Waiting to see if my phone pic comes through my work email. After looking at how he adjusted it... I don't think he did a good job on the alignment at all. I'm going to take it back to the first place I got it done where they were able to line it up easily.

 

How would they adjust around that if those numbers were all green?

 

Long story short, red is bad and green is good. Green means that the measurements are within tolerance. The problem with having a mismatch of parts on a car, although similar body styles and suspension set ups, the programs take into account the weight of the vehicle with passengers, height of the vehicle, wheels equipped, suspensions style, etc. That is why when you start an alignment you have to go through and tell the comp all the info of the vehicle i.e. year, make, model, engine style, etc. And although you keep trying to blame it on the tech that did the work, it is really hard to screw up an alignment. The computer tells you what you can and cannot adjust, how to adjust it, and what to adjust it to. They can keep trying, and sometimes you luck out and the tech can guestimate where the parts need to be adjusted to, but then again sometimes you cant. Same problems occur when all those rapstars try to rock the *big shiney* rims and the rednecks with the big muddin tires, sometimes you cant get everything perfect.

 

True... the only reason I say it was the tech is because he acted confused and seemed to be in a huge rush. He had cars he needed to finish and it was like he didn't want to take the time to diagnose why it wouldn't line up. The first place I got it aligned at before brake swap the guy took his time and got it dead on for the most part. I couldn't argue then, but now I'm pissed because this swap was supposed to be plug n play pretty much. Now I'm having to drop the extra coin on troubleshooting stuff I didn't want to mess with. Guess that's what I get for modifying it eh?

 

Like i said, he could have been confused because the comp told him it was good. Don't worry, ill be doing the same thing soon. Hopefully you can figure it out and let me know exactly what the problem is.

 

Will do.

 

then why is it that every other LT1 car with LS1 brakes has no problem with alignments?

 

sdm did you have to tell the tech doing the alignment that you had ls1 brakes?

My problem is that the steering wheel went from straight and flat like it's supposed to be with my LT1 hardware to a quarter turn right with the new LS1 stuff. I wouldn't think that a 1/4 turn would be that hard to correct but I could be wrong. I'm not a alignment expert or anything....

 

A quarter turn should not be hard to take out, im lucky, my uncle owns an automotive shop with an alignment rack...havent done the ls1 swap, but thanks for the heads up.

 

I'm going to see if I can hunt down my problem and maybe make a post about my findings.

 

The tech doing my alignment didn't even get the wheels straight. Damn it after looking again they are way off.

 

The 1/4 turn on the steering wheel is because wind toe was not adjusted. Which is where they set the steering wheel straight and adjust the toe accordingly. Is the car actually pulling to one side or is the steering wheel just turned a little?

 

I'm not saying that the tech for sure got everything perfect... all im saying is that before you go on bashing someone and talking **** about them because you don't think they did a good enough job, take into account all the other variables.
If you cant do it yourself, don't talk **** when someone else doesn't get everything perfect.

Another thing, like i said his car or the parts car could have been wrecked, and yes the spindles could have been bent. Its a piece of metal and just like every other piece of metal on this earth, it can be bent.

And i apologize if i seem a little defensive on the techs side, but I am one of those grease monkeys, and i just get upset when people don't understand how something works and starts blaming us for it.

 

Well it pulls ever so slightly to the right. The steering wheel still isn't straight because he took the toe adjustment all the way in on the driver tie rod and it wouldn't straighten out so he had to leave the steering wheel slightly turned and adjust the wheels even with the passenger side tie rod. So my wheels are both straight but the steering wheel is slightly turned to the right. It still pulls right just a little on the highway. I made sure to check all the normal stuff like tire wear and air pressure to make sure it wasn't causing my issues. The car this stuff came off of was not in an accident and drove straight. It is possible that my tie rods are bent or maybe even my lower a arms.

 

When the car pulls to the right on the highway, which lane are you in??

 

I never "talked ****". Just stated that the guy was running around in a panic getting in and out of the car while it was on the lift. Asking me questions that he should be able to answer had he been trained to do this job. I made the comparison to the previous tech at a different place because the other guy wasn't in a rush and the car came out good.

I never discredited this fact but for this car to have been aligned no issues before and the car this stuff coming off of was good, it leads me to think that maybe something wasn't done right. It could be the fact that they are 98 parts on a 97 and he adjusted for a 97 setup.

I know what you mean. I do side work and get way more involved than alignments. I understand how caster/camber and toe work. Never stated otherwise. I'm just not seeing how my steering wheel only being 1/4 turn off needed to be adjusted 5-6 full turns on the tie rod.

 

I thought it might be the grade of the road. It does it in all lanes. Highway and street driving.

 

Well it varies on how they made the highway but the crown of the road that is used to help with drainage can cause that as well. Its more severe on some roads more than others.

This happened to me when i did an alignment on my girlfriend's mom's Eggo 9, the alignment was almost perfect and the numbers looked great, but she was putting alot of highway miles on it and the crown of the road was not incorporated into the alignment program. So it still seemed like it veered to the left.

 

I'm going to get under the car tonight and snap some pictures. I'll post them up after midnight and bump the post up tomorrow and see if you can see anything wrong. If not I'm going to start taking measurements off the spindle.

 

sounds like something is seriously wrong. You should not have to adjust it THAT much to get it right.