Zmanco Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 I'm ready to slot the front strut mounts and rather than pay my local alignment shop I would prefer to buy a set of measuring tools for caster and camber to do it myself. So far I see these two mentioned the most: SmartCamber Caster Camber Tool Longacre Digital Caster Camber Gauge They're about the same price and appear to use the same principles to measure camber and caster. I'm leaning towards the SmartCamber because the lack of moving pieces in the frame makes me think it will hold up better over time. Does anyone have any experience with these they can share? And are there other solutions to consider? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tube80z Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 I have the smartcamber and it works very well. It's been at the track for a number of years with no problems. It measures caster by checking the camber at a specific inner and outer steer angle. If you download their instructions you can see the procedure. You could probably do the same thing by using a carpenters square, a tape measure, and some basic trig. I' quite happy with mine. Cary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h4nsm0l3m4n Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 I used a fastrax camber/caster gauge to set my camber and caster. It is a pretty simple tool to use and it worked well. Only issue was that it still was a lot of work to set everything up and do the alignment on my car. Eventually I ended up making friends with a guy who works at an alignment shop and got the lifetime alignment package, now I basically get as many as I want and I know he will do a good job. Plus I can always check his work using my gauge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260DET Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 Toe needs to be measured as well otherwise any alignment is incomplete. How is it proposed to do that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zmanco Posted June 16, 2011 Author Share Posted June 16, 2011 I plan to copy something I saw on the eastwood site where two plates are placed flat against the front wheels and tape measures are used to measure the distance between front and rear of tires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260DET Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 Yeh look I don't want to knock what you are trying to do but measuring toe with a tape measure is not accurate enough, for me anyway. Its a lot better than nothing that's for sure, sort of OK for a daily driver, but........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tube80z Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 We use toe plates at the track and can get within a 1/16th with them. That's measured on an alignment rack after the fact. I can't see how you need to be more accurate than that. My preferred method is to use parallel strings. Tom Holt had a good design I stole from his site (thanks again Tom!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260DET Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Ah, those plates, cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h4nsm0l3m4n Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 (edited) I used this method along with my Fastrax Camber/Caster gauge to set camber, caster, and toe. I think its similar to the parallel strings setup Tom Holt did but doesnt require you bolting anything to your car. It also got me results about +/- 1/16" that was later confirmed when I went to alignment shop. http://www.elantragtclub.com/id554.html Edited June 21, 2011 by h4nsm0l3m4n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Why am I not finding Tom's string setup on his site? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260DET Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 Nearly forgot, with any DIY alignment how do people do the actual adjustments? Other than adjustable strut tops eveything else is underneath where it can't be got at with the car sitting on the ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260DET Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 (edited) Looks like I'm going to have to respond to my own question. If front camber/caster is adjusted then toe must be too. To do toe the car will have to be raised so you can get underneath it to do this. Then the car will have to be lowered and everything checked again, and so on. This is assuming that camber/caster is being adjusted up top and not from underneath too, which would complicate things more. If rear alignment is adjustable then the same procedure there. Fine if you have plenty of time and a piece of reasonably level ground to do it on. Otherwise..... Edited July 7, 2011 by 260DET Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zmanco Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 I'm only interested in the front for now (don't have any adjustable parts on the rear) so will drive it up on ramps for the front and lift the rear with a jack to level it. The front has TTT LCA and TC rods so no need to unload the suspension to adjust camber and caster. We'll see how it goes - I'm sure it won't be as simple as I'm imagining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Looks like I'm going to have to respond to my own question. If front camber/caster is adjusted then toe must be too. To do toe the car will have to be raised so you can get underneath it to do this. Then the car will have to be lowered and everything checked again, and so on. This is assuming that camber/caster is being adjusted up top and not from underneath too, which would complicate things more. If rear alignment is adjustable then the same procedure there. Fine if you have plenty of time and a piece of reasonably level ground to do it on. Otherwise..... You really do not want to raise the car up, adjust it, then set it down and check, then raise it up and adjust it again, etc. When you set the car down the wheels will be pinched underneath the car, and you might dial in 3 degrees of neg camber but the car will sit on the ground with 1 degree positive. You would have to roll and bounce the car around a lot every time you made an adjustment to make sure you were getting the right numbers. When I used to do toe at the track I made a mark on the drivers side tie rod that represented 1/8" in and another that represented 1/8" out with white out and I'd move between the one setting and the other. That I could do by jacking it up because I knew exactly where it needed to go as measured on a proper alignment rack. If you don't have such a reference mark, then you should be trying to adjust it on the ground, not jacking the car up. If you can't reach under the car for some reason, you might try putting it on scales, or driving it up wood ramps to wood platforms that are a couple inches tall. Like you said, you need a flat piece of ground. If you don't have that, you could make the platforms level. If you really wanted to get dialed in you could get some slip plates so that the suspension moved freely. 2 pieces of masonite with a big gob of grease in between makes a good slip plate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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