Quote:
Originally Posted by krnnerdboy
More details please
|
I use:
Longacre toe plates, which come with a pair of tape measures:
http://www.longacreracing.com/catalo...id=152&catid=5
With these, you can set front and rear toe to within 1/16" (total toe) without too much effort. You cannot set rear thrust angle, but as long as that was good to start with, you won't mess it up.
For camber, I use a digital level:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...igital%20level
There are fancier ones, but this one is fine for me. I put the toe plate up against the wheel vertically and use the level on the toe plate. This gives you pretty good relative camber measurements (i.e. left to right) and OK absolute camber measurement. If you want really exact camber measurement, you can get a Smart Camber gauge:
http://www.smartracingproducts.com/c.../alignment.htm
In both cases, you need a level surface to park on to do the measurement. Depending on your car, you might also need some special tools. For my Z4m, I got a special tool to set the rear toe, and another to set the front camber (which I didn't really need, it turns out). I ordered both from Baum Tools.
All you do with toe plates is put the plates up against the left and right wheels and measure between them with two tape measures. One tape measure goes in front of the tire, the other behind. If the measurements are identical you have zero toe. If the front measurement is larger than the rear, you have toe out (and vice versa). You just keep measuring with the plates and tape measures and adjust the tie rods or rear toe adjusters until you get what you want. Since this method only measures the difference between the left and right side, it can't tell if both tires are off in the same direction (i.e. steering wheel not straight ahead, or rear wheels both pointed in the same direction, i.e. thrust angle). You just need to be sure you're starting out with the steering wheel straight ahead and no rear thrust angle, which should be good if you got the car aligned at a real shop and haven't messed with it. When you make adjustments you just need to be sure to move the left and right tie rods/adjusters an equal amount and in the right direction for each adjustment so you keep things centered. With the front, its easy to tell when you make a mistake, because your steering wheel won't be centered. That's easy to fix (just move both tie rods in the same direction). With the rear, you need to be more careful, because its not as obvious when you make a mistake.
If you really want to be able to adjust everything, then you can invest in a Smart String setup. With this you can do rear thrust angle, although the setup costs quite a lot ($400).
http://www.smartracingproducts.com/c.../alignment.htm