Anybody else do it?

Got tired of paying $120 for  half assed alingment jobs.   Did some research and built some alignment jigs.   The first job I did,  I had verified.   Toe and camber fell within factory spec.   Have been doing them myself since.

Why cant alot of technicians get an alignment right?   Its unbelievable considering the 10s of thousands of dollars spent on modern equipment. I'm doing them just fine with a couple of tape measurers,  a level,  and some welded together and slotted angle iron.

Care to give us a tutorial with pictures?

More details on your setup?

I've set toe on a ton of rigs with a tape measure and a chalk line on the tire. They've all worked fairly well. I've never messed with camber other than when it was obviously all fucked up.

This gent did a very good write up and is the method I used.   (Except my toe/camber jigs are welded steel)  You are basically checking the discrepancy distance between the front and rear edges of the wheel.   The difference in measurment is your toe in/out.  You can convert inches to toe angle to compare to spec.  

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/456668-DIY-front-toe-settings

I welded a vertical pipe at the center of the jig for camber and welded adjusteable feet into the base of the jig. .   Use a level to make sure the top of the pipe is level with the floor.   Use a set of calipers to measure the top and bottom distance of the outer rim of the wheel. Record the difference between the two.   This is Camber. (positive or negative)    Convert to angle (degrees) if needed.  

Alingment plates are pretty inexpensive.   I'd get a set if fabrication isnt something you want to do.

I installed coilovers on my DD,  requiring alignment.   (I raised ride height a few inches so I wasnt constantly scraping on my driveway).    This really jacked with camber and toe settings.

What coilovers are you running?  Im running a set of Fortune Auto 500s. I can decompess my springs by backing off the preload nut.

I can vouch for the laziness of techs.   I once had an unusual wear pattern on my rear tires indicating too much rear toe out.   Over the years,  I paid for 3 4 wheel alingments.   Not one touched the rear toe links.  It took me 2 hours, a bottle of MAPP,  Kroil, and a 3 foot long pipe wrench to get the bastards free.

Mine are Icon coilovers on a 4Runner. It's a double wishbone instead of a strut, and has no top nut. There is a threaded adjuster at the top of the spring and the bottom of the spring has a cup held in place with a pin, so you have to compress the spring to remove the pin. 700 lb in springs. They are set for about 3" of lift over stock and they extend longer, so have uniball upper control arms to allow more travel and to add in a few degrees of caster.

 

I've done toe and I've adjusted castor on a 2000 dodge ram 4x4 by just adjusting till it handled better.

Can someone explain what "4 wheel alignment" is? On a truck like that how would you even adjust the relation of the front to rear tires? I started messing with it my self because it was so twitchy that it was darting all over the road, hit a groove damn near roll over on freeway. At the time the truck was about 2 years old with a 3" lift and 33x12.5s. I had taken it in to shops repeatedly. Each time they have the big print out and claim they tweaked something and the truck would handle the same. Finally stumbled onto a good tutorial on alignment in a Chiltons manual for a '67 International Scout. It explain how each adjustment affects the handling. BINGO! Gave it more positive castor. Been driving fine ever since.

The only time I have ever done my own alignment was when I bring in my cars/trucks to work on the weekends.  The only time I whip out the tape measure is to get it close to 0* for toe and camber, just so I could drive it to the shop.

I say just be careful about being a gung ho about doing your own alignment.  Just remember you are gambling with about $400 worth of front tires every time you do it.

Most shops I know offer a 5,000 mile/5 month warranty on alignments.  The day the alignment is done, the smart ones come back before the warranty is expired to get a recheck or adjust.  Just be sure to get a before and after print out.  It also would be wise to "watch" them do the work whenever possible to keep them honest.  I know many cheats to adjust the figures.  It would also be wise to get the tires from them as well, just so the salesman doesn't pull a fast one over you when the tires wear out prematurely.

Independent rear suspension setups can often be set for toe and camber.  

I was shown "In spec" rear wheel alingment results at least 3 different times on one car.   Said car was eating rear tires.   A tape measurer verified severe toe issues.   Not one of the shops had ever touched the rear and were all changing me for 4 wheels. Figures.   I bet they couldnt get the jam nuts on the rear links loosened up and gave up.

The best alignment  guy I had was one that used old school plates and road testing.   Unfortunatley,  he retired and all that knowledge was lost.

$120 for alignment?

The company I work for does it for half that, including a computer steering angle reset if needed.

I'll even break out the hot wrench for rusted adjusters, or inform you if something is hopelessly stuck, and give you repair options.

Some newer cars have toe tolerances smaller than .12 degrees. Most are .25 or so. I don't know if a homemade jig could reliably reproduce that kind of accuracy repeatedly.

You should shop around and find an honest company that will do it right. They do exist

I've paid almost that for an alignment, but it was at a motorsports shop, with me sitting in the car, and getting the adjustments I wanted to the tenth of a degree.

I want to start doing my own alignments trackside but need to build some gauges first.

Good points.   My old guy would do an honest job for 70 bucks.   Then he retired.   Trust me,  if I could find an honest tech around here that would do a good job,  There is no way in hell Id be doing it myself.

I know I was able have a DIY job verified and got damn close to factory specs.  Some where in the plus or minus .15  degrees on the printout.   The tech was amazed once I revealed I had set it at home.

I also have a very good sense of how proper alignment should feel.   Many years of racing tunes that into someone very well.  If something feels slightly amiss,  I jig it up again and double check.  

I am curious what kind of car the OP had that was eating rear tires?  

So far I have only dealt with shops I actually worked for.  To this day I take in my cars to a shop I used to work for as far as alignments go.  I know the guys that work on my cars as I used to work with them at one point.

2007 Camry.  

Im not sure how the rear toe got so far out of whack.  Maybe the previous owner knew.   Rear tires were feathered badly from misalingment.    Had to rotate every oil change to prevent losing tires.

Might have been tire choice as well.   Used to run Firestone Firehawks.   Switched to Cooper CS4s and didnt have nearly the wear.   Toe was still messed up until I corrected it.