Home Wheel Alignment?

Anyone out there aligning their suspension in their garage? I'm thinking of going that route and I'm curious what alignment tools are in use. There are certainly lots of choices.

I've done my minivan. This was very easy because there is only camber and toe. (the caster is not adjustable) The front of the '44 should be easy but the rear would be more difficult. It wouldn't be easy to move the trailing arm mounting if you toe is off more than a little. There is a special offset bolt to use for this.

I never have done the rear but will probably try on this car.

For the front I will probably make a tool so I can adjust the caster with a digital level. The camber is easily checked with the digital level. For the toe I have a toe measuring tool I bought from Eastwood.

Hi Mike,

I used to do home alignments on 911s and my formula ford. This is my first 944, but it looks like the rear spring plate are the same as the late 911, with two eccentric bolts, for height and camber. Hopefully you don't have to index the torsion bars (if you have them). If you have springs all around with adjustable perches, that simplifies things a bit.

To go really old-school you can use strings for toe and a plum bob for camber. There are formulas available on the web for calculating deg of camber based on the size of your wheel. For corner weighting you can use lever scales or the old Wacho scales - or find a set of digital scales. As with anything else, you get what you pay for with this equipment.

Here's a good reference for 944 setup, listing the process and all the adjustment points in the suspension: http://raystrax.com/ha/944/Align944_TOC.html

Smart Racing Products makes a nice camber gauge. You can measure camber and caster with this.

http://www.smartracingproducts.com/catalog/alignment.htm

On my 944 all the suspension & brakes have been removed and replaced, so it'll be starting from scratch. So, I think I'll take it to a local guy that's a setup guru. Once balanced and set up, I can measure what's there as a baseline and tweak at home as necessary. If you know a good alignment shop, this can be cost effective way to get a baseline setup to work from. It's helpful if you can find a shop that works on race cars - especially if you are going to ask them to settings that aren't outside the range suggested by Porsche.

Hope this helps.
Dan.

v8carreragts and Dan,

Many thanks for the detailed information, if I can find a shop close (less than 10 miles) I'll get the reference done and measure as suggested. I like to do all that I can myself, and figure careful measuring is something I have been doing throughout this project! I was careful to measure the tie rods when I replaced them, so hopefully toe-in is close. All my front suspension parts are new, every last bushing and bearing, nut and bolt. The rears will get the same treatment, unfortunately I have the rear torsion bars, but they have not been removed or re-indexed, I'll get there. Thanks again!