search the net for "Do it yourself alignment". The results of doing it yourself will most likely be superior to what an alignment shop will do for you, unless you're connected with someplace that will provide special service. My cars drive better when I do them than when I used to pay an alignment shop for their services. I used to have a guy who did great work but he retired and was replaced by some technicians who read a computer. One day I was talking to the old gent and told him I wished he was back at the shop as they didn't seem to ever get my cars to drive exactly right. He suggested that I give it a try myself and if I couldn't get it driving nicely he would come over and help. Well, I got it driving nicely without his help, and thanks to his vote of confidence, discovered that alignment is not some sort of magic and is really as basic as any other work done on my cars. Give it a try! Worst case is you will have to take it to an alignment shop......but I'm betting not!
 
grimreaper said:
Search the net for "Do it yourself alignment". The results of doing it yourself will most likely be superior to what an alignment shop will do for you, unless you're connected with someplace that will provide special service. My cars drive better when I do them than when I used to pay an alignment shop for their services. I used to have a guy who did great work but he retired and was replaced by some technicians who read a computer. One day I was talking to the old gent and told him I wished he was back at the shop as they didn't seem to ever get my cars to drive exactly right. He suggested that I give it a try myself and if I couldn't get it driving nicely he would come over and help. Well, I got it driving nicely without his help, and thanks to his vote of confidence, discovered that alignment is not some sort of magic and is really as basic as any other work done on my cars. Give it a try! Worst case is you will have to take it to an alignment shop......but I'm betting not!
Click to expand...

Yup, I've eyeballed several alignments, and never had a problem.
 
grimreaper said:
Search the net for "Do it yourself alignment". The results of doing it yourself will most likely be superior to what an alignment shop will do for you, unless you're connected with someplace that will provide special service. My cars drive better when I do them than when I used to pay an alignment shop for their services. I used to have a guy who did great work but he retired and was replaced by some technicians who read a computer. One day I was talking to the old gent and told him I wished he was back at the shop as they didn't seem to ever get my cars to drive exactly right. He suggested that I give it a try myself and if I couldn't get it driving nicely he would come over and help. Well, I got it driving nicely without his help, and thanks to his vote of confidence, discovered that alignment is not some sort of magic and is really as basic as any other work done on my cars. Give it a try! Worst case is you will have to take it to an alignment shop......but I'm betting not!
Click to expand...

If I had the time I definitely would. I just don't and don't mind paying someone to do it for me. Maybe one of these days.
 
I wouldn't mind payin, either if they did it right. Hell, around here ya can't even get a tire store to properly mount and balance tires THAT YOU CAN TRUST
 
Exactly! I haul my tires and wheels to be balanced in the back of my pickup. No one except me touches my cars to perform any work. Too many bad experiences turning it over to the "experts".
 
mopowers said:
If I had the time I definitely would. I just don't and don't mind paying someone to do it for me. Maybe one of these days.
Click to expand...

Bullhockey, it doesn't take that much time to set toe, it would be a wash between the time driving it to and from the alignment shop, not including wait time. One of these days, we'll all be dead.

Put some painters tape on the back of the front and rear tires, take a look down them them while someone holds the wheel straight, after each adjustment move them lock to lock, back to center, when the tires eclipse each other your done.
 
My high school auto shop teacher used to take bets on whether my "seat of the pants" parking lot alignment would be in spec when put on the machine.

I was nearly 100% undefeated.

I sure hope I can get that back, when it's time... after almost 30 years!
 
PoisonDart74 said:
Bullhockey, it doesn't take that much time to set toe, it would be a wash between the time driving it to and from the alignment shop, not including wait time. One of these days, we'll all be dead.

Put some painters tape on the back of the front and rear tires, take a look down them them while someone holds the wheel straight, after each adjustment move them lock to lock, back to center, when the tires eclipse each other your done.
Click to expand...

Since you have all the time in the world, you're more than welcome to come alignment my 68 for me. I'll even supply the beer. I just seem to take 4 times as long to do things as it should take. Hence- dialing it in on an actual rack.

Thanks for the input guys. I was able to get it pretty close tonight. It'll be on an alignment rack soon to dial it in.
 
I've used the old broom stick trick a few times to set the toe after a front end rebuild to get her to the shop. Thread out a couple broom handles from push brooms. Roll them on the concrete floor to make sure they're straight. A couple bungee cords on each front wheel to attach one handle on each. Attach them so that the end of the handles go across the tires and you have as much handle sticking out front as possible. Measure the width at the front of the tires and again out at the far ends. Adjust the toe accordingly to even it up.
 
All I'm saying is ya seem to have time to dink with everything else on your ride, why not this? Glad it worked out.
 
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