Alignment Help

[Howitzer]

I need some serious help with my alignment. I have a feeling some of these issues are just the shops I've been going to, but I need help figuring out how to get this mess straight.

I recently took the car in for an alignment to dial in additional front camber and to make sure front toe was 0. I recently put on wider tires squared and wanted to make sure the fronts could tuck under the front fenders and wanted more camber anyway for a more track oriented spec. The overall tire diameter was slightly smaller (305/30/19 vs 285/35/19) but that should not have this much of an affect...It feels like the shop has just set my toe specs correct but to an extreme front and rear so they can't adjust camber properly. There's nothing bent or broken. I don't have rear adjustable camber arms yet but this just seems crazy. There's no way my rear camber can this this far off and look at how extreme the front camber plates are now set to still not be right (they can't be adjusted further to make them more even).

I have camber plates and my driver side is at "minimum" while passenger side is at "maximum".
Front camber is -2.4 (passenger - can't adjust to anything more), -3.1 (driver - can't adjust to anything less).
Rear camber is -3.2 (passenger) and 0.3 (driver)

Toe is zeroed in front and 0.19 rear (which is about what I was wanting).

Here's pic of the camber plate adjustments that they did to show these are at extreme ends:

Tie rod adjustments:
Passenger - driver

Rear toe adjustments:
Passenger - driver

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[NightmareMoon]

Yeah thats fucked.

 

[NightmareMoon]

Switch shops.

that passenger front camber should be 3+, and the driver should be <2 with those strut tower positions unless something else is whack. What shocks do you have? Are there slotted struts or camber bolts in there? Strut mounts can get bent. Is you caster even or is it also whacked out?

for the rear, I bet the shop doesnt lnow where the stock camber is adjusted and they’re trying to do it all with those aftermarket parts and are neglecting to adjust the factory camber slotted pickups. The rear is a PITA to adjust but you should not settle with that crap camber alignment.

edit: for stock strut tower openings the passenger might be ok but the drivers side is sure not right.

 

[Howitzer]

Switch shops.

that passenger front camber should be 3+, and the driver should be <2 with those strut tower positions unless something else is whack. What shocks do you have? Are there slotted struts or camber bolts in there? Strut mounts can get bent. Is you caster even or is it also whacked out?

for the rear, I bet the shop doesnt lnow where the stock camber is adjusted and they’re trying to do it all with those aftermarket parts and are neglecting to adjust the factory camber slotted pickups. The rear is a PITA to adjust but you should not settle with that crap camber alignment.

edit: for stock strut tower openings the passenger might be ok but the drivers side is sure not right.

No camber bolts in use. The camber plates I have also do not have castor adjustment so nothing to screw with there. Castor not exactly even but seems to be in spec at 7.2 vs 7.7 (last alignment shows 6.8 vs 7.6 and no out of whack issues like now - with same parts other than the wheels/tires).

I have ford racing track shocks.

Nothing seems bent, but maybe I need to inspect closer. I had -2.1 camber(both sides) last year and the adjustments for the camber plates were almost identical. And now I have...whatever is happening here.

Also...I just did another visual ..and am I crazy or does it look like I have significantly more camber on passenger vs driver...or either the tire is just stuck out more on driver side somehow?

Passenger:

Driver:

Also attaching their alignment sheet for reference:

 

[NightmareMoon]

Yeah the photos jive with the strut tower photos - and they’re inconsistent with the printout. I think your alignment guy doesn’t know how to mount his equipment on the wheel or something.

so back to step 1 - find a better alignment shop.

you can meaure camber at home with a level and a ruler (and some really basic high school trig).

 

[Howitzer]

Yeah the photos jive with the strut tower photos - and they’re inconsistent with the printout. I think your alignment guy doesn’t know how to mount his equipment on the wheel or something.

so back to step 1 - find a better alignment shop.

you can meaure camber at home with a level and a ruler (and some really basic high school trig).

Yeah...The plate adjustments do seem to match visually with the tire angle and does not match the printout. The rear does unfortunately look to match the printout but either way. I'm going to try to find a more competent shop or figure out a way to just do my own alignments at this point.

If anyone reading this happens to know of a place that's worked for you in central NC, hit me up.

 

[NightmareMoon]

The rear stock alignment points (which are probably the issue w/r/t the rear camber) are a pain to adjust. Best to find a shop which can do it. Plus the toe and camber adjustments cross-talk with each other.

but front camber you can kinda to at home and just take it to a shop to fix the toe (or go get you some toe plates and do the front yourself). Either way tho unless you have an alignment rack, you’re lrobably going to want to take it someplace to do the rear alignment.

 

[1995_4.6]

Don't know if this is close to you. They have done work for a friend of mine.
Black Mountain Tire Connection, Black Mountain, NC

 

[thornclaw]

u need to take it to a performance alignment shop. dealer/firestone/goodyear will not set it up properly
i also dont believe the drivers front is -3

 

[TopJimmyCooks]

I need some serious help with my alignment. I have a feeling some of these issues are just the shops I've been going to, but I need help figuring out how to get this mess straight.

I recently took the car in for an alignment to dial in additional front camber and to make sure front toe was 0. I recently put on wider tires squared and wanted to make sure the fronts could tuck under the front fenders and wanted more camber anyway for a more track oriented spec. The overall tire diameter was slightly smaller (305/30/19 vs 285/35/19) but that should not have this much of an affect...It feels like the shop has just set my toe specs correct but to an extreme front and rear so they can't adjust camber properly. There's nothing bent or broken. I don't have rear adjustable camber arms yet but this just seems crazy. There's no way my rear camber can this this far off and look at how extreme the front camber plates are now set to still not be right (they can't be adjusted further to make them more even).

I have camber plates and my driver side is at "minimum" while passenger side is at "maximum".
Front camber is -2.4 (passenger - can't adjust to anything more), -3.1 (driver - can't adjust to anything less).
Rear camber is -3.2 (passenger) and 0.3 (driver)

Toe is zeroed in front and 0.19 rear (which is about what I was wanting).

Here's pic of the camber plate adjustments that they did to show these are at extreme ends:

Tie rod adjustments:
Passenger - driver

Rear toe adjustments:
Passenger - driver

Not sure where you are in NC, but I've heard good things about https://performance-chassis.com/ (I haven't used them yet)
My last alignment was done by https://www.velocitymotorworks.com/ and they were able to figure out how to balance the lower (OEM) camber vs. camber plate adjustments.
I agree with Nightmare Moon. You need a new shop.

 

[Howitzer]

Not sure where you are in NC, but I've heard good things about https://performance-chassis.com/ (I haven't used them yet)
My last alignment was done by https://www.velocitymotorworks.com/ and they were able to figure out how to balance the lower (OEM) camber vs. camber plate adjustments.
I agree with Nightmare Moon. You need a new shop.

Yeah, I agree. This place seems like they just measured wrong to begin with on the fronts. I didn't take exact measurements, just a leveler I have, but it's clear now that passenger has more camber than driver (doesn't match the sheet at all).

I'm just a little SE of Raleigh, so both of those are close enough so I'm going to check them out. Thanks for the suggestions!

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