truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

here's my get it damn close method:

so I get it up on those blocks ( i am told that the wheel dollies work good too, but I need it up higher)

then I lock the steering wheel straight. sometimes there's a detent in the column but older vehicles dont have that so I ratchet strap the steering wheel to the a pillars carefully.

I set the toe to about 1/8 difference with a tape measuring from the same place on the tire (as high up as you can reach on both the forward and rearward side of the tire)
9 oclock and 3 clock would be ideal, but 8 and 4 will have to do on a lowered vehicle.

Then I use a angle finder placed on the backside of the rotor (water shields off) to get the camber close to zero, or just a degree or 2 negative

Then I check caster with a piece of steel strap I bent into a C-shape which I can magnet onto the spindle at the upped and lower ball joint points. An angle finder on that gives me my caster. I'll take a picture of the tool when I get it back....man I gotta stop loaning tools out

anyways I aim for 6* positive caster, 1-2* negative camber and 1/8" of toe in. The more negative camber I have to give it to get the caster right, the less toe in I put as it begins to grind the tires really bad on turn-in.

I have gone crazy with the strings and lazers and could only find marginal improvements.

80/20 rule: 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts

G Atsma

Sounds like porting heads- Do a good bowl blend (short time), then port the heads (forever). CNC is so nice.....

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

It's funny, I never compared 80 / 20 to alignments but I think you're right. Especially on a street car. I've aligned my car alone in the driveway and taken it to a shop with a multi-thousand dollar machine, spent $$ and driven home with only slightly better specs than I started with. Plus, the car didn't drive any differently.

ls1nova71

iTrader: (4)

Apparently shoddy alignments are the norm everywhere anymore. I have gotten my fair share of them too, some worse than others. So I too started doing them myself. But I have found the tape measure to be more trouble than its worth, so I made a homemade trammel bar out of electrical conduit and two screws sharpened to a point. It is a little hard to get set up, but makes measuring front of the tire to the back a one man job and is way more precise. I would post a pic of it, but I kind of forgot it was under the car the last time I used it and ran over it.... Those sharpened screws will go straight through a tire in case you were wondering!

ls1nova71

iTrader: (4)

Found a blurry pic of the trammel bar before I ran over it......

truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

nice, looks like a very consistent & repeatable set up. yeah the tape can get tricky on ya measuring from a rubber nub to another rubber nub.

Stampede4ever

Doug, can you make a quick video of how you do your alignments? I've been doing my by string, it's close, but still pulls a little, but have no major tire wear, or uneven tire wear. Just took my truck in, paid for a 3 yr alignment, and it's freaking off, go figure.

Thanks.

truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

haha same here. paid to have new tires mounted and an alignment done on my bmw.

i got double boned that day. not only did they jack the car up by the floorpan instead of the jackpads, the alignment was bad and the steering wheel wasnt centered (massive pet peeve)

i'll make a video but it'll be a little while since I'm prepping my house for sale. (yay bigger garage!)

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Way cool!

One bit of advice... bring a tape measure or other device with you when house hunting. Sometimes what appears to be a larger space is only slightly more so.

truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

i'll do that! today is the inspection! fingers crossed all the fixes for the problems I spotted are legit and the inspector doesnt find anything new

truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

well if it works out i might have a real garage!

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G Atsma

Nice! Hope it all works out for ya!

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

I hope the new place works out for you. The crazy part is my current space must seem like I have miles of room compared to your current spot - and it's still way too small.
I would love to have a 40' x 60' but I'll settle for a bit less... like 39' x 59'. If someone is willing to donate the land and such 80' x 120' is just about right.

G Atsma

But then, a 160' x 120' starts looking kinda nice..... lol

4EyedTurd1

iTrader: (1)

truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

yeah I wanted to see if there was room to pull a LWB in and still open the hood, which I cannot do in my current tiny single garage haha.

thanks for the luck y'all I'll need it. we're in contract as of yesterday, with a contingency on sale of our current home...and the list of stuff to do to put ours on the market is intense.

if you dont hear from me for awhile, i'm knee deep in paint and window glaze

truckdoug

iTrader: (25)

what a day.

put a bid on finishing this turbo m20b25 in an '87 e30, should be fun. hopefully he will bite. It's kind of deceptive how much is left to do.



took Pearl out for her first extended drive. what a peach. needs to have some fuel taken out and some spark added, but it's a sweet cruiser.



and I thought the deal on this fell apart but the guy called me out of the blue needing some scratch

so this one followed me home

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onebadbowtie86

iTrader: (13)

pearl looks killer, but more importantly, You got the malibu!! Excited to see what you do with it!!

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Very cool on the maiden non-test drive journey in the truck. Fun new project. Looks like things are flowing in your direction.
You need to make sure it's ok to have 59 vehicles at the new place.

The LWB test is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. Right now I can't pull an engine and keep the vehicle indoors the entire time. Even worse I own three vehicles that are over 17 feet long... But I do have a ton of secluded driveway space.

G Atsma

I have a feeling he's now looking at houses with adjoining paved parking lots...