My DIY Alignment Tools

[buening 63]

I've never been satisfied with the local alignment shop offerings in my area, and I tinker enough with my car that I try to do everything myself rather than farming it out. So my next adventure was to utilize my Eccentric Eliminators and dial in my own alignment for the car. This thread will be a work in progress, as I've not tackled the turn plates.

 

I started out scouring the internet for aftermarket alignment tools, and boy are there a bunch of them. A couple of the more commonly purchased ones are the Fastrax:

 

And the Smartcamber:

 

 

As you can see, they are pretty similar. A three point structure touching the wheel rim, and a digital inclinometer. Easy enough. I looked for a relatively cheap but fairly accurate gauge and came across this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006JR8XBG/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The next part I wanted to tackle was the structure of the alignment tool. I wanted it to be fairly robust and straight, yet not weigh a ton. I also wanted it to do both camber and caster, as well as toe measurement. For the bottom portion of the T, I bought some aluminum 1"x1"x1/8" angle from the local box store. For the upright, this part needed to be steel since the angle cube was magnetic. So I opted for 1" square tubing (I think 1/8" wall). Toe is typically measured at the treads of the tire, so in looking up my tire diameter it was roughly 26". The tape measure needs to fit in there, so I added an inch to each side and made the aluminum angle 28" long, with slots cut 1" on each end. Since I'm measuring toe on both sides, I essentially needed two identical pieces. For the uprights, I don't recall exactly but I think I made them an even 18" long. It may have been a few inches shorter. Once bolted together, I bungee strapped it to the wheel and adjusted where the locations of the slots were (vertical-wise), so that the tape measures will clear everything under the car. Once positioned, I marked stud hole locations on the angle and upright (once I made sure the upright was vertical). I drilled and tapped the holes for #10 fasteners. Below is what I ended up with.

 

 

 

 

I used a caliper and made sure the bolt length sticking out measured from the face of the square tube was equal for all three bolts. Don't forget to subtract the thickness of the angle when doing this! You can use your angle cube to verify the results, which I did. I also had to figure a way to protect my rims, as just using nuts on the ends of the bolts wasn't gonna work. What I did was dip acorn nuts in PlastiDip to give them a nice rubber coating.

 

When I attached the tape measure, I determined that the end of the tape wouldn't fit in my skinny cut slots due to the curvature of the end blade bracket. So I had to widen my slots so they fit:

 

 

Up close view of the fasteners on the angle and the use of nuts and lock washers to make sure they don't wiggle loose and mess with your measurements.

 

 

Once the tools were made, I put tape marks on the concrete at the center of each tire. I then got out my laser level (no tripod used for this), and used a tape measure to the floor and took the measurements of where the laser hit the tape. I determined the front wheels where spot on, but the back wheels needed 1/2" spacer on one side and 1" on the other. I had some 1/2" MDF, which worked perfectly

 

 

 

Pulled the car back in the garage over those tape marks, and put the tools to work. Below is the tools in action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My measurements were pretty much spot on for the three bolts, and I made them just a tad further out so that I could bend the bolt slightly so that it applies pressure to the wheel lip and holds itself up. If you can't get yours that accurate, just use bungee cords to attach them to the wheel. I probably should have made the slots in the end of the angles horizontal rather than vertical, but it works regardless. I may extend the width of the bottom leg of the angle at the tap measure to provide a "shelf" for each tape measure to sit on.

 

The angle cube allows you to measure relative level (to a surface you zero it to) or absolute level (to the earth). I chose to use absolute level since I used the laser level and leveled the surface. I'm getting repeatable results when removing the tools from the wheels, so it should be close.

 

I plan on using four jack stands with metal conduit spanning two at the front and rear of the car, and using strings parallel to verify my toe measurements. The issue with my solution above is you don't exactly know if your wheels are perfectly straight (ackerman can throw the toe measurements off), nor do you know how the toe alignment of the front wheels are compared to the rear axle.

 

I plan on dialing back the camber to about -0.5° from the -1.0° it currently is, then either fabricating turn plates with angle measurements on them or use trash bags and use the string lines and some math to determine when I turn the 20° to measure caster.

 

So with $30 in the angle cube and about $20 in tubing and angles, I have a bit over $50 in all for both tools. Compared to the aftermarket solution prices, it saved me some money and I can use the angle cube on other things, like table saw blade and miter saw blade angle verification. Hopefully you find this a bit beneficial and make your own improvements on this.

[Brian Conway 264]

That was very interesting. What's next Mr. Wizard ? Brian

[LindenBruce 27]

Dang, that's very nifty dude. Thanks for posting I like it. For the turn plates you thinking something along the lines of a Lazy Susan? Can't wait to see those bad boys. B.

[buening 63]

That was very interesting. What's next Mr. Wizard ? Brian

 

:lol: Who knows. I'll come up with something :detective:

Dang, that's very nifty dude. Thanks for posting I like it. For the turn plates you thinking something along the lines of a Lazy Susan? Can't wait to see those bad boys. B.

 

I tried to keep my solution as simplistic as possible. Regarding the turn plates, one can be as simplistic as possible with the trash bags, or they can use floor tiles with grease or salt between them, or even go all out and make thick steel plates with a bearing in the middle. I have plans to make my own coilover suspension, so I'll be going through this alignment process again so I'll likely go with the steel plate route.....but still haven't made up my mind yet. The trash bags are soooo easy, but determining the angular wheel turn is a sticking point. I was looking into something like plexiglass like these but have read the bottom plexiglass likes to turn on slick concrete. I have some spare steel plates, so taking the plexiglass method and using steel with a sandblasted bottom surface may be my cheapest way to go since I already have the steel. Plexiglass isn't cheap, especially the stuff that is that thick.

[RogerC 136]

Liking this.

Once upon a time when I was in the AF, we used grease plates (two steel plates with grease between them) under the aircraft nose gear during steering/nose gear maintenance. Just a thought.

[bomccorkle 12]

Beuning for turn plates I've seen old playboys used(no joke) a few Walmart sacks with a touch of oil on them and also 2 pieces of plexi with packing grease between.... Cheap quick and easy. I've thought of making a couple aluminum plates and just matching a relief for a thrust bearing to sit in....

[69SlowResto 19]

Awesome job...makes me wish I didn't spend the dough on the Fastrax!

[Grabber70Mach 107]

Nice job Sir, you have great ideas and knowledge that you are willing to share. I'm sure everyone in the Mustang community appreciates it.

[Midlife 814]

How does the tool stay fixed to the wheel? I could only see this if you drilled the three holes specifically for your wheels with a friction fit.

 

To make the tool a bit more versatile, a slot for the top screw would allow different size wheels.

[buening 63]

How does the tool stay fixed to the wheel? I could only see this if you drilled the three holes specifically for your wheels with a friction fit.

 

To make the tool a bit more versatile, a slot for the top screw would allow different size wheels.

 

Good measuring on my part, and it only fits my wheel. The bolts have a very slight bend in them, so the springback of the bolts is holding it in place.

 

A slot in the vertical tube would definitely make it more versatile, and would match what the Fastrax and Smartcamber did with theirs. The Fastrax is pretty slick, as you turn the knob and it ratchets the bolt up or down in the slot. I tried to keep mine as simplistic as possible, and at the moment my Mach is the only car this will be used on. If I decide to use it on other vehicles, I can either make a long slot or measure and redrill a second hole in the vertical tube and relocate the fastener to that new hole. Thats the beauty of this, you can customize it to your liking :thumbup1: