Nifty trick to help with DIY alignment!

[scotts90ranger]

A couple years ago I bought a pair of THESE cheap on craigslist with this in mind but hadn't tried it yet...

Anyway, I did some work on the front axle on the ol Ranger this weekend and finished it off with a tape measure and calibrated eyeball alignment... With those vehicle dollies under the front tires it lets the suspension do it's thing so you can make adjustments and measurements without constantly moving the vehicle... worked slick as snot! I know 4x4 junkie uses steel plates and a couple pipes to do the same thing, I have been planning to build a shop for several years so I knew these would come in handy when I get to that point and was hoping they would work like they did.

I had changed the passenger side beam since I thought it was bent, problem was on the drivers side beam as I had hit a large rock in a road with the center of the axle... I was chasing the symptom not the problem... put a chain to the front axle to the ball of my F350 (7300lb is a reasonable anchor) and backed up, got 3/4 there so will do at it again then weld a reinforcement plate on the bottom so it doesn't happen again...

Steering wheel is straight and drives straight again! Camber is off a touch but really close, caster isn't great but is impossible to get right until I make radius arms...

For those that might ask what a tape measure and calibrated eyeball alignment is, take a tape measure and measure the distance between the wheels as close to the front of the vehicle as you can get and as close to the rear as you can get (on a TTB under the steering arms and under the radius arms works good), you want about 1/16" less in the front so make adjustments accordingly. For measurements you can bend the tape measure at a 90* or so and just look at the measurement at which the tape hits the wheel lip and use that, should be consistent unless the tape has a kink where you are measuring. The calibrated eyeball comes in for camber, it's less critical than toe from my experience but I try to get the tires as close to vertical as possible, caster I haven't played with much, I try to add as much as I can but with stock radius arms I can't get enough with the amount of lift I have so I have to live without much self centering... Most people take everything to a shop but this method has served me VERY well over the years, I've had beater cars that ate tires and used this to get them close enough to wear very evenly. The wife's Explorer was doing some goofy stuff so I had her take it in and get an alignment and apparently it was almost within spec... that's the only car I've ever payed for an alignment on...

 

[adsm08]

I have a few of those. My resident project sits on them so I can move it around by myself.

 

[91stranger]

That's smart. I never thought of using those. They are pretty cheap anymore too. Definitely good for the DIYers out there. As for me.... I had an alignment done a few months back at work (GM Dealership) and only paid around $50 after taxes with my discount. So its pretty cheap for me but mine is 2wd so that makes a difference in price. I remember watching videos about "at home alignments" where people use the jack stands and string and I seen the metal plates with a thick coat of grease to help the wheel move.

 

[swynx]

i too use these plates when doing my alignments, i used to adjust it and roll it around and re-adjust it, blah blah. its hard to get it "dialed in" doing it that way.. with these plates, its one solid job. i also use a magnetic angle guage on the hub for camber. good thing to know how to do diy alignments, doesnt happen so much on one ton axles/steering but lighter duty setups can get knocked out of alignment pretty easily.

i have had plenty of friends take there lifted setups to a shop only to have the damn thing wear the tires super fast, or drive pretty terrible. when i worked at the dealership i saw a lot of techs, that would just tap the sensor that goes on the wheel, so it was "in the green" and send it back out.

when i first started working at the dealership i put my pickup on the rack to align it, everything it told me to do i thought was wrong, but it was in the green. thing wandered all over the road, redid it in my garage with tape measure/angle guage. put it back on the rack the next day, and the numbers were nearly identical to how i had them set before. machine said it was way out of alignment, but it still drives fine. did an alignment that same day and that car seemed to drive fine. never did figure out why i couldnt align my pickup on that rack.

 

[4x4junkie]

Good info. Thanks for posting.

Just make sure the truck is still level (not nose-high) by having something of similar height under the rear wheels as well.