Decent alignment tools?
 

Searching the forums I have found plenty of useful information on the actual alignment settings for autocross but little on the methodology used to measure camber, caster, and toe. In an effort to keep costs down I would like to do it myself. I see somewhat cheap tools, such as the FastTrax gauge, that seem to do the job. On the other hand I have read that you can do it with basic hand tools and string, like this guy. Does anyone have experience with either of these methods? What are you guys using to measure your settings, any recommendations?

I use money, applied in $70 increments to a local shop. :P

I have considered buying a set of tools for doing my own alignments, and I'd be interested to hear what people have to say about the different packages available. Like anything else, I imagine you get what you pay for.

I just take mine to a shop. It's only $40 for me so it wasn't worth it to buy tools when I can have someone else do it on an alignment rack. I would suggest asking around to see where everyone else in your area gets theirs done. Sometimes even a race shop may not be the best place. The guy that does mine usually works on commercial vehicles, but he's a gear head and does a lot of the alignments for the local autocrossers.

I bought a combination camber/caster gauge and toe plates from SPS for a total cost of less than $250. IMO they are very accurate, but your results will vary if you don't have a perfectly level surface to work on. I still had mine set on a rack because it is quicker and easier, but I once you have a baseline you can check it periodically and make adjustments with confidence.

FWIW, local shops can be hit or miss. I trust the local Mazda dealer where I had my RX-8 done, but last time I had my Camaro checked at a local G__dyear shop, the camber readings were all biased .7 deg to the left (including both rears on a solid axle).:uhh:

go to work at a shop part time. i work at one full time simply because i need to put my car IN the shop for tires and alignments and maint. all the time

So the general consensus is to take it to an alignment shop. No one here has done it on their own?

Hey Brandon,

I did mine on my own, and it was easy enough because my goal was just to max out front camber, regardless of the actual number. After maxing out the adjusters, I used cheapie Longacre toe plates and tape measures to zero out toe (I also used a Longacre caster/camber gauge on the toe plates just to see where I was at). It was pretty simple, but it would have been a lot easier with some turn plates so I wouldn't have to keep rolling the car back and forth. I did see some website where a guy used cinder blocks to raise the car up, shimmed it level with ceramic tile and greased the tiles to act as turn plates. I didn't do all that because I ended up spending no money, but if I was starting from scratch, I would give it a shot. However, I will also say that if I didn't already have access to all of the tools, I probably would have just brought my car to Belle Tire.

Thanks for the input Ken. I have a good idea on how to check the settings on my own without expensive tools. Once the weather gets a little warmer I'm going to give it a shot. My only other issue is that the service manual seems a bit vague when describing the direction to turn the tie-rod when adjusting toe. Any advice on that?

I really don't remember which way to turn the tie rods. I just looked at the threads when I was under there to figure out which way was which.

Are you planning to do it with strings and tapes? If so, you'll probably need to raise the car up on something and use turn plates because once you have your strings set up, you really don't want to move the car to let the tires scrub back out.

Edit: Here's that website I mentioned

yeah, I saw that site and cinder blocks seem like they might be kind of a pita. I have an idea to measure the difference of the floor were each tire rests and use a bunch of 1/8" tiles to make them all level. As for turn plates I could just put salt or grease on the bottom tile to make them turn.