The tambox DIY wheel alignment lesson

[steptoe]

Over to you Greg

[tambox]

Thanks Jonno, I will paste and copy what I sent you.

to do my wheel alignments, I put a small loop in the end of a piece of string, hook it onto the valve on the rear tyre. Then run the string to the front outside edge of the rear, wrap it around the back of the tyre and bring it out the back of the tyre in the centre (drivers side 9 oclock). Stretch it tight the middle front edge of the front tyre (driver side 3 oclock). Watch out for the mud flaps. If you slowly bring the string in from about 2 inches away, with it very tight, you can see the toe of the front and rear wheels. Depending which edge of the front tyre it touches first(9 or3), you can work out the front toe, same with the rear. Good for checking another Subaru problem, bent rear arms.
No tyre removal, mud flap can be worked around to get an idea, or remove a couple of screws and twist it. Never had a real alignment, always done it this way.

Pt2
With the string alignment, the car should be sitting on flat ground, with the steering wheel pointing straight ahead.
The extravagant way to do it is to use two pieces of string, one for each side, if that fits in the budget.
Yep, you effectively set it up so the string can pivot from half way up the rear of the rear tyre, pull it tight, then swing it in to half way up the front of the front tyre. String crosses each wheel at 9&3.
This will show you where the wheels are pointing, relative to each other, the string should touch the rear wheels at 9&3, then one edge of the front, to set either tow in or out.
Provided the rear wheels are square and you set even tow on both sides, the steering wheel should be correct when you drive on a flat road. If not, the fun begins and this happens many times, as most wheel aligners only do the front wheels, this does all4.

Ok Jonno, your turn, as you were a virgin to this, you can clarify the rest of this (steering wheel), as I am used to it and may have forgotten some details.

[steptoe]

Thanks Greg. This method is definitely an advance on my tape measure-between-bare-rims-while-car-sits-on-stands-under-lower-control-arm method!
I also measured between 9 and 3 O'clock positions, front and back of the bare rims.

I found the tow ball a good tie off spot , start and finish, of the day glo string line, nice and tight across the outer edge of all four tyres at the axle centres 9 and 3 O'clock.

I had replaced a lot of front end stuff including a rack and on reassembly my wheel align guess gave me a scrub in the front wheels that almost made it impossible to even drive it to nearest wheel alignment pro. This method of Gregs allowed me to at first think he was having me on as the was no gap between string line and tyres - but then at eye level with string line a definite deviation of the string at the rear of the front tyres - TOE IN !!

Slid under the front from the front of the Brumby to unlock the lock nuts with a shifter like previous aligners must have, given the shape of the 19mm ? nuts and got a 14mm stumpy open end spanner to assist turning the rack end shaft that screws into the tie rod . Remove the outer clamp of the steering rack boot/gator or lube it to prevent it twisting when turning rack end. New rack boot just sat 12 months in awkward position and has started to rot

a fiddle with turning each sides rack end, watching string line from the front, eyeing down string line to the rear, keeping watch of steering wheel position - straight on, little bit this side, little less that side and I got the string line straight both sides, tyres just touching on 9 and 3 positions.

Tighten up lock nuts and took her for a test drive. Will definitely get me to a proper wheel align shop - that's for sure - no scrubbing

Thanks for the tips Greg

From previous experience with a mix of tyre wear giving a pull to one side, new tyres transformed vehicle without a wheel alignment. Would never have known if it was put in for new tyres and wheel align at same time!
This align was done on evenly worn out tyres, just shy of their TWI ^ tread wear indicators on the tyres. Expecting a change and maybe a further adjustment with new tyres fitted up, prior to a prefessional front wheel alignment, just in case the string line method has an effect on handling

[Brumby Kid]

A bit confused, pictures would be greatly apprichiated!!!

Cheers Cam

[akpv]

If I understand understand correctly the first method assumes front and rear tracks are the same?

I have always used string between two axle stands when doing home jobby.

[steptoe]

Read it again BK, took me a few goes, then in practice made sense. A nylon brickies string line is what you need, get your Brum on nice flat smooth garage floor and set it up. You'l see your string line....hmmmm...you do know what an analogue clock looks like ?? coz that is where we get our 3 and 9 o'clock expressions.......

and yep assumes same track front and rear - must be safe with MY and L's

[tambox]

And same tyre sizes, as every dedicated Subaru driver will run.
Although once you understand the concept, you can tune it to suit your requirements, seen spacers taped to tyres to compensate for variables in wheelbase/tyres.

[NachaLuva]

you do know what an analogue clock looks like ?? coz that is where we get our 3 and 9 o'clock expressions.......

Analogue? Whats that??? lol

[nncoolg]

This is how I do my toe :
Take 4 blocks of even size (usually house bricks), 2 spirit levels and a tape measure, 1 extra block or 1 wife or friend;
Put one block in front of wheel, one behind, place spirit level on top against tyre, do same on other side,
Have wife, friend or extra block stop opposite-side spirit level from moving and measure the same spot front and rear of tyre across under the car(I usually sight down the extent of the diameter)
Adjust toe.

The string method is also very good for checking if the front and rear are running parallel and not crab-walking down the road.

On both you need to make sure your measurements arent fouled by any raised lettering on the tyre

Remember after adjusting you always need to move the car to let it all settle in and check it again - this is where the 'pros' let people down, just adjusting on a rig with friction on the tyres and send then on their way. Adjust, back out of the garage and drive back in, check again...cant go wrong.