Does anyone know how to use a magnetic caster/camber guage. The link shows the type I am referring to. Can someone set caster with 1 of these or do you need 2?

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/xq/aspx/paging.yes/dept_id.234/display_id.2698/qx/Product.htm

I have used one like that, just much older. Only one is needed for doing one wheel at a time. However you would need a pair of degreed floating turntables to set the tires on. Turn the wheel in 20 degrees, zero the unit, turn the wheel out 20 degrees, read caster.

So just 1 CC guage and tuning plates is all I need? How does the accuracy compare to a young kid working at the local shop using computerized equipment? (I have had a bad experience before).

Bill, with a pair of turn tables, a magnetic based CC gauge, a set of jack stands, a tape measure, and some string you can get the whole chassis aligned to within .1* and 1/16" easily. The snot nosed kid at the shop doesn't even know how to align the car if the machine doesn't show him exact procedures (I've had them tell me my specs are wrong or can't be done too).

ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! flashback to 1980. Spent one whole summer working in an alignment pit using one of those things. No breeze down there!! Lucky for me my teacher was a Master of Alignment and taught me all the tricks of the trade. Jim and Denny are dead right. I do all my own using string and a tape measure. Those computers are only good on stock suspension and most new cars only allow toe set. Show that kid shims and he'll start crying and run home to mommy. I found some guys at a local tire shop that build cars for dirt track racing. They know how to set-up suspension from scratch. The funniest thing I've seen was the big chain tire store guy that installed a piece upside down on my nephews Acura that was marked "UP" with an "arrow". Laughed until I cried.

The hardest part of shim alignment was learning how many shims to use without making the problem worse. Always, ALWAYS keep track of how many were in there when you started, front and rear. If you use too many, you'll start to over-correct one end to compensate for the other end. By the time you figure out that YOU are the problem, you've forgotten how many were in there to start with!

ahhh...the not-so-good ol' days.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! flashback to 1980. Spent one whole summer working in an alignment pit using one of those things. No breeze down there!! .
1989-1993 full time in the pit. I hated that pit, now I miss it. My car won't fit on drive up racks, too low. The Firestone store I worked in did a free alignment promo...no obligation, no other purchase required. I was doing 10-12 a day. Toe and go is was no biggie but when the early Vette guys came in after a rebuild needing front and rear full alignment that kind of sucked. My mentor was some 70+year-old guy that had been alignments since the 30’s and taught me old school, we didn’t even own a computerized machine, all strings. Learned bending axles on I-beam suspension and to correct out of spec stick axles, shims (front and rear in the case of Vettes), and early Mustangs (uggghh). I later went to a Goodyear store as the front-end mechanic that was located next door to a very large classics car dealer; we got all the weird junk (it is amazing some owners do their cars).


Ahhh, the old days.