DIY Alignment

[Beef52751]

can your brother take it in after hours?? i have a friend that did it for me at the dealership and it only cost me a case of beer

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

can your brother take it in after hours?? i have a friend that did it for me at the dealership and it only cost me a case of beer

He probably could but I don't want to put in him in a bind that way... I was getting looks from the higher ups when he reset my speedometer in my '150 after hours.

 

[Danny74]

I have been debating over trying it myself .... Since the local dealer charges $60 to check caster and toe (or something like that) and then $80/hr to do anything after that . . .

I was looking around for information to do my own wheel alignment, and I came across this. I know it's really old and I can't really contribute anything though, but just for nostalgic sick alone I really wanted to say, I wish mechanics still charge this much and not double like they do now in my area. Actually the average is $150/hr so slightly less than double.

 

[bobbywalter]

ttb is dynamic in function and that is varied on actual beam angle.

fortunately, it can be really forgiving if you have it in the sweet spot which for being cavernous is easily missed by some.

wheel offset and tire size and type can really be an issue.

 

[Curious Hound]

I was looking around for information to do my own wheel alignment, and I came across this. I know it's really old and I can't really contribute anything though, but just for nostalgic sick alone I really wanted to say, I wish mechanics still charge this much and not double like they do now in my area. Actually the average is $150/hr so slightly less than double.

Inflation stinks and everybody needs to put food on the table for their family.

Using the article in the tech library, I do my own ttb alignment good enough for my purposes. It steers and tire wear isn't too bad. I wish I had a good level and flat work area for doing alignments. But I get by just by doing camber and toe with tape measure and string and guessing at caster just by visually noting position of the top of the knuckle in relation to the beam. @85_Ranger4x4 has gotten more accustomed to doing his own also, I believe.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Inflation stinks and everybody needs to put food on the table for their family.

Using the article in the tech library, I do my own ttb alignment good enough for my purposes. It steers and tire wear isn't too bad. I wish I had a good level and flat work area for doing alignments. But I get by just by doing camber and toe with tape measure and string and guessing at caster just by visually noting position of the top of the knuckle in relation to the beam. @85_Ranger4x4 has gotten more accustomed to doing his own also, I believe.

I played with mine and ended up paying my brother to align it.

Both my axles are swapped, my 1995 Ranger front axle is the same width as my '96 Explorer rear axle. I really impressed my brother, I had the toe set within half a degree just by sighting down the sides of the tires.

 

[mikkelstuff]

My Dad, a WW-II Army ordnance corp mechanic, told me of a simple way to check toe-in as they did it back then.

Tie a knot in a string and then tie the string around the tire, side to side, through the wheel with the knot located centered over the tire tread. Then slowly drive the vehicle on flat pavement a short distance. The knot should should stay centered if toe-in is correct.

 

[Danny74]

. ..
Both my axles are swapped, my 1995 Ranger front axle is the same width as my '96 Explorer rear axle. .. . . .

I plan on doing the rear axle swap on my 93 4x4 4.0 Ranger when I get a chance to, but what did you swap your front axle with?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I plan on doing the rear axle swap on my 93 4x4 4.0 Ranger when I get a chance to, but what did you swap your front axle with?

I went from the stock 1985 D28 to a 1995 D35.

 

[Danny74]

Oh, okay. For some reason I just assumed when you said axle swap you were talking about the Explorer axle swap that most people do. And it always is a little bit wider I think it's a tiny bit over an inch wider. So that's why I was wondering what front swap you did to match an explorer rear. Not realizing that you may not have put an Explorer rear in it. But you must have swapped your rear axle to something else that was also a ranger. I already have on my 93 4x4 a d35, and the rear is an 8.8 because it's a 4 L engine. However it's the 28 spline with drum brakes an open differential, and getting an Explorer rear end with the thicker axles and the disc brakes and limited slip diff it's cheaper than just buying a locker for the rear differential or usually about the same price. And I don't have to do this precise differential gearing swaps where I got to check lash and all that fun stuff. I just can pop an axle on and weld on new spring mounts.