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performing your own alignment

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Old 04-11-2013, 02:37 PM
knm345's Avatar
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performing your own alignment

hey,

just wanted to hear from people who have experience doing their own alignments.

camber, caster, toe?

read a few articles involving a level, string, and tiles but not sure how accurate they are.

I'm sure checking the alignment can't do any harm but obviously getting the adjustment wrong could.
 
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Old 04-11-2013, 02:49 PM
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You can only adjust toe, camber if you install bolts.

You can ballpark a toe setting within a few mm with a tape measure, just use common point (same tread block for example) on the tires in the front and rear of the front tires and adjust until they match. You can check camber with a straight edge and a small ruler as long as your flooring is even.

All more of a pain in the ass than it's worth, just take it in and get a laser alignment. The measuring is easy, it's the adjusting that is a pain.

My old alignment guy used to do it manually, but he was very good, and fairly old, and aligned race cars the same way, so good enough for me.
 
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Old 04-11-2013, 03:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Wanderer.
You can only adjust toe, camber if you install bolts.

You can ballpark a toe setting within a few mm with a tape measure, just use common point (same tread block for example) on the tires in the front and rear of the front tires and adjust until they match. You can check camber with a straight edge and a small ruler as long as your flooring is even.

All more of a pain in the ass than it's worth, just take it in and get a laser alignment. The measuring is easy, it's the adjusting that is a pain.

My old alignment guy used to do it manually, but he was very good, and fairly old, and aligned race cars the same way, so good enough for me.
so if you can't adjust camber and caster then i assume they don't go out of adjustment under normal driving.

here is the diy i was talking about
 
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Old 04-11-2013, 03:27 PM
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Originally Posted by knm345
so if you can't adjust camber and caster then i assume they don't go out of adjustment under normal driving.
Yes, safe to assume due to suspension design.

Yes, that is a another way to DIY toe that is posted in the video.

Keeping the wheel straight is key, and i've never had a good way to do this.
 
  #5  
Old 04-12-2013, 01:45 AM
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This is how they used to do it in "the good old days" it's just more time consuming than driving up to your local wheel alignment shop. Especially since you can only do camber and toe on the Fit anyway it is accurate enough if you like to things DIY.
 
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