How to do an Alignment at Home

Thanks!

I'll give it another shot.

 

This is partially incorrect. While it is true that both cams adjust both camber and caster, each cam influences one more than the other due to the way the "triangle" is oriented. If it were an equilateral triangle each cam would have the same impact on both, but it not. It's a scalene triangle. The ball joint on the LCA is closer to the forward cam, this results in the forward cam influencing camber more and the rear influencing caster more. Hence why the front cam is referred to as the "camber cam" and the rear is referred to as the "caster cam". On heimed uppers this is even more true since they form more of a "right triangle"

 

Also you have to add a third step to the process depending on how picky you are. After you find the maximum caster for both sides, if you want them to be equal you have to lower the side with the highest caster to match the side with the lower caster.

 

I'm probably just going to give up. This tool I bought sucks. And my caster measurements don't make sense either.

I'm just going to make sure the toe is okay, straighten the wheel and call it good enough until I can find somewhere to align mine.

I'm going to try the ford dealership. Find someone that can align a raptor. Then go there.

 

There are extra attachments for the tools you bought that may help to bite to the wheels. Also when I do mine I use digital angle gauges clamped to the tools, fuck those bubble level things.

 

What is wrong with the caster measurement?

 

I threw it across the garage and broke the bubble gauge. So that's taken care of.

It's clearly way more than it's ever been based on the distance between the wheel well and the tire but calculating I get somewhere around 1.x degrees of caster. The tool say 12+.

 

Get a magnetized digital angle gauge and a piece of steel flat bar, cut the flat bar so it fits against the wheel and use that. I've got those wheel clamps too, but only use those to set toe. Sometimes I clamp the digital angle gauge to those if I'm being lazy.

 

I'm going to try that and see what happens. I have a digital gauge but the way that tool works there wasn't really a good spot to get it flat.

I bought toe plates for that part.

 

Touche, but I was simplifying. Would have been awesome if they'd made the LCA a right triangle with the one cam the right corner...

 

First at home alignment. Drive in today was pretty good, still got a little jumpy on me but it's also windy as shit today. If you see anything in these specs let me know, I'll gladly try again if you think it's needed.

One side I couldn't get more caster out of it, I'm guessing it's because I'm cranked a little more on the driver side. Those TC cam gussets sure make it tight to move the cams around.

 

Question. On LT 4x4 kits... do they usually want you to run negative camber? And how much camber is it?

 

while i know it depends on the driver and driver preference. I drive aggressively, how much negative camber would you recommend on a daily like mine is. I'm damn near at 0 camber but i don't want to wear the outside tread down fast because cornering. I see you have yours around -2, but its not a daily and -2 seems like enough to cause premature wear on a daily. I know its more of a happy medium in the end, but what would you aim for if you were in my situation for camber. I'm leaning around 1*-ish. Im going to try to dick with it some more this weekend to hopefully squeak a little more caster out of the driver side since it sometimes still dances around, but nowhere near previous.

 

maybe i wont mess with it anymore then....

 

Got a real alignment as I'm having some dancing still on the highway above 60mph. My caster cam is maxed out. All the way inward with the bolt on the outside. Camber is a touch positive. We adjusted it negative to see if caster would grow and this is where it's maxed.

Beginning to think there's not much caster built into the BajaKits kit. As of right now I'll have to say my shit drove better before the kit.

 

Wow I have no chance of getting mine in spec then. I have a 2016 with Fox 2.5s at about 2in of lift with Dirt King UCA'S and these are my numbers before I go back in and have the caster fixed.

 

id kill for 4* caster

 

Why lol