Want to do my own, or at least get it real close.

In laymans terms can someone walk me through the steps?

Dont have any special tools but am willing to wade through it and spend the time getting it right. .
Anything to avoid bringing the car off at some shop if you know what I mean.

This something the average guy can do?

what are you trying to align???????? hood-doors-fenders???????

 

I'm guessing wheel alignment I think you could probably get the toe in and toe out right (or close) with a tape measure, but caster and camber would probably be a time consuming, trial and error PITA without a machine

 

Let me start with wheel alignment lol.

 

Get it close...and pay someone wit a machine.

 

I do mine, but you need at least an alignment level of some sort. Whether its the a real caster/camber level or I just use a digital level - you need to be able to read fractions of a degree. If your still interested I can outline what I do, but there are similar directions in this site - just do a search....

 

Im all ears:beers:

 

Close enough to get to the alignment shop?

Camber can be measured with a level on top of the tire.

Toe with a tape measure.

Caster will require some trig. You can measure the vertical distance between BJ pivots, which is the adjacent leg (A) in the triangle. Pick an angle (°) of positive caster you would like to run. Compute TAN(°)*A= O, O is the opposite leg of the triangle, or how far back towards the firewall the top BJ should be relative to the bottom BJ. You can use a plumb bob to measure this.

 

There are many ways to perform this, but the basics are the same.

1. Check tire pressure.
2. Make sure vehicle is sitting level (yes I put shims under the tires as needed).
3. Order of events is Caster, Camber, Toe
4. Caster - turn the wheels 20* to the right (of center). Measure and note the degrees of camber (I use a digital level placed against the edge of the rim). Turn the wheels 20* to the left of center. Measure the camber. Add the two measurements for the each wheel (ie Drivers side turn left = +.5*, PLUS Drivers side turn right = +1.5* EQUALS +2.0* caster for the drivers side wheel.) Do this for both wheels adjusting according to match and or adding cross caster if desired for road crown.
5. Camber - Wheels straight ahead - measure camber. (again I use a digital level) adjust accordingly
6. Recheck caster - since your camber adjustment likely altered the caster.
7. Toe in - measure the distance between the rear of the front wheels and the front - subtract the two numbers and that's your toe. Adjust accordingly. I made a bracket that straps to the wheel that I can use a tape measure to get an accurate read.

That's it - I know I'm leaving out some specifics - but they likely apply to my methods..... I need to do one in two weeks or so, I can do a step by step with pictures.....

 

Seems like the time and effort to do it and the lack of precision involved in doing it without the proper equipment, would ultimately cost much more than the $60-100 to pay someone with a nice Hunter laser machine and get it perfectly accurate.

 

For the cost of 2 alignments, you can buy a Fastrax Caster/Camber gauge and a laser-level, and be just as accurate.

In my experience, most people with the "proper" equipment don't have a clue when it comes to a "performance" alignment, and you can't trust them to align to the specs YOU PROVIDE anyway, because "the book" says otherwise.

 

I have found that even with crude measurement tools I can get within 1/4* of what the pro alignment tools report.

Trigonometry math and a calculator are my favorite and most important tools. If you don't remember trig from HS math, or cannot figure/understand it, then take it to the shop.

A carpenters square on a concrete floor and tape measure can do much of the rest.

I will ditto the order: caster, camber, toe. Once you have caster you should not have to go back, so long as you adjust caster using equal shims in front and rear. Caster is also not quite as critical to be exact just so long as you are equal from side to side.

I always use the wheel to base measurements off of rather than the tire, less variance that way.

This is definitely a YMMV area, but I like being able to align to MY specs rather than the ancient factory specs. And I also like being able to align at MY convienence time-wise rather than deal with the hassle of dropping off and picking up during their business hours.

 

plus they want to test drive the car and use factory allignment specs - no thank you to both!

 

I did mine without any real problem. 8,000 miles and my tire wear tells me I did a pretty good job.
First thing I did was get the car pefectly level. Pick the highest wheel and bring the other three to that height.
I avoided the trig for my castor and camber by removing the wheel. I used a length of tubing and some alcohol with red food dye to make sure everything was level, put a jack under the center support and removed one front tire. Lowered the car a bit and put a jack under the brake rotor hat, not the rotor itself. Jacked the car up to level again with the jack under the hub, took up most of the slack under the center jack for safety and then I could adjust without the wheel in the way.
I used a welders degree measure for my angles. I calibrated it with a spirit level, choosing which side was most accurate. Of the two I had on hand, one was off by a degree any way you turned it. The other one was perfect on one of the sides so I marked and used it. That gave me confidence of 1/2 degree accuracy. If you had a calibrated spirit level that would work even better.
For caster I made two equal lengh pieces of wire and attached them to a regular straight level sticking out in front of the brake rotor. With the Howe tall ball joints I could hook these in the top and and bottom ball joint which made life easier. Then I could hold my calibrated level up to the flat surface that was parallel to the plane between the two ball joints and read my caster angle. This one I went back and forth on for a long time, but I have checked it a few times since and it is suprisingly repeatable.
For camber, with the wheel off and the jack putting the suspension under the proper load and at the correct height, all I had to do was hold my calibrated angle level to the flat surface between the wheel studs and read off my camber angle. Also found this to be very repeatable.
I did this a few times on each side to make sure I was getting good numbers. I really only did it this way because I was tapped out and could not afford the Fasttraxx. The local shops have all proven their inability to align a Schwinn bicycle properly so they were never a consideration.
For toe in I smeared grease between two pieces of floor tile to allow smooth rotation of the wheels. Centered the wheel and wrapped a piece of string around all four wheels down low enough not to snag on the body. Toes the wheels in until the string touched the front and back of the same tire evenly, then went a bit past that point. I was aiming at close to 0 toe so that worked for me. Oh, make sure the steering wheel is where you want it and held tight or you will have your toe perfect but the wheel will be off badly one way or the other.
More trouble than it was worth? Probably, but it was easy and fairly quick once I had it all worked out in my head. More an interested in if it would work than anything, but if you have the money the Fasttraxx would be a nice thing to have around.
Now keep in mind I was using the SC&C's great Stage 2+ setup so I had easily adjustable upper "a" arms. May have been harder with shims, thankfully I don't know.

