DIY Alignment

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"Archibald, Jon" <Jon.Archibald at shawgrp.com> wrote:

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I'm pretty sure I've read of at least one person here aligning their own car
at home. I'd like to give it a shot myself if the materials cost isn't
prohibitive. Anybody have a webpage or writeup on this they can send me?
Thanks
Jon

Jon, a friend and I have been dabbling in home alignment for about two
years now, on two-wheel drive cars only so far. (A Saturn and a Volvo
240) (Or perhaps more appropriately, cars that haven't required
four-wheel alignment.)

The equipment we are using is from Pegasus Racing supply. (Smart-Camber
and Longacre. I do not know about this spelling) It consists of a camber
gage and a tow in/out measurement device. Given about an hour, assuming
the fasteners are ready to go, we can align a car with more care and
precision than either of us have ever gotten at a shop. Also, you can
dial-in a little extra negative camber without anybody blowing a gasket
because you've dared to depart from factory specifications.

I have been struggling with just how I plan to carry out the alignment on
my quat-roe. The manual describes tools and procedures that I can tell
are designed to make the front and rear wheels agree with each other.
Possibly beyond the home setup.

I do recall reading of a procedure where an individual spent some time
initially measuring from center points and dropping plumb-lines to align
the wheels with respect to the center-line car-body. This sounds like the
way to go, but I haven't "had it in me" yet.

Overall, I cannot express how nice it is to not have a stranger with a
torch poking around under my car to approximately align my car in the 20
minutes his shop has allowed him. In fact, the more I talk about it, the
more I want to master the 4WD Audis as well.

HTH
Tom LH
1995 90Q