Laser level for set up

[EuropaTC]

Hi folks,

This is probably old news to a lot of folks, but I think worth posting just in case it does help someone.  To be honest it's actually used on an Elan, but the principles apply equally to the Europa and other cars if you decide to fit suspension with adjustable spring platforms. The manuals do state the ground clearances needed but in my case I had a modified chassis and they no longer applied.

It's a DIY laser level, bought cheaply off Ebay for some tiling I was doing a while back.  It has 2 spirit levels to set it up and can output either a dot or line. Using the line it's very easy to set the wishbones on the suspension horizontal which at least ensures you have both sides of the car something like right to start with.  The Europa has canted lower wishbones but going on the manual the inner & outer bolt holes should be in the same plane in practice which sounds about right, so the principles still apply. (confession - not used it on the Europa as that's still on OEM suspension, so I can't be 100% certain)

The second shot is in use, and with a bit of imagination you can just make out the red line on the chassis mounting pin heading along the wishbone. In practice it's very clear and easy to adjust.

Brian
 

[cal44]

I'm going to buy one today from somewhere online.  This looks perfect to shoot grade at the new place.  Drive a bunch of stakes and set a Bobcat loose with a good operator.  Then I can align my wheels, in my spare time.

[EuropaTC]

Buy two Mike, they're so cheap and I've used mine quite a lot recently tinkering about with my toy cars. And of course as you're getting a whole new house to play with I'm sure you'll find something else to use them for 

I'm always a bit behind the curve with this type of thing so it's most likely old hat to you guys but the latest purchase is a spirit level with a digital inclinometer, another cheap toy from China. Conventional spirit level bubbles but also it measures angles to 0.1 deg, which has proved very useful for setting up the rear camber on the Europa this year, just hold it against the wheel rim and it's sorted !

Brian

[cal44]

I went to the cheapy store (Harbor Freight) yesterday and bought "one" laser level.  Tripod, laser level and a 360 degree spinning thingie that attaches to the tripod and level.  They were on sale.....27 bucks.

It also does a flat line besides the dot.  You can shoot a level light on three walls at once.  The claim is it will go out 1500 ft.  that, is a little hard to believe but heck, if it goes 500 ft I got no complaints.

I can shoot grade on the entire lot for 27 bucks...............life is good.

mike