Ok Guys,
I am still a rookie in the world of high speed driving, but we all know that in auto x and road racing we need to adjust the caster, camber and toe. I see many expensive guages in magazines, but can we do this at home without any high priced machinery? Please post your ideas and suggestions along with any suspension set-ups for autocross.


[Modified by VTECAcuraGSR, 4:09 PM 1/25/2002]

 

Nope, you gotta put it up on a $100,000 Hunter alignment rack.

 

Well, I have to.

 

Yeah, I have too, too....but I know there are some of those guages found in GRM and Sportscar magazines...anyone have experience with any of those gadgets?

 

Everyone brings there cars to the garage for like 40 bucks each time they want to change their settings? Come on.... I have seen home made toe guages for spec racer fords where they place a rack on each end of the car with a string running parallel to the car and measuring from the rim of the tire to the string on each side. I also have seen those guages that you place on your rim to measure camber and caster. Anybody use these before?

 

Sorry I'm not really contributing, but what's the need here? I would think only the hardest-core racers adjust their suspensions with enough frequency to need their own tools. Everyone I know goes for a couple years on one alignment. There's simply not enough track time to test different suspension settings.

 

Here's what works good for me: a flat garage floor, a Smart Camber gauge, 4 jackstands and 2 peices of string longer than the car, and a trammel (or toe) bar I made out of square tubing (sort of like that Longacre device - but without tire centerline pointers - instead having a finger inside one of the verticals to contact one wheel, then measure the distance from the wheel to the other vertical).

The strings will touch front and rear tires and clear the bodywork - get them parallel - then you can check your rear wheel alignment with respect to the vehicle centerline and use the trammel bar to dial in your rear toe. Rear camber can be set using the Smart Camber guage (or reasonable facsimile). Note that on G3's rear camber adjustment doesn't affect toe.

Front camber adjustment does affect front toe. Do your front camber first, then do the toe.

This IS good enough for just about Anybody driving one of these cars. My fastest timed laps to date were on a car so badly out of whack that I couldn't believe it when I measured it later (though the worst of it was mega front toe out that while not bad under braking, and really great turning in, was hell on the front tires).

Don't worry about caster since your only adjustment is to swap upper control arms left for right to get more.

Scott, who will never buy a store bought alignment again....

 

Scott,
Thanks for the good advise. How do you like the smart guage? I have seen them and they look pretty decent. On my daily car how much toe should I have?

 

Pick up the latest Grassroots Mag., March 2002 ed. They have an article in there on alignment and give aditional cheap means by which t measure as well.

 

Rear toe should probably be between zero and 1/16 total toe in.
Front toe should probably be about a 1/16 to 1/8 total toe out.

The Smart Camber gauge is nice - you don't really need the hands free device.

I gotta find that GRM - I've never seen a really good article on simple cheap practical alignment.

Scott, who see's dollars when he looks at his Smart Camber gauge, but would buy it again anyway...you can probably make up something good enough for less if you want to...

 

GRM had done one before several years ago describing the technique using the string with jackstands. it was pretty good as well.

 

James Bowler (boss last summer) taught me how to align my car using jackstands, 2 boards, tape measure and a Longacre gauge. Oh yeah, and his level shop floor. Very cool stuff, just takes a little while to get everything PERFECT the way you want it, since fiddling with each adjustment throws the others off as well. Basically we had to keep nitpicking it to be PERFECT by seesawing back and forth on adjustments for a while. I think the Longacre gauge is $70, though I could be wrong. Anyone know? I might have to invest in one of these devices soon