Wheel Alignment

[alstriumph911]

Nearly ready to get car on road ( hooray ) and after total rebuild have never shimmed the front suspension

or the rear trailing arms. Is there an easy way of doing this myself or is it a job for kwik fit fitter

and a load of money. If I can do it myself is there a need for expensive equipment and will I get the

right alignment at the end. No MOT on car at present so not sure how I would get car somewhere for

them to do it. What is the MOT's position on wheel alignment ,would they pass it with it being not

right.

Thanks Alan

[RobinTR6]

I am in exactly the same boat. MOT thuis fFriday after BOC and refurbished chassis. The wheels were all very positive camber but having had the body and intyerior in for a bit and a few short drives (without MOT) seem to have settled pretty well. I have 2 shims on fron each side and same on rear albeit that the effects are different. Got the tracking close by counting the turn on the track rod ends and measuring the distances between the fron wheels at 9 and 3 o'clock and getting trhat close. If you have the rightr rear trailing arm brackets then again you should be close. The shims are for the alignment of the rear wheels. I dont believe its an MOT issue unless it so out its unsafe because the only real effect is tyre wear and handling (ie not safety). Buckeye Triumph have a table of all the combinations of the camber on the rear with all the combinations of trailing arm brackets which control it. More importantly it shows the change in degree of camber for each trailing arm bracket combination. So if yours are are 5 degrees positive (they should be almost neutral) then it will show what combination will produce a 5 degree negative result leaving you neutral. All the foregoing assumes standard springs. If they aren obviously a problem I'd MOT it first then have a go yourself (loads of expertise on the forum to help) and then if needs be take to teh man for the 4 wheel final adjustments. Obviously if the rears are out you'll need other brackets to make any final adjustment. The frot shims are cheap and readily available. I have loads of spares if you need some.

 

Robin

[john.r.davies]

The classic method is to set up strings on either side of the car that are parallel to the car's midline, and measure the distance from the string to the wheel, fore and aft. I've been using the same method, but with a laser beam instead of a string.

 

'Laser levels' are easy to find at all prices. I mount the level so that the beam shines down the side of the car, and then adjust it so that it is the same distance from two points at the front and back of the car that previous measurement has established as the centre line. Getting the beam absolutely parallel is fiddly, but after that measuring the distance of each wheel rim is easy. See pics.

 

John