You do that. I would love to see it, but make sure you have a way to measure runout all the way accross the disc. I would love to see you get it with spec all the way around and inside to out.

 

And with that, you have a PM.

 

Apparently, not even the shops that use the equipment can get it 100% every time. Where do you keep getting this 0.01" number anyway? There's more slop in the steering and suspension than that.

Shops invest money into expensive equipment so that they can hire anybody off the street and get them working with minimal training. For example, Mcdonalds. It doesn't take a "genius" to flip hamburgers, but they've still got tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in hamburger making equipment.

It ain't rocket science. I aligned my solid axle myself and it's fine (granted, it's easier than ifs).

 

First off there is no shop around that can get my wheel alignment closer than I can. Now your wondering why..... simple answer, I have custom front suspension and they have no clue where the toe in needs to be adjusted at. I had to use old school method to figure out exactly how much toe it my rig likes. If it went to a shop they'd adjust it to factory specs, in which case they'd be way off and my tires would wear out quickly.

I could care less about getting them into exact specifications, not needed, all I'm doing is sanding down the high spots and breaking the glaze, so the new pads can seat into the disc. You obviously didn't read all of what I said in earlier post in this thread.

As for a way to measure, I have all the proper equipment to do the job.

I have over 30 years of real world experience at wrenching and a certified master technician. If you don't believe me ask any of the local Yotatech member around that have come over to my place and seen me in action.

What experience do you have, to qualify yourself...other than the obvious?

 

I agree that no shop will get it right 100% of the time. The equipment is very precise and has to be calibrated on a regular basis. I know there are shops that don't bother because they know that people have no way of easily checking their work. Drop a head and you are done.

No one off the street is going to be able to walk up to an alignment rack and do an alignment. It isn't that easy. If alingments were as simple as you state, you could just give a 'genius' a tape measure and a wrench and save yourself the $60,000 or so that it costs for a hunter 811.

Now, setting the toe is not very difficult, and I am sure you can get it close with your yard stick, but you have not shown a way of measuring camber and caster. I understand that since you have a soild axle you can't adjust those angles, but few people have that problem. Most have IFS and there is no backwoods way of getting your alignment accurate when you can't measure the other angles.

 

Thats deglazing the rotor not trueing or turning the rotor, IMHO. If the disc is slightly warped, it would be very hard to true the rotor keeping both inside and outside parallel, and removing runout to thouandths/ten-thousandths of an inch, using nothing more than a grinder or sander.

 

I didn't say anybody straight off the street, I said anybody with minimal training. It's not like you have to go to school for several years to learn how to do an alignment or wheel balance. We're not talking about becoming a master technician or something.

Ask Bruce about the camber and caster, he knows more about this than I.

 

this is one of my favorite threads....good discussion, if not bordering on the immature name calling...but other than that, I think its a pretty good discussion, and hope to see someones mind changed here one way or the other....keep it up.

 

The original poster never asked about warped rotors, in which case that opens up another whole can of worms. First off you have to figure out why the rotor warped, usually a hung up caliper. Even so a turned rotor will warp easier....

a typical deglazing job can be done, by simply using a piece of sand paper and hand sanding a cross hatch pattern. The method I'm describing, actually goes a bit further. Technically speaking, the rotors are being turned. The process uses a 4 1/2" high speed disc grinder with a sanding disc attachment. With the rotor spinning, you gently run the disc 90 degrees to the rotation, on the rotor. Because you have two separate motions, the surface is taken down evenly. Rotors usually wear grooves in them, when trying to install new pads, they won't make full contact, that's why you have them turned, by grinding the surface, your removing most of these groove, this gives the pads an even surface to quickly seat on, if a small groove is left in the rotor, the pads will eventually conform to it. You'd be surprised just how close to tolerances you can get with this method.