Re: Home-brew wheel alignment 101...

[OorQue@aol.com]

>  Twenty thou plus/minus twenty thou with a rig like that?  And that's
>  only to get within tolerance - doing it accurately you'd have to get
>  within five thou at least.

You're looking at the trees and not the forest ... was your car aligned with 
you sitting in the driver's seat (and toobox in boot)?  Was the ride height 
measured (and adjusted) beforehand?  How much gas was in the car when it was 
aligned?  How fresh are the suspension bushings (and on a Type 44, the a/r 
bushings especially)? The list goes on... 

To answer your question, though: No, I can't align a car more accurately than 
to 1/32" using my home-brew method. I also don't think it's possible to align 
a suspension full of rubber bushings and parts that swing through conflicting 
arcs to .08 degrees, either.  Next time your car is aligned, try backing it 
off the rack, drive it 50' without turning the steering wheel and put it back 
on the rack and see how close the second set of measurements matches the 
first...

Still, if you are lucky enough to have found a shop that will put the time in 
to align a car to those tolerances, then I am definitely envious.  The last 
time I took one of my cars to an alignment shop, I was told that the shocks 
were dead and needed to be replaced before they could align the car ... they 
seemed surprised when I pointed out that I'd just finished installing shocks 
*and* struts an hour before I brought the car to them!

JG