Self Wheel Alignment

[604KJ]

Has Anybody ever tackled this? Whats the big deal, why don't more people do it themselves?

I'm Thinking if I can manage to install a lift, why not do the alignment too?

 

[tommudd]

Why don't people do it theirselves?
Not feasible
You may get it "sort of close" but would take luck to get it even close to specs
Thats why alignment shops spend 1000s of dollars on equipment. Also why Techs are trained on how to do it. If it was easy they could just do it by feel

 

[604KJ]

perhaps if you did manage to do it, it would be good enough for you to drive to a shop to get properly aligned? I hear people talking about having to get towed to a shop after installing a lift, is that what your supposed to do?

 

[CzarKJ]

I drove but did it slow and carefully to ensure my front tires didn't fold in haha also didn't have far to go


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[yellocoyote]

Always drove to get the ones lifted here aligned... but the shop is only 3 miles down the road.

 

[Snail Farmer]

I installed my lift at a buddy's house on a Saturday down in Iowa. I eyeballed my alignment and got it very close just so I could baby it back to MN, then brought it in on Monday and had the shop align it. I'm a machinist and deal with angles and precision measurements every day and I really didn't think it was that difficult but I would definitely recommend having a shop do it.

 

[tommudd]

perhaps if you did manage to do it, it would be good enough for you to drive to a shop to get properly aligned? I hear people talking about having to get towed to a shop after installing a lift, is that what your supposed to do?

Never have I heard of anyone towing one to an alignment shop to get it done. Its going to drive sort of like you're on ice but it can be done . Just no 75 MPH spurts down the Interstate

 

[HoosierJeeper]

After installing my JBA A arms and adding a bit of lift in the front I drove about 12 miles just fine. Had to hold the wheel at an angle but manageable!

 

[MoD]

Never have I heard of anyone towing one to an alignment shop to get it done. Its going to drive sort of like you're on ice but it can be done . Just no 75 MPH spurts down the Interstate

lol i drove mine home 80+ on the interstate...although i had a lift installed previously so it wasnt too bad

 

[brianawd]

You can do it on your own if you have the right stuff. For years my friend and i used the old jack stand and fishing line trick. You have to make sure you have a level surface. If not you have to make sure to level the car. We used a lazar level on the floor.

We now use 2 of these along with 2 of toe adaptor kit and base plates. Its a lot of money,But us it makes since as we are always changing our alignment for autocross on our cars.
Fasttrax Camber/Caster Gauge

If I was not into autocross I would just pay someone to do it for me. Cheaper for the normal guy and a lot cheaper.

 

[tjkj2002]

You can do it on your own if you have the right stuff. For years my friend and i used the old jack stand and fishing line trick. You have to make sure you have a level surface. If not you have to make sure to level the car. We used a lazar level on the floor.

We now use 2 of these along with 2 of toe adaptor kit and base plates. Its a lot of money,But us it makes since as we are always changing our alignment for autocross on our cars.
Fasttrax Camber/Caster Gauge

If I was not into autocross I would just pay someone to do it for me. Cheaper for the normal guy and a lot cheaper.

Setting toe is only 1 angle out of 3 adjustable on a KJ and both camber and caster drastically changes with a lift and your fishing line will do nothing for camber or caster.

 

[brianawd]

Setting toe is only 1 angle out of 3 adjustable on a KJ and both camber and caster drastically changes with a lift and your fishing line will do nothing for camber or caster.

Not shit you don't say. If you look at what I posted and what I use. it gives you both camber and caster along with Toe. I just used it on the liberty about a month ago. Worked perfect.

And yes using fishing line does work for for camber as well. Not so good with caster. Not really that concerned with caster as I'm not setting up my suspension on the liberty for autocross. Not thinking about king pin inclination and how that will effect camber on suspension travel.

 

[tjkj2002]

Not shit you don't say. If you look at what I posted and what I use. it gives you both camber and caster along with Toe. I just used it on the liberty about a month ago. Worked perfect.

And yes using fishing line does work for for camber as well. Not so good with caster. Not really that concerned with caster as I'm not setting up my suspension on the liberty for autocross. Not thinking about king pin inclination and how that will effect camber on suspension travel.

Yeah and for the cost of that junk you can get a lifetime alignment from a Firestone and still go out and eat a meal with the $$$ left over and have it actually done on a precision digital alignment machine.Then you never pay for another alignment again as long as you own that vehicle.I've seen those types of things and really they never get even close.


Granted after lifting you may never get caster in OE specs but caster is still important,mainly cross caster.

 

[TheBlueKJ]

Um not to be that guy but he has that because he competes in autocross and has to tune his other vehicles for that. He didnt buy it for his dd's


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[brianawd]

Yeah and for the cost of that junk you can get a lifetime alignment from a Firestone and still go out and eat a meal with the $$$ left over and have it actually done on a precision digital alignment machine.Then you never pay for another alignment again as long as you own that vehicle.I've seen those types of things and really they never get even close.


Granted after lifting you may never get caster in OE specs but caster is still important,mainly cross caster.

)

I did state above for the average joe that just taking
In for the alignment was much better option. For me using this junk works
Better as I change my setup all the time. Taking it in for alignment ever few weeks would not work. I change my camber and toe at almost every auto cross. I do this because I still drive my car on the street between races. Driving a car on the street with 3degs negative camber and half deg toe out will kill tires in no time at all. This so called junk that a huge chunk of race teams use does a really good
Job. We tested it on one of our cars to see how close it would be.
We set camber at 3.5degs alignment machine showed 3.3driver and
3.4pass. Toe on both sides was to more the 1/16 out. I would say it works good
Enough for me.

Not trying to start a argument. Was just posting up what I have done and
Used over the years. I'm alway one that if I can figure out how to do it my
Self then I'm going to. I love learning new things.

 

[sixpack4spd]

Yeah and for the cost of that junk you can get a lifetime alignment from a Firestone and still go out and eat a meal with the $$$ left over

HA, not near me. I've had nothing but trouble with Firestone and their so-called lifetime alignments. :freak3:

First car: Bought new tires and had alignment done on the car. Six months later both new front tires were down to the cords on the inside edge. Firestone claimed I didn't rotate the tires enough, agreed to sell me new tires at a "prorated discount". Price was higher than the original tire price AFTER the discount.

The guy that did the alignment at Firestone just "got everything in the green" without paying attention to where the settings were. I took the car for an alignment at a shop with a guy that knew what he was doing and drove it for 10 years without any more tire issues.

Second car: My good alignment guy retired. Needed an alignment. Firestone had new ownership and techs. Paid for lifetime alignment on a car that I just installed all new top of the line front end parts on. Less than a year later, there was play in the steering. I look at the front suspension and one of the tie rods was moving back and forth inside the sleeve. They never tightened the pinch bolt and it just pounded on the threads until there was about 1/2" of movement between the tie rod end and the sleeve. I replaced the parts and showed them the tie rod and sleeve and told them that they caused the problem. They insisted that the problem was that I put anti-seize on the sleeves and it was impossible to tighten them. They also claimed the Lifetime Alignment was an alignment "check" and not an alignment. If the car was still "in the green" they wouldn't adjust any of the settings.