Wheel alignment at home

[General Madness]

Have a look at this link, scroll down a bit for the pictures.

http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-r...nt-setups.h...

I quite fancy having a go at making my own setup for performing alignment adjustments at home. Where could I source the box section and adjusting joints from? Going to have a wander around B&Q to see if I can find some inspiration.

Also, I plan on having the car off the ground so I can get under it easier. I was going to place axle stands under the rear beam to keep the suspension loaded, Where about on the front end would be a suitable location for the stands to keep the suspension loaded?

Car is a Clio 172

Anyone on here done this before?

[eliot]

bad link

[Spangles]

You can't check the wheel alignment with the wheels off the ground.

[General Madness]

Sorry about the link. Google images for Homemade smart strings.

I assumed that as the suspension would still have the weight of the car on it that this would be suitable. Correct me if im wrong.

[McWigglebum4th]

1 forget b&q for box section find your nearest Aalco

2 You can have the car off the ground but you must have the suspension loaded via the wheels. For example you are going to stick a axle stand under the axle. Now imagine your wheel bearing is shot and it have 5° of play up and down. Which way would the wheel be with no load on it?

So sitting on some concrete blocks would do.

Also try and find somewhere level

[jamieduff1981]

You need the suspension springs to carry the car's weight via the same moment arms it normally does - i.e. weight on wheels.

Say for example your spring/damper assembly is mounted to your wishbones 6" from the bushes on to the subframe, but the centre of your tyre's contact patch is 12" from the bushes. If you place axle stands inside the tyres, under the spring/damper mount then the car's weight is only acting through half the lever arm it normally does and therefore the ride height will be higher than it actually is with weight on wheels.

That and I personally wouldn't get under a car supported by axle stands on wishbones. Supporting a live axle on axle stands is different and perfectly safe - but there aren't many things other than sills and subframes I'd stand a car on.

Jacking the car up and resting it on concrete blocks via it's tyres as suggested above would be better.

[General Madness]

Cheers for the responses guys.

Nearest Aalco is in Glasgow. I am in Edinburgh so that's a no go.

I take on board about the axle stands. It does make sense so will look into resting the car on blocks of some sort. Unsure what to use for those, Any suggestions?

[jamieduff1981]

4 breeze blocks ought to do the trick I'd have thought. Jack the rears up first, rest them on blocks. Firmly apply handbrake and then lift the front.

[kambites]

It's a fairly common thing to do in the Elise world, I suppose because the damned suspension goes out of alignment every ten minutes.

As above though, you can't really do it with the wheels not taking the load; at least not with wishbone type suspension, because moving the load point back along the wishbones will alter how much the suspension compresses. If you want the car higher up, get some ramps to drive up.

Edited by kambites on Monday 6th January 08:19

[General Madness]

jamieduff1981 said:

4 breeze blocks ought to do the trick I'd have thought. Jack the rears up first, rest them on blocks. Firmly apply handbrake and then lift the front.

Very true, will have a look for something like that.

[General Madness]

Any ideas where I could source the box section and joints?

[kambites]

That system pictured is hugely over-complicated if you only intend to use it on one car. You don't need that much adjustment if you're only going to use it on one car. You just need a way to hold the bits of metal perpendicular to the car at hub height. Here's a description of how to make a simple rig (aimed at the Elise, but the principles are the same; not sure if you need to join SELOC to view it):

http://wiki.seloc.org/a/Geo_Alignment_Rig_(Home_Ma...

Edited by kambites on Monday 6th January 08:38

[General Madness]

kambites said:

That system pictured is hugely over-complicated if you only intend to use it on one car. You don't need any adjustment, you just need a way to hold
You don't need that much adjustment if you're only going to use it on one car. You just need a way to hold the bits of metal perpendicular to the car at hub height. Here's a description of how to make a simple rig (aimed at the Elise, but the principles are the same; not sure if you need to join SELOC to view it):

http://wiki.seloc.org/a/Geo_Alignment_Rig_(Home_Ma...

The link works fine, Cheers.

I know it is over kill but I think for the sake of the extra effort and cash I may as well make one that will be suitable for a variety of cars. So I can be roped into helping friends or family.

[kambites]

General Madness said:

The link works fine, Cheers.

I know it is over kill but I think for the sake of the extra effort and cash I may as well make one that will be suitable for a variety of cars. So I can be roped into helping friends or family.

If you want it to be adjustable, I'd suggest making the joints yourself. Just get two bits of steel box-section with an internal size slightly larger than your poles, weld them together at right angles, and tap some holes through them for clamp bolts (or find someone else to do the welding for you, if you aren't happy doing it). Difficult to make it completely generic, though, because you always have to use something on the car to get the thing stable (it doesn't need to be perfectly straight as long as the string is adjustable) and that will always be in a different place and a different shape.

Edited by kambites on Monday 6th January 09:05

[Slidingpillar]

Unless the car has zero bump steer, any attempt to set tracking while jacked up will not be successful.

[kambites]

Slidingpillar said:

Unless the car has zero bump steer, any attempt to set tracking while jacked up will not be successful.

He was talking about lifting the car up, but with the support on the unsprung components (such as the rear beam) which should work fine.

[McWigglebum4th]

General Madness said:

Cheers for the responses guys.

Nearest Aalco is in Glasgow. I am in Edinburgh so that's a no go.

Comparing the price from Aalco to B&Q it will be cheaper to drive to Glasgow in a taxi

[richwig83]

It's not that expensive to have it aligned properly on a hunter rig!

[kambites]

richwig83 said:

It's not that expensive to have it aligned properly on a hunter rig!

It's not particularly cheap either! A full corner-weighted setup will probably cost you three figures. Assume you do it once a year, and it amounts to a significant proportion of the cost of running a car. Compared to 50 quid for building a rig and then just a couple of hours a year to use it...

[General Madness]

I have found a company in Edinburgh who sell tube and tube clamp fittings. I am heading to see them this afternoon as I have looked through their catalogue and it seems they have the suitable fittings. Bonus is they are all allen key adjusters.