Home Wheel Alignment Options

[mrbubblehead]

I have been talking to Ray Scruggs and he sent me his pdf file on how to home wheel align a 914. He said he didnt mind if I posted it up here for us. Which was pretty cool of him I thought. But I don't know how to post it. If you know how, pm me and I will email it to you.

[strawman]

I've used string alignment setups for years for a variety of street, autocross and track cars. To do it "right," you'll need a very flat surface. I've used stacks of 1/8" thick 12"x12" vinyl flooring tiles to "shim" the garage floor, based on where the car will sit during the alignment process. Essentially, I just parked the car where I've got a lot of room around it to work and marked the tire footprints with chalk. Then you back the car up, place one vinyl tire over each mark, pull the car back on top to make sure the tire footprints are squarely in the middle, mark around each square with a felt-tip pen, pull the car back out, and paint over the edge of each square with spraypaint. It'll last for years; use different colors for each car.

You can then use a long piece of clear vinyl tubing taped to a vertical surface, fill it mostly with water and water to figure out the relative heights of each of the four squares. Rather than try to explain it, DIY Water Level provides a good explanation. Then shim with additional or fewer tiles until each square is at the same height as the other three. Use a Sharpie to write inside each "square" on the floor to record how many tiles are necessary to provide a flat surface. The tiles are less than a buck each at Home Despot (don't get the ones with the waxpaper covered stickiness).

I've used the jackstands method to hold the strings along both sides of the car, but I've found building a poor-man's Smart Strings setup is pretty easy. And this setup lets you move the car around to settle the suspension after each change to the alignment setting.

Below are some pics of the one I built last weekend (I seem to toss the previous version every time I move!). I've got about $30 bucks and an hour of my time into it. It is adjustable and works for my 914, as well as my two E36 BMWs.

First up is the front setup on the front of my car:



Next up is a close-up of some of the parts. You'll need four of the grey 1/2" PVC junction boxes ($2.50 each), four 3/4" white PVC tees ($0.80 each), eight 3/4" to 1/2" white PVC bushings ($0.40 each), four 1/2" white PVC elbows ($0.35 each), one 10' stick of 1/2" schedule 40 grey PVC pipe ($1.75) and two 10' sticks of 1/2" EMT galvanized metal conduits ($4.75 each). You'll also want to use 1" screws in place of the ones that come with the four grey junction boxes (those screws are too short); you use 'em to secure the metal conduit once you size things up. All the grey PVC parts are found in the Electrical section of your hated hardware store, and the white PVC parts are found in the Plumbing section. Be sure to curse the lack of helpful assistance in the aisles of the big box hardware stores while you're there...



Next is a close up of the front-side of the junctions. Note that you'll want the grey sched 40 PVC pipe to slide up/down through the white PVC bushings you glued into the tee (it won't as purchased!), and a head porting sandpaper cone makes short work of it. I suppose you could use a round bastard file, but that would take a lot of sweating and swearing -- and you probably won't file it very straight. You'll also need to slightly open up the grey junction box holes for the EMT to slide left/right; again the porting sanding cone works great for this. Note the screw in the white PVC tee; that locks the grey PVC pipe in the vertical adjustment once you get the measurements right. Essentially, you want the strings on each side of the car to pass horizontally at the hub centers.



Finally is a pic of the backside. Nuthin' too exciting. You don't need to, but I like to push-on (don't glue!) a cap or union on the top of the vertical PVC pipe so it doesn't slide off when making the initial adjustments.



You'll want to find the exact center of the front and rear of the car, mark it on the car (a small Sharpie mark is virtually invisible) and line it up with the center of the front and rear of the string bars -- if you want the car to drive straight down the road. Once you get the strings equi-distant from the center at the front and rear, and tighten the strings and it will stay put while you make your measurements and changes.

The four level squares on your garage floor can also be used to counter-balance your car -- but that's a whole 'nother story.

File this under Cheap Bastard Racing solutions...