Alignment,

[Rickdees]

I went and looked at my receipt for my alignment and seen the guy only set my toe in.
No doubt mine is in need caster and camber, and I’m not going back to that shop.
Me being as most are here are all about working on there own rigs, and like to learn things.
I have been thinking about something for a few days now, so I did some searching and found exactly what I was thinking.
You guys are all smart. and this is where we come to learn.
How about doing your own alignment, setting the caster, camber with cheap digit level.
So dam simple if you know your trucks IFS and how it works.

We know how it feels to lose info
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=413853

Here is a play by play for measuring any car's alignment. I expect you already understand how to adjust these things and you will have your own specs, so pay attention to the means and I'll show you the end. Remember to set the brake once parked and be responsible you your own safety. (that was my dsclaimer)

First, there is an order in which you should perform an alignment, assuming everything is close enough to be fairly road worthy to start with. If you just assembled the thing, get it all close before you get detailed. First, set the Toe (in, or out as you wish), then set the Camber, finally the Caster. Recheck everything. Adjusting Caster or camber affects Toe, adjusting Toe messes with the caster measurements, etc.

So let's get set up. You need a level place to play and you need all your tire pressures set. Loosen all the tie-rod sleeve pinch bolts before you pull the car into the driveway the last time so that you don't need to jack the car up after settling the suspension with a short drive. Next, you will need some kind of toe plates to make life easy. I use a small piece of sheetmetal with some oil under it. My floor isn't very smooth, so this is on top of a larger sheet. This lets the wheels turn easily when you adjust toe and measure caster. Roll the car onto these so that you don't unsettle the suspension. Jacking the car up will add all kinds of variables to screw with your measurements.
alignment.jpg

Next, set up some stands at the front and rear with string parrallel to the rockers, up close, but not touching the tires, level front to rear.
untitled.jpg
I measure off the pinch weld with a very good rule to make the string absolutely parallel to the rockers.
untitled1.jpg
Once the strings are true, you are at a great place to check the rear axle. Mine was 1/8" to the passenger side. Acceptable.

Now set the toe, measuring off the tire fore and aft of the spindle, just as you did on the rear tires. Setting toe is as much about the method as it is the number. The toe plates are crucial here. Begin by setting the steering wheel straight ahead. Remember that there is slack in the steering. You want equal amounts on either side of center when you do this. Now measure, then adjust. Before measuring again, you need to recenter the steering wheel. My wife came in very handy for this. Double check everything before you tighten the tie-rod sleeves back down. You should be able to reach them without jacking the car up. If not, it can wait until you finish caster and camber work. My measurements when finished had the tire off the string by 9/16" aft & 11/16" forward for 1/4" toe-in. Remember that this is a very dated way to measure toe. Today they speak in degrees. On my wheel diameter, this is less than 1 degree. 12" from the spindle, 1/4" is about 1 degree.
untitled2.jpg
Now you can measure Camber. This is by far the easiest. Wheels straight ahead, nothing tricky, place the digital level against the rim holding it truely vertical. Negative camber has the wheel leaning in at the top. Zero to -1 degree is OK for my case, so I am good to go. It's shims at the A-arm mounting if I had required a change.
untitled3.jpg
Now comes the fun part, Caster, and this is why we need a digital level. You can buy fancy Caster/Camber guages that do the math for you, but I'll show you what they don't want you to know. (I got lucky and found one that spelled it out )
Draw a K on the floor. The back needs to run 12" fore and aft of the spindle centerline and be exactly parallel to the strings set up earlier. You didn't bump them, did you? The legs of the K need to be at 20* off the back. This will be 4 3/8" out at 12" from center.
untitled4.jpg
Now the fancy guages are particular about the order you measure. My method is not. My method presumes that you have positive Caster where the fancy tool will detect negative Caster by their paticular order of measuring. The math is simple. Turn the wheels 20* to one side, measure Camber (#1), record how far from 90*, turn wheels 20* in the opposite direction and measure Camber again (#2), record how far from 90*, Add #1 to #2 and multiply the sum by 1.5 to get your Caster reading. In this process, the 20* to each side and the 1.5 multiplier are very specific and related. Change these and the math goes into land of the lost. You will have to ask your kids Trigonometry teacher why this works. I get it, but I ain't explaining it!

So here we go, turn wheels 20* one way (use the K you drew on the floor to eye ball it carefully) and measure Camber, again, the level MUST be truely vertical.
untitled5.jpguntitled6.jpg
Turn the other way and measure again...
After a few adjustments and measuring many, many times, I equalized both sides at just over 2* positive Caster. OK for now, but I'll get ot up over 3* when I find my 1" wrench to shorten up the strut rods on the lower arms.

This is good stuff for us guys that love to turn the wrench, and save money which I much prefer the later.