Front end alignment on the cheap....

[1999montana]

This will make some of you folks smile.

I noticed the other day while rotating the tires front to back at 128,000 Kms that the van was toeing out. Front tires where feathered on the inside and wearing on the inside edge.

I had replaced the shocks at 116,000 Kms but had not done an alignment. I had leveled the van at the time and adjusted the camber angle as evenly on both sides as I could.

So... I got out two axle stands and ran a piece of heavy twine parallel to the van and just touching the front and rear tires right through their centers (axle height). I did this on both sides to make sure that the toe angle was equal.

Reached under the van, loosened the lock nut on the tie-rod on each side and adjusted the toe-in until the front of each tire was just shy of the twine. You can do this while the van is in the air, but it is better to do it at ride height (geometry is reasonably close when the vehicle is on all four wheels). Locked everything up and took the van for a spin. Before the adjustment it pulled slightly to the right, now it goes straight as an arrow down the road. What a difference!

Now this is not high tech and it isn't conclusive, nor does it replace an honest to gosh four-wheel alignment, but it will get you to an alignment shop if you happen to take the suspension apart and need to get it 'almost' perfect.

I did this with our other vehicle three years ago and the tire wear after 28,000 Kms is BETTER on the front than the rear.

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[cdru]

Sounds like a hillbilly alignment.

[1999montana]

Originally Posted by cdru

Sounds like a hillbilly alignment.

You betcha!

When money is tight, you do what you have to in order not to spend more than you need to. Tires are expensive, (relatively speaking) so are alignments! This sometimes calls for simple, unorthodox solutions to high tech problems.

It's not perfect, but heck it beats the front wheels going down the road like this \ / rather than this [ ].

The precision aspect is the problem. How close to dead-on is debatable, but my guess is the engineers keep dialing in fractional degrees of camber, caster and toe until they get a solid, stable ride. They unfortunately, have an alignment machine to do this on.

Me, I have a ball of string and plenty of patience and time.

Grandpa didn't raise no fool that's fur sure!...
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