my del sol has h&r race springs and kyb agx struts. i put on front and rear cambers kits and tried to eye ball it. I took my car in, and they actually got it on the alignment rack, but the jacks would not clear the car. are there special places to go for lowered cars? any suggestions? just though i would share. thanks.

 

Take it to any kind of shop that does alignments without the big expensive alignment machines. It will be just as good.

Or else learn to DIY, that's what I did. Any serious amateur racer changes their alignment as much as their chonies.

 

How can you do it yourself properly? I know how to do the toe, but how do you do the camber?

 

thanks man, i will look into it.

my camber was all messed up. but i just eye balled it like i said and it is alot better. you need camber kits to adjust camber. I have skunk2 in the front and ingalls in the rear. but you can be cheap about it and use washers for the rear look it up on here.

 

So the only way to do it yourself is to eyeball it? It wouldn't be very precise...

On our alignment machine, if a car doesn't clear the jacks I just use a combination of 2x4's and jack stands, but I can get it done... it's a pain in the *** though and we charge an extra 0.5 labor. Our jacks pull all the way past the back of the car, and all the way in front too.

 

Eyeballing is no good at all. You'll still be off by as much as a degree or more. You can get an expensive digital gauge, a cheap analog gauge, or some even cheaper carpentry tools. You have to get each of the four wheels level with each other (necessary for camber but not toe). Each wheel has to be on a slip plate so that the wheel is free to move when it is fully loaded by the chassis. Then you simply check the measurements and make the adjustments until each wheel is even to the other wheels. If you use the carpentry tools (carpenters square and a tape measure), the units wont be in degrees but you can get the sides even and the rears less than the front.

For toe I use the box string method. Shops that do alignments w/out the machine use this method or the tire scribe method. In any case, it's just as good as an alignment you'd get on the alignment rack.

 

u have to go to an old school place that uses a "pit" instead of a rack. The pit is opposite the rack, instead of lifting the car up, the car is driven on to this platform and the mechanic walks down below the platform into the "pit". They use hand jacks to lift the car, and use old school equipment, not computers to line it up. With this system, it doesnt matter if the car is dropped or not. Out here in Socal Bear Frame and wheel does it old school. I dont know if u have it out there.

 

just try a different place.i've gone to several different shops in my area that i could drive my car onto their racks with no special attention.
you can do the alignment yourself.you can get decent priced camber gauges,and you can set toe with a tape measure.thrust angle is nearly impossible to set your self.
i'd recommend finding a competent shop and sticking with them.one of my local Firestones has employees that are car enthusiasts too,so they are into their job,and don't care if i'm in the shop while they work.they will align my car to whatever specs i want-not the normal "ahhh,it's close to factory spec..good enough"..best part is Firestone offers a lifetime warranty on their alignments,if you keep your receipt.they just wrote it for a "red Honda Civic",so i can take either of my cars there
do some searching,ask some people who they recommend.
Chris

 

wow, life time warranty. Im going to see if my local firestone has life time warranty allignment. How much did it cost you btw.

 

My car has cut springs so its pretty low, but I got it on the rack. They just had to take off the front bumper. You just need to get friendly with someone at a shop.

 

Bring it to a shop that have the LASER aliginment machine, I believe u don't have to rack it up, it's just by rolling the wheel back and foward.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xtremeazian &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">wow, life time warranty. Im going to see if my local firestone has life time warranty allignment. How much did it cost you btw.</TD></TR></TABLE>
i want to say it was $30 something?been a couple years,and i'm not sure if that's friend price or not.
chris