How to do an Alignment at Home

Eh i dont trust those dudes to touch my truck. Make sure you go over every bolt they could of touched with a torque wrench. 5.5* of caster probably makes steering HEAVY. Though you are LT so stock specs kinda go out the window.

Hopefully the 4.5* caster is passenger side otherwise you will be fighting road crown pretty bad.

Actually surprised they even touch your truck with the UCA being heimed.

 

It's a smaller alignment shop that came highly recommended and aren't afraid of touching my truck. They do good work, I've checked several times when taking it in before. Been using them since I moved out here. And yes 4.5 is passenger side.

 

and they offer lifetime alignments! wish we had something like that here. A proper alignment shop that knows what they are doing is hard to find... i have a guy here in cam, but its 80 bucks a pop.

 

Yeah they're good. $190 for lifetime alignment.

 

So the biggest obstacle for me is finding a level surface. I'd imagine all driveways and garages will be sloped for drainage so where are people doing their alignments???

 

Can't wait to get to work on an alignment. Thanks for the detailed writeup.

 

You dont need a level surface, just need a flat surface. Zero out your angle finder on the ground right next to your tire on the same plane as you would measure camber (as thats the only measurement you take in relation to the ground) then measure camber.

 

As an amendment to the OP i found doing it slightly different provided easier / better results.

The key with alignment is getting things equal. Tire killers are toe and camber. Caster not so much. Luckily toe and camber are the easiest to set.

CASTER:
For caster you want to be equal on each side so if you follow the same procedure on either side and get the same numbers you can be very accurate.

1. Turn wheel you are measuring so that it points out (if you are measuring caster on driver side, that would mean turn to the left first)
   1. 20* of steering angle is right at +- 1 turn of the wheel from center. Figures calculated below can be multiplied by ~1.4 to get actual caster number OR do +- 1.25 turns of the steering wheel from straight and get more accurate numbers without having to multiply by anything
2. Line up angle finder on the rim to measure for camber and ZERO IT OUT
3. Turn wheel same number of turns so it points in, and then measure camber angle with angle finder. (zeroing out the angle finder on the first measurement simply makes the angle finder do the difference math for you!)

And those are your caster numbers. Like stated doing the 20* in and out yeilds a difference figure that needs to be multiplied by right around 1.4 to get actual caster numbers (i have verified this with doing my calculations then taking it to get computer alignment checked). I then did a bigger caster measurement sweep (1.25 +- turns of the steering wheel) and came up spot on to computer alignment numbers calculated. I noticed when I watched the alignment guy he was turning right about the same 1.25+- turns for his caster sweeps so this makes sense.

CAMBER:
For my and my SPC uca's this is INSANELY easy to adjust as its one nut, slide the upper ball joint in or out without affecting caster adjustments at all. Its also easy to measure as like stated above, simply zero out your angle finder on your straight edge on the ground next to your tire (on the same plane as vertical of your rim) and then measure camber (degrees off of 90* from the ground)

TOE:
This one is kind of a bitch especially if you are doing it by yourself. But last night I came up with a super simple way to measure by yourself INSANELY accurate. Make two long straight edges that you affix to rims that extend out past the tires so you can hook a tape measure on one side of the truck in front or behind the tire and measure on the other side then measure the difference in toe in or toe out. I was always able to ball park it with a line on the tire like in the OP but now i can be confident in saying i have 1.5mm of toe in.





Anyways. I gotta say to the OP. Thanks for this thread. It made it to where I am confident doing alignment on my truck, know i can get it dead nuts accurate and the satisfaction of doing it myself as well as saving $$$

 

I just did your toe method and it worked like a charm! I used electrical tape to hold the aluminum in place and a digital angle finder to level them, then measured. As suspected, I have way too much toe in after installing some OME trim packers... 8mm of toe in, or .45 degrees! Adjusting that down to acceptable numbers around 1.5mm today.

Thanks for the advice.

 

So let me make sure I'm mentally working through this correctly- after adding about 1.5" of lift in the front and going on a wheeling trip, my steering is really kind of wacky. It will periodically wander and it feels like there's a bit of a 'deadzone' where the wheel just wont return to center. Sometimes, when I correct it, the response is really twitchy and kind of harsh. This doesn't feel the best with my swaybar off on the highway, as you could imagine. I assume since this was post wheeling, it's an alignment thing, and after reading this thread and reading up on caster/camber/toe, it seems like maybe I have low caster and could improve the stability by adding more positive caster.

Does this sound like a correct analysis, or am I off the mark?

Great post, btw, OP. I love learning new diy things that save money.

 

@dirty deeds

 

Generally, the darting sensation where it follows grooves/ruts in the road is from low caster. The "not return to center" is usually a caster issue as well. The "dead zone" sensation, you got me. Not sure how you'd lose caster from wheeling unless your cams/adjustable UCA's were lose. Usually it's your toe that gets jacked from wheeling from bending a tie-rod.

 

Just installed my front TRD coil overs and then followed this great how to!! Kudos!!! Highly recommend just making a 20 degree triangle...cuts down on a lot of the wheel turning especially if you are good at eye balling things and making things at home.

Can someone please clarify what Out and In means?

I assumed that ‘Out’ on the Drivers side means wheels Left, and ‘Out’ on the Passenger side means wheels Right.

And ‘In’ on the Drivers side means wheels Right, and ‘In’ on the Passenger side means wheels Left. Are these correct?

 

@dirty deeds

 

Lawl. 2 posts up you tagged me. I forgot

 

@jberry813 Im in the middle of doing an alignment solely off a heimed upper. The driver side has lots of adjustability in and out, but the passenger side is running out of thread engagement. I’m at 88.8* or 1.2* negative.
Wondering if it’s best match the other side and be done with it.

At strapped droop they are both very close to 90*

 

Haven't attempted this yet. I was wondering if you know how many degree of camber/caster.


went and got my truck aligned from "reputable" shop but they didn't attempt at the caster is was .8 first and still .8 when they finished.


Based on what I've read here, If i shorten the the front of the driver side, it will add caster, add camber and in my head probably toe in the driver wheel too. all things that could be adjusted to still be in spec.

I'm wondering how much per a mark on the cam bolts, turns per bolt affect the camber/caster. Maybe even if a rough estimate.

 

@nd4spdbh
When checking camber, are you zeroing out the angle finder near the wheel, then checking both? Or do you zero it out next to each wheel?

 

Near each wheel. Take your straight edge, put it on the ground directly out from the center of the wheel perpendicular to the wheel/tire, zero it out, then move straight edge and angle finder up to the wheel on the same plane.

 

Thanks. Thats what I was doing, but only at 1 wheel. Using your method tomorrow.