bobzemuda

When I'd gotten my Revo's I had my car alligned as it was pretty out of whack when I bought it.

I bought the lifetime alignment at Firestone. So, when I lifted and added the upper control arms I took it back to have them align it, and after a couple thousand miles noticed my tires were wearing a little unevenly.

So, tonight, I took it in to have them fix it and rotate my tires, and they were telling me that if the geometry changed, that they would need specs to align to as they go by the manufacturers specs. I know little of alignment past toe, camber, and caster.

I can't tell if it looks right, as it's dark outside now, and it's one of those optical allusion type things. I'm wondering how I would go about obtaining a spec for them to align to if my alignment geometry has changed due to my shocks, spacers, upper control arms, and also, how people align cars when they don't have a spec to align to as there obviously has to be a way.

If I have to pay to have it aligned somewhere else, I'd like to at least walk away with some specs so that I can then have Firestone do it in the future to those specs...if that's even a possibility. As I said, I have no real idea how it works other than the theory behind it.

Bill

superjoe83

After i put my 3" lift on my tacoma and 33's i took it to Les Schwab to get it aligned and the guy said that he could get camber and toe within spec, but couldn't get caster perfect because my lower control arms dont have enough adjustment. Even when you have a lift on it they can still align it properly with the factory specs.

bobzemuda

Right, but his point was that the factory specs might not put the tire level and straight and thus produce uneven wear. In my case, the uneven wear was on the outer lower edge because my caster was off the tops of the tires were slightly further out than the bottom.

The manager actually admitted that the previous guy hadn't done it right as well.

superjoe83

The manager was right they didnt do it right

The angles are:

Camber, the inward/outward tilt of the tire when viewed from the back or front.
Toe, the inward or outward position of the tires when veiwed from above,
Caster, the position of the upper balljoint compared to the lower balljoint when viewed from the side, this angle is not a tire wearing angle.

Lets say for example that the factory spec for camber is -1.5 degrees to true vertical, with the lift the control arms are not in the same angle but the tire should still be at -1.5 degrees to vertical and the adjustment cams on the lower control arms will have enough adjustment to compensate for the lift, so the original specs will still work. the guy at the shop just did a poor job, take it back and have them do it again, i hope this helps you out

bobzemuda

Thank you, this was very helpful. I think they may have done it right this time actually. Like I said, the manager did it himself. It was to dark for me to really get a good look at it when I got home though.



Bill

WATRD

You are on the right track. As some of the SAS guys, some of the long travel guys and those who have combined different lifts together have found out, nailing down alignment specs can be a pain.

What I have seen work for people is the following. Find a "real" alignment shop. Not a place that sells tires, not sears, but the kind of place that does show cars, custom builts etc. Ask around at your local off road shops, muscle car shops, low-rider shops and the like until you get a tip on somewhere that does custom alignments from the ground up. They have some pretty wild equipment that measures angles and relationships that those things that hang on the tires can only dream of. It ain't cheap, but you will they will align it right, even if it takes different cams or other modifications to make it work. Then they will give you a report that has a zillion numbers on it about the relationships between different suspension parts including the ones that a tire shop would need for future alignments. Until you change something else, you now have the numbers you need for future alignments.

The tire shop guys know how to set alignments for anything they can look up in their database, but most of them don't really know how to do an alignment from scratch and get it right. If you have ever read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, there is a great section in there on how those people differ from "real" mechanics. It's part of the cost of modifiying your rig out of factory spec.