DIY home alignment

[Clifton]

I'm posting this because it is so easy to do our own alignment and I see people use ways that are less accurate.

I have toe boards that are quick to check but this is the most accurate and needs to be done on rear toe.

I used 1/2" EMT conduit. A little white spray paint to on the metal see a mark. I laid them side by side and put a pen line on each end a few inches wider than the width of the car. The lines are now exactly the same width on each bar. I used some random wood scrap with a spade bit  drilled through for 1/2" PVC to be held. I used some metal conduit electrical clamps on the pvc to slide the metal conduit in. You want the conduit height to be center of the wheel as the string will need to pass in the center front and rear on the wheels. I use a 2.5 lb weight to keep tension on the strings and small weights on the wood to keep them from sliding. Measure off the center of the wheel in the rear and front and slide the conduit until the rear and front number are equal. Once they are you can check toe and rear thrust angle.  The silver ruler in the pic is harder to read than a green 15' tape I ended up using.

Amazon for the string, I used 20lb/ .2mm. It is thin for the weight. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076J9SW1M?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1&psc=1

[TurboFource]

Clifton,
How do you center them on the car?

[Clifton]

Clifton,
How do you center them on the car?

On my car the rear is wider. Based on my marks on the conduit (all roughly as I don't remember the exact numbers) my rear is 3" from string to center of wheel on each side and the fronts are around 6" on each side. As long as both rears are the same and both fronts are the same when measured from the center of the wheel, it is centered. The conduit marks when held together should be identical.

[TurboFource]

Thanks

[jbcollier]

Europas were driven hard and often had mishaps.  I did my own alignment and then went and had it checked at a shop.  I had two (2) bent front uprights and my rear thrust angle was pretty high.  I changed the uprights and redid the rear toe.  Now perfect.

Long way of saying, Sure, home alignments are fine but always get it checked properly at least once, and, after every over-enthusiastic event.

[Clifton]

I've never had anything but a home alignment ever on any car. After after cutting off the back frame and re fabbing everything and solid axle swapping IFS trucks. Toe is Toe. Thrust angle is thrust angle. No need for shops if you can measure yourself. Toe, camber, and caster can all be accurately measured at home. A "bent" would even still be usable if you can get the number you want.

[jbcollier]

YMMV

I've got two Lotus with the same trunnion type uprights.  Three of the four were bent upon arrival.  If you have the tools to measure KPI, then no problem.  If not...