I'm developing the infrastructure to do my alignments. To be fair, I've only done the rear wheels, so it's a partial alignment. I recently replaced the grease in my CV joints, which requires removing the rear lower control arms and toe link from the chassis. Although I marked the positions of the camber-adjustment bolts and didn't change the toe links, it was clear that my alignment was very different when I put things back together. So I decided that I would look into adjusting it myself, something that has been on my list for a while.
First, to measure camber, it seems the general method is to use a digital level referenced off the wheel rim. Because that reference is to the gravitational plane, it's important to have the car sitting horizontal first. My lift sits in a pretty flat part of the garage, but it's not perfect, and the lift arms didn't quite clear the jack points of my car, so I solved both problems by laying tiles where the wheels sit and making sure each tile is both flat and at the same level (using a laser level). This will also allow corner balancing if I get a set of scales.
It is useful/important to allow for translation of the contact patch. For this, I used a couple layers of vinyl flooring material with grease in between (some people use trash bags with intermediate grease). I hear that a better solution is Tyvek shipping envelopes, which do not require lubricant (and probably maintain their coefficient of friction better than my pads, which were great at first but seemed to compress and bind over time).
Then, I bought a $50 digital level on Amazon; it appeared to be the most accurate model I could get around the price point. I made a frame to hold the level, which has a magnetic base, and reference it to the wheel rim by using a few bolts in some square tubing. I trued the frame so that the level gave the same reading on the frame as it did directly on a granite plate.
Thus, I could measure camber by holding the frame-level assembly against my wheels:
For toe, I made a pair of brackets to hold monofilament fishing line alongside the car. I used some angle steel from old shelving units I had laying around; they are extremely crude looking but fit the car nicely and hold the horizontal pieces level:
Between those horizontal pieces, I strung fishing line on either side of the car, centering it by measuring to the center of each wheel centercap. This allowed me to use a ruler to measure from the front and rear of each wheel to measure toe:
With the strings in place, I can lift the car to make adjustments and then set it back down to measure, without fussing with getting the strings aligned again. Also, it seems like camber adjustments with the suspension unloaded (up on the lift) nearly match those at ride height, making that adjustment quite easy. Although it took a few nights to get the jigs ready, actually aligning the two back wheels was quite quick. I was able to get it right where I wanted, and will be able to play with that in the future should I want.
I certainly didn't come up with these methods, which are all over the internet, and have been mentioned on Prime. My main inspiration for the toe-string jigs was SmartStrings; I just didn't feel like paying $450 for them. My jigs will only work on the NSX, so for my Civic track car, I will either need to make new ones or do something like the adjustable SmartStrings. For the camber-measurement frame, I drew inspiration from a number of areas including the SmartCamber, Longacre, and FasTrax.
I welcome any pointers or suggestions for improvement. I'm pretty happy with how easy it was to get the rear wheels aligned and I'm pretty confident that my measurements are accurate.
First, to measure camber, it seems the general method is to use a digital level referenced off the wheel rim. Because that reference is to the gravitational plane, it's important to have the car sitting horizontal first. My lift sits in a pretty flat part of the garage, but it's not perfect, and the lift arms didn't quite clear the jack points of my car, so I solved both problems by laying tiles where the wheels sit and making sure each tile is both flat and at the same level (using a laser level). This will also allow corner balancing if I get a set of scales.
It is useful/important to allow for translation of the contact patch. For this, I used a couple layers of vinyl flooring material with grease in between (some people use trash bags with intermediate grease). I hear that a better solution is Tyvek shipping envelopes, which do not require lubricant (and probably maintain their coefficient of friction better than my pads, which were great at first but seemed to compress and bind over time).
Then, I bought a $50 digital level on Amazon; it appeared to be the most accurate model I could get around the price point. I made a frame to hold the level, which has a magnetic base, and reference it to the wheel rim by using a few bolts in some square tubing. I trued the frame so that the level gave the same reading on the frame as it did directly on a granite plate.
Thus, I could measure camber by holding the frame-level assembly against my wheels:
For toe, I made a pair of brackets to hold monofilament fishing line alongside the car. I used some angle steel from old shelving units I had laying around; they are extremely crude looking but fit the car nicely and hold the horizontal pieces level:
Between those horizontal pieces, I strung fishing line on either side of the car, centering it by measuring to the center of each wheel centercap. This allowed me to use a ruler to measure from the front and rear of each wheel to measure toe:
With the strings in place, I can lift the car to make adjustments and then set it back down to measure, without fussing with getting the strings aligned again. Also, it seems like camber adjustments with the suspension unloaded (up on the lift) nearly match those at ride height, making that adjustment quite easy. Although it took a few nights to get the jigs ready, actually aligning the two back wheels was quite quick. I was able to get it right where I wanted, and will be able to play with that in the future should I want.
I certainly didn't come up with these methods, which are all over the internet, and have been mentioned on Prime. My main inspiration for the toe-string jigs was SmartStrings; I just didn't feel like paying $450 for them. My jigs will only work on the NSX, so for my Civic track car, I will either need to make new ones or do something like the adjustable SmartStrings. For the camber-measurement frame, I drew inspiration from a number of areas including the SmartCamber, Longacre, and FasTrax.
I welcome any pointers or suggestions for improvement. I'm pretty happy with how easy it was to get the rear wheels aligned and I'm pretty confident that my measurements are accurate.
. Used to do this in the garage at the racetrack when I was a mechanic on a race team(too long ago to mention
