Pissed off: Alignment got screwed i believe, nned to talk to someone knowledgeable. Options

[Aaron Cox]

ok... so my car has a new 911 front end. M calipers *new* turbo tie rods *new* ball joints etc. everything is NEW. i need to get it aligned.

go to a place that does JUST alignment and BRAKES. so here goes.

I gave him the specs of what i wanted (previous alignmnet thread) camber caster and toe.

he does the toe to 1/16th like spec's. says he cant do camber (something about raising one side, thinks he knows how the torsion bar system works [he doesnt] and and cant do caster too. says because car is lowered) . the car is running stock tires and is BARELY lowered up front.

I believe he misadjusted the turbo tie rods. (he unscrewed them from the rack i believe and used the lock nut to hold the length. dont you have to take off the cotter pin, pop out the tierod end, and rotate the whole tie rod end? you cant unscrew the rack end can you?

i pointed out to the where you adjust camber and caster (opened hood and ponted to the tops of the strut on the fender well!!!) so i have uneven left to right camber and caster, he didnt even do that.

i got charged 25.00 for toe in adjustment.

im gonna go yell at him and get my money back, if im right about how he adjusted the turbo tie rods.

please respond ASAP so i can get back to this idiot!

[John]

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at my level of performance, i can still do just as good a job as i require at home. it's not rocket science... anything you can do with a plumb bob (fancy rock), string, and a ruler is not rocket science. having a level playing field is (kind of) important, and for this purpose, i do have an 8' level and a big stack of 1/8" thick floor tiles (1/8" is close enough to level for our cars...)

This is what I have been doing for the last 10 years. (Since I moved away from my friend in Chicagoland who let me use his alignment rack {I had worked in his shop}).

As for corner balancing, I made a set of "Ruggles" scales after looking at the picture in RacerStore Catalog. They are simply pivot arms (levers and fulcrums) that divide the weight by either 2 or 4 (depending on where the tire is placed on the lever arm). These use bathroom scales. I use a known weight to calibrate the 4 identical bathroom scales prior to doing the work, and I have had excellent results. When I still lived in the Chicago area, I checked my corner balancing to actual dedicated scales and my results were always within 4 lbs of the readings from the expensive scales.

For my home alignment, I have replaced the "strings" with laser levels (the laser beams don't sag or blow in the wind like strings can).