Epic2112

I'm tackling the task of doing an alignment myself. I have the equipment availible to me, just not the knowledge (small brain). I know my rear toe is quite a bit out of spec, so it needs to be attended to. The shop manual says, after losening the neccesary bolts, to "adjust toe by moving trailing arm in slots of spring strut. Use Special Tool 9171 for this step." What is special tool 9171, and do I need it, or can I substitute something else? I'm not under the car right now, so I don't know what it looks like, but from the picture it looks basically like a regular hex bolt.

Any other tips or tricks from those experienced with this are welcome, I've never done it before.

joonas

It might help.

How to

For my 944S I made the tool cost abot 10$ from machine shop.

Oddjob

You dont need the toe tool, but its helpful. Especially if you are trying to dial in a more extreme alignment - a lot of neg camber and noticeable toe in, it really helps to have the tool. If you are setting the camber close to stock specs, you can probably do it by hand.

If you look at the line drawing diagram in the link posted above, the toe and camber adjustment are backwards. The photo with notations posted later in the link is correct with respect to the toe and camber adjustment.

You use the eccentric bolt for the swaybar drop link to adjust camber. Toe is adjusted by literally sliding the trailing arm either forward (for toe-in) or back (for toe-out) on the spring plate.

Once you loosen up the three bolts/nuts and start moving the swaybar eccentric and sliding the trailing arm on the spring plate, it should become pretty obvious how the alignment is adjusted.

Good luck.

Jeremy Himsel

See, you never asked me if I had or could make the tool. If you don't need to get it done this week, I'll go out and make the tool to make your life easier.

Mike C.

You can buy the 'official' tool for around $21. If interested, I'll try and dig up where I bought mine.

RedlineMan

Hey;

I've done many alignments, and it is safe to say that they are always a unique experience. Every one is different.

As you can see, there are differing opinions. I always see people that say that the tool is not needed. They must be from a different planet than I. My opinion is that the eccentric tool is MANDATORY. How else do you slide the blade and hub in opposition to eachother at all without it, let alone to within 1/64th" accuracy? You can pry and fight and winch and F@&$ around for hours, even with the tool. Without it, you're just kidding yourself.

A 944 alignment is the worst job on the whole car... BY FAR. Get the tool.

Epic2112

Crap. Anyone know where I can get the tool around Phoenix in a hurry?

Epic2112

Oh, I didn't see the second page on clars garage, I'm going to take that CAD drawing to a machine shop right now. The thing I didn't mention before is that I only have access to the equipment for a couple of days

Thanks for the help, any more tips are of course appreciated. I'll let you guys know if/how this goes.

Epic2112

Whelp, the machine shop nearby said they couldn't do it a time frame that would be good for me (like, weeks). So, I made one myself. I took a piece of steel rod that fit in the bigger hole, drilled and tapped it near one edge, and took an allen bolt that was about 10mm, and screwed it in. Then I welded a big nut on the other side. Worked great. My car goes straight now .

ehall

yep. www.paragon-products.com
http://www.paragon-products.com/product_p/p221.htm

ehall

If you have to buy ALL of the tools for a DIY alignement, you will pay about 250.00. The dealer does an alignment for 293.00. The guy I use for the things I won't do myself charges 240.00. If you add in your man hours X the rate you think your time os worth, it's MUCH cheaper to take it in.
This doesn't apply to you crazy assed racers who do alignments for fun!

Epic2112

Or us UTI students who would otherwise be sitting arounddoing nothing