Lowered wagon, alignment, blah blah
oilspot
Wagonist
Was just reading through this thread and found some good info.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8817
I considered just plugging my questions into this thread but figured it may be best to start my own.
My wagon is dropped prob about 3". GC coilovers, extended top hats. Still drove great.
Now I've done a brake and spindle swap (DA integra) and I know the toe is way outta spec. I call a local alignment shop and they confirm that they can only adjust the toe.
I've adjusted toe on prob 30 to 40 different air cooled vw's with nothing more than a few yard sticks and always come out with excellent results. You know, measure the difference between the from and rear of the wheel/tire and adjust to spec.
Now if the alignment shop can't do anything more than toe, is there any reason I can't take care of this myself?
I havent' looked at how the rear adjustment is made. But if everybody is just getting it adjusted maxed out as far as it will go in one direction.... is there any reason not just to adjust that as far in that direction as far as possible and know that that's as good as it's gonna get without buying the "toe kit".
of course the question "why don't you just stop being cheep and go pay for an alignment" will come up. My answer "do you give away money that you don't need to"? If so I'll provide you with my paypal address
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8817
I considered just plugging my questions into this thread but figured it may be best to start my own.
My wagon is dropped prob about 3". GC coilovers, extended top hats. Still drove great.
Now I've done a brake and spindle swap (DA integra) and I know the toe is way outta spec. I call a local alignment shop and they confirm that they can only adjust the toe.
I've adjusted toe on prob 30 to 40 different air cooled vw's with nothing more than a few yard sticks and always come out with excellent results. You know, measure the difference between the from and rear of the wheel/tire and adjust to spec.
Now if the alignment shop can't do anything more than toe, is there any reason I can't take care of this myself?
I havent' looked at how the rear adjustment is made. But if everybody is just getting it adjusted maxed out as far as it will go in one direction.... is there any reason not just to adjust that as far in that direction as far as possible and know that that's as good as it's gonna get without buying the "toe kit".
of course the question "why don't you just stop being cheep and go pay for an alignment" will come up. My answer "do you give away money that you don't need to"? If so I'll provide you with my paypal address
Comments
i understand not wanting to pay for an alignment but it may be worth it in the long run if you don't have access to an alignment rack and computer. a competent alignment tech should be able to do this in less than an hour unless parts are seized.
Now this may make sense in my mind, and I'm not saying this to question you, and I may very well end up just going and getting the alignment done. But this is what I'm thinking...
Seems quite a few people are ending up with there there rear toe just adjusted maxed out in one direction to get it as close to spec as possible.
Now if it's adjusted all the way that should leave both sides pulled in the same amount. If they're both pulled in the same amount that would keep the rear end from "crab walking". So the rear end should be going straight (that's what I'm assuming at least).
Now your just left with the front. Now adjusting the toe out of center wouldn't cause the car to "crab walk" but instead would cause the car to be able to steer to one side tighter than the other. I think this may be obvious to which side you would be off due to the centering of the steering wheel. True center of the steering could be confirmed by counting the turns from lock to lock.
Now if your not just pulling the rear adjustment all the way one way or another non of this would work. There may be more variables that I'm not thinking about.
again biohazard, I do really appreciate your feedback. I get these damn "why not" questions stuck in my head and they drive me crazy!!!
yeah... that makes sense! Didn't really think of that. Even though i worked quite a few years in manufacturing. Every tolerance does have a +/-. And I'm sure on suspension stuff that the tolerances would be pretty loose assuming that all alignment setting would be done professionally.
Thank you for quieting my rumbling mind!!!
I need to be able to start using my wagon as my daily driver next week. I need to replace the tie rod ends here pretty soon but don't have the cash on hand right away. Then after i get that done I'm planning on widening a set of steelies for my wagon myself.
Two seperate jobs both of which are gonna require realignments (wheels because I may or may not need to adjust ride height to make everything proper).
So In the name of not tearing up a set of tires (and not paying for 3 alignments), I think I may give it a shot. My one big advantage is that I have a drop pit. So I don't have to go through the hassle of picking up, adjusting, rechecking, etc. I think I could probably pull it off on a set of ramps also?!?
I've always made toe measurements using yard sticks from the insides of the wheels. I found this technique looking around on youtube. The string tech. he goes into at about the 6 minute mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjcP07VK ... re=related
My goal is to get "close enough" to not tear up tires and have the car drive fairly well.
When I get everything fixed/ changed I'll take it in for an alignment. At that point I guess ill find out how close or how shitty of a job i did.
id say do it up of all you need is close enough. if the steering wheel isn't off center a crap-ton and it doesn't pull to one side id say you did a decent job.
Now say the rear track were one foot wider (over exaggeration). Couldn't you just figure in the 6" difference on each side? ie. string 12" away from the center of the front wheel and 6" from the center of the rear.
this is all i can find (still looking though!)
Damn! I'd love to burn a screen of this and make some shirts!
once i got widened steelies, and as time progressed, the rears got out of alignment (noticable by horrible tire wear) and i could no longer get a very accurate front reading, so now i am stuck going to the shop.
also for some reason my wagons passenger side front tire sticks out about an inch more then the drivers side which also messes me up on the string alignment.
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idk about where you live, but here at Tire Kingdom (though they suck like crazy) you can buy unlimited alignments for 1, 2 or 3 years so i would do that if i were you.