 

The two shops by me can't do a custom alignment - their 'computer' only allows them to get to the next step if the previous one is completed properly (stock settings). These guys have not been taught how to add, just how to use a calculator....

 

I second the Fasttrax gauge. I have one and it has already paid for itself. It is pretty easy to use, although caster takes a bit of time to get right. It took a few times at first measuring it to get the setup right, before I could set the caster. Camber is a breeze. One nice thing about the fasttrax is that the floor doesn't have to be level, just close (at least for camber). The gauge can be adjusted to compensate for uneven floors, although being level helps. I did my Mustang 35,000 miles ago and I don't have any tire wear problems, other than driver induced wear.

 

Can I say string it.

 

i'll second that. i did did a home brewed alignment on my Nova using nothing but a perfectly flat concrete floor, 2 jack stands, a 20 foot long piece of string, a tape measure, a carpenter's square, and a 4 foot carpenters level.
i played around with this a few times over the course of a summer, and the way i finally set it up was like this:
i started by putting a couple more thick shims on the rear of the control arm to get the caster close.
i used the carpenter's square and level to set the top of the tire about 1/8" farther in than the bottom- this set the camber close enough.
then, to set the toe, i just ran the string between two jackstands- one behind the car, one in front of the car- and made it just barely touch the sidewall of the rear tires at the front and back. this made the rear tire my reference point. i just measured the front and rear of the front wheel until it was the same, then made the front 1/16" inboard from the rear.
i did the same on the other side, and drove it for a few thousand miles with a perfectly centered wheel, zero tire wear, or funky handling before checking it on the brand new fancy laser guided alignment machine at my cousin's work- and it was almost dead on where i wanted it. i can't remember the exact specs i wound up with, but it only needed a slight toe adjustment to get it right where all the "experts" say a first gen Camaro/Nova suspension needs to be for how i was using it with the springs and ride height i was running - it only took like 1/2 turn on one of the tie rod links to nail it down.
it sounds complicated, but after doing it a few times, i had it down to under an hour.

 

Thanks for the tpis, keep them coming. When I took the body off I rebuilt the front end with all new stuff and used poly bushings. Bought new springs and cut one coil out. Now with all the same A arm shims back in place the wheels see, to lean in towards the top. If I could get it real close Id be happy til I could either figure the rest out or find someone I was comfortable with bringing it to.

What would be a good starting point to shoot for with caster/camber/toe in?
Maybe say, a "performance settng" that wont kill my tires?

 

Caster: As much as you can get (probably between 1.5*+ and 2*+ with stock arms) equal on both sides. If running aftermarket uppers, aim for 5.5*+

Camber: Depends on how much cornering you do, and if you have corrected the Camber Curve with taller spindles or tall balljoints... 0.25* would be a good starting point. More if you corner hard. I usually run .375*- because I push it hard when I find one, but there's not a lot of curves in my area.

Toe: The more caster you run, the less toe you need. 1/8" toe in if running stock arms. If you have aftermarket arms, you can run 1/16 in or even 0 toe.

 

I've never encountered an alignment shop willing to get serious and step outside "factory" specs. Even a respected independent suspension shop here in West L.A. took my $50, read factory settings on my car, and then tried to tell me that my pulling was either: (1) the product of uneven tire pressures; or (2) in my head. It was neither, so I educated myself on what to do and got Longacre caster/camber and toe gauges. It took a lot of trial and error to tweak the steering feel to where I was happy, but after 50k miles the tire wear on my '94 Impala SS clone (which shared the same suspension design as the A-body) was normal and perfectly even, so I know I got it right. Even if it takes a lot of time to get it perfect, it's very, very satisfying to be able to not only understand exactly what's going on in your front end, but to be able to dial in minute changes to satisfy yourself. Oh, and here's the best tip I got off the internet (from a Mazda Miata forum): use a couple of vinyl 12x12 kitchen floor tiles with grease between them under the front tires as homemade turning plates -- the grease lets you easily move the steering by hand through the +20/-20 degree arc needed to get your caster readout. Good luck.

 

Thats what I used for my plates. The tiles also come in handy for leveling the car if you need to. I had the same experience with the local shops. The last one i let align my car told me how they had as many shims in it as possible and needed more. A few days later when I checked it out for myself I found they had two shims in the front and one in the back. Guess they figured I was too stupid to count.