Intercomp Alignment Gauge

[JimmyV]

Hey guys, i have an intercomp bubble camber/caster gauge, i understand the process of how to get the caster readings turn wheel 20 degrees level and adjust turn 20 degrees other direction level and thats your caster, but my questions is after that how do you adjust? do you adjust with the wheel still turned? do you straigten it back out? that is the only part the instructions stop after getting the reading? any help in this would be great! i did a search through the forum but couldnt find anything ...help!!

 

[autoxcuda]

It doesn't really matter. You might do it with the wheel turned whichever way just to get access to the cam eccentrics. But I find it a little more convenient to be the center so you can watch the camber change.

Whatever you move out or in on one cam eccentric side of the upper control arm, you have to do the opposite on the other side cam eccentric to keep the same camber (no camber changes).

This my Longacre rim mount gauge doing an alignment on friend ns1rm21's hemi dart clone.

 

[JimmyV]

awesome. so if you move the wheel back to center does the caster reading change?

 

[67Dart273]

Let's define "change." You must take the READING as you mentioned...........turn the wheel one way 20 degrees, zero the gauge, turn the wheel the other way 20 degrees and take the reading

The actual caster is being measured as if the wheel is straight.

So you can diddle adjustments any way you need to access them, but when you take the reading, you MUST repeat the procedure with the gauge. Also, don't forget to "jounce" the suspension to settle it.

Caster is actually a simple math formula that is taken off CAMBER. In other words the old school caster camber gauges were actually a camber guage, with what amounts to a slide rule built in. Below is my old Ammco. ALL IT DOES is to measure camber. That is all it "actually measures." That is the blue scale is mechanically linked to the bubble.

The bubble must be "at zero" if the gauge is up against a pure vertical surface....easy......it measures "plumb" at zero degrees. It quite simply measures degrees tilt in or out by tilting the bubble back to zero via the BLUE rotating scale

CAMBER IS ALL this gauge "actually measures." --that is directly. Caster is "figured" off the red scale. That is simply a free wheeling slide rule. You can get the same answer by reading the BLUE scale, which gives you camber change as the wheels are turned, and multiplying the change at that + / - wheel change of 20 degrees X 1.5. In other words the red scale is simply a multiplying slide rule

 

[RustyRatRod]

Caster is read measuring the arc that the spindle travels as the wheels turn. This is why there is no way to read caster "live". You have to do a caster turn or sweep as you described.

Do the original caster turn, take your reading, make any necessary adjustments, do another caster turn, take another reading. That's how it's done. Even the most modern alignment machines cannot read caster live.

 

[autoxcuda]

...

So you can diddle adjustments any way you need to access them, but when you take the reading, you MUST repeat the procedure with the gauge. Also, don't forget to "jounce" the suspension to settle it.

THIS ^

Must start procedure from scratch after every adjustment.

Two pieces of sheet metal/dry erase board/melamine board with grease between them works great to get the car to jounce back to neutral without rolling the car back 6+ feet while bouncing it. I tried shiny magazines, but didn't work well enough.