Can you get decent dodgy alignment?
Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 12:49 pm
Hi everyone
Is there any tips and tricks on getting a decent dodgy alignment on an NA. The MX5's got dials/markings for camber and possibly castors as well, how are these markings relate to actual value, given that the car is 100% straight (no past accident) could I reliably use these dials as reference?
From my previous dodgy alignments on the Starlet, I learnt that you first set castor to as much as you can but keep bothsides equal, then set camber; for best tyre wear, a bit of negative on the left and none on the right (to negate for existing road camber). The final and most difficult stage I found was toe, how do you know that you've got just the right static toe-in so that when the car is in motion the dynamic toe is zero?. Maybe I'll just dodgy castor and camber and let the shop do the final toe for cheap.
What do you recon would be the best tyre friendly alignment specs, mostly for everyday driving and the occasional twisties
?. The best alignment shops in brisbane that I know of is Fulcrum, they'll do castor, camber and toe for both front and rear for $100. Pretty cheap considering what they do but that's still $100 I could spend else where like saving towards a set of Tein Coilovers, and that alignment might go out of wack once I machine the rotors, change the pads or play around with the suspension then I'll be up for more cost...the alignments for the Starlet definately builds in between suspension mods and tweaks. If I have the cash, I'd do all the suspension bits at once and get a away with just one alignment, but cash is the problem so gonna have to do abit at a time.
Anyway, any tip or tricks on DIY, alignment would be really helpful.
Cheers
Minh
Is there any tips and tricks on getting a decent dodgy alignment on an NA. The MX5's got dials/markings for camber and possibly castors as well, how are these markings relate to actual value, given that the car is 100% straight (no past accident) could I reliably use these dials as reference?
From my previous dodgy alignments on the Starlet, I learnt that you first set castor to as much as you can but keep bothsides equal, then set camber; for best tyre wear, a bit of negative on the left and none on the right (to negate for existing road camber). The final and most difficult stage I found was toe, how do you know that you've got just the right static toe-in so that when the car is in motion the dynamic toe is zero?. Maybe I'll just dodgy castor and camber and let the shop do the final toe for cheap.
What do you recon would be the best tyre friendly alignment specs, mostly for everyday driving and the occasional twisties
?. The best alignment shops in brisbane that I know of is Fulcrum, they'll do castor, camber and toe for both front and rear for $100. Pretty cheap considering what they do but that's still $100 I could spend else where like saving towards a set of Tein Coilovers, and that alignment might go out of wack once I machine the rotors, change the pads or play around with the suspension then I'll be up for more cost...the alignments for the Starlet definately builds in between suspension mods and tweaks. If I have the cash, I'd do all the suspension bits at once and get a away with just one alignment, but cash is the problem so gonna have to do abit at a time.Anyway, any tip or tricks on DIY, alignment would be really helpful.
Cheers
Minh
