Alignment questions... quick response requested

[curtis73]

I was going to ask this over at the Toyota forum, but things are pretty slow over there.

I'm putting new bearings in my wife's Tercel (1997). I had two options; pull the CV joints apart to take the drive axles out, or pull the whole spindle/hub off the strut and arm and take it to the shop. My friend is pressing new bearings in as we speak. I chose the latter option of removing the spindle entirely.

I assumed I would have to re-align it once back together, but I can't see that her alignment is adjustable. The upper strut mounts aren't adjustable, or if they are, they didn't move. The spindle mounts to the strut with two bolts in almost zero-tolerance holes, and I haven't changed the tie rod ends. To the best of my knowledge, all I could have messed up is Camber, and only by maybe a 1/4 of a degree.

I wouldn't have changed caster, toe should still be within spec, and camber should be darn close to the same, right? Thoughts?

[public]

Yeah, you should be fine. I have done this several times in the past.

[johnny2quick]

as long as everything was close to spec before and you didn't put anything way out, you will be fine. most alignment shops get everything to where it's "close enough" anyways, so you'd be in the same ballpark

[curtis73]

Thanks guys. Just what I needed! Its back together and much quieter now. I ended up costing myself some money (and a little pride) on this job. When we bought the car, the tires were NOISY. They were pretty worn and cheapy no-name tires. There was one type on the back and another type on the front. We replaced the bald ones in the front with some used tires to get us through.

One of them blew the other day when a very rude curb jumped out in front of my wife, so I called up my uncle who works at Tire Rack and had four new Yokohama Avid T4s sent. I figured, why not get some darn good tires and be done with the noise. We had them mounted.... I drove it around the block, and....SAME EXACT NOISE. The guy at the tire shop just looked at me funny and said, "nice tires, but you need to change those front bearings." I thought to myself, I could have waited for that $400 tire swap until I needed them. I'm an idiot. Just goes to show you that even the simplest of diagnostics can baffle an experienced mechanic. The good news is that the new tires are great!

[public]

I too am an idiot.