ribs

Well...I took my car up to a place to get a front end alignment after taking it to another place that said they couldn't do it because the eyes wouldn't line up, I paid for an alignment, left, and wondered why my car still pulled terribly to the right and felt real floaty. I came back this morning (2 days later) and aparently they couldn't do an alignment on it because it is too low. Strange...they gave me my money back, but I was a little peeved that they took my money when no services were rendered. So...aparently these 2 places I took my car have the most advanced alignment machines in town (hunter I think).

I am going to call the porsche specialty place that turbo pop gave me their # to today, but does anybody know of any national chains that can align a low *** car? Pep boys, NTB, etc.? My car has at least a 1.5" drop on it in the front (looks like a 60's dragster with the *** end all jacked up...I'm waiting to do my t-bars to drop the rear) with the coilovers on max ride height. Damn...maybe I should have bought the helper springs from paragon...it would have saved me a bit of a headache. Anyways, any help is much apreciated. I'm in salisbury, MD (eastern shore), BTW, if anybody knows any shops in the area that are sympathetic to my cause. TIA,

Eric

ribs,

About a year ago, I had NTB do an alignment on my stock-height 86. They took their time and did a good job--although quality of their "techs" varies from location to location, they should be able to do it.

TimS

Go over to the PCA Potomac Board and look around for a poster named Dirk Dekker. He lives in Easton. While he has his car serviced in DC, he may know of a shop on the Eastern Shore.

ian

I used firestone and bought the alignment for the life of your car, you just show up with your reciept and they will keep correcting your settings, great deal really.

turbopop

Ribs,
Have you tried Delaware Tire right near the College)?
They did my 1" lowered 930 recently. I called them and asked if they could clear a lowered 944. He said all he could do was try it for you.
Give them a call and ask for Jim.
E-mail me at turbo89930@hotmail.com
You Could also try Autoworld in Delmar, they do alot of Import performance stuff.

The European Coach in Delaware does not do alignments. but he can recommend a place in Frankford, DE that does , I just can't remember the name of the place.

RJP 951

What's a fair price for a quality alignment job? My mechanic is estimating it's 3-4 hour work for a "killer" alignment, as he put it, which would equate to $200-250. I know he does excellent work on anything he touches, but is that too much?

Ron

nwehtje944

try sears, they did an alignment for me no problem. I want to say it was only like $50 or so, but I could be wrong. it wasn't any race grade job, but for driving around town it was all I needed.

Best of luck

*Michael.*

I don't see what is different about the alignment, is it the camber that they cannot properly adjust? There is only so much adjustment on that top bolt on you strut which is used for changing the camber. Maybe with the stock camber adjustment there isn't enough adjustment left since your can is so low ...??

DanD

Ribs,
There are 2 things that can keep an alignment machine from hooking up properly.

- Not clamping to the wheels properly. (no good lip to connect to.

- The body of the car interfers with the machines ability to see the other head unit on the other side of the car. In other words the right front wheel can't see the left front wheel alignment head unit. You might be able to help that somewhat by removing the black 951 splitter or anything else that is keeping the 2 heads from 'seeing' themselves.
The old ones I used to run had a string that went from one side to the other. If it hit the body then we couldn't set the toe properly.

I just checked the Hunter website. They now have sensors that see below body pannels. Here's a pict of the standard sensor with the standard bar and one for lowered cars.

<a href="http://members.rennlist.com/dan10101/sensors.gif" target="_blank">Gif s must not work. Click here to see the sensor unit that work with lowered cars.</a>

Myself, I would just set the toe and wait until you did the rear torsion bars. Then do it right. If it's going to be a while, then do the alignment now and make sure you get a warrantee that you can come back later.

Here's a quickie way to set the toe.

Make a mark on the tread of both front tires about halfway up the tire. Use a tape measure to measure the distance between the 2 marks. Roll the car forward until the 2 marks are at the back of the tire in approx the same height. The measurement at the back of the tire should be about 1/16" to 1/8" more.

I use a toe bar to do this.



Hope this helps.
DanD

Lemon Yellow 87 n/a

Damn, I got a 4 wheel alignment by local experts for $255.00 cdn. about a 3 hour job.

turbopop

There are 2 common problems on aligning a lowered car, one is clearance (they just can't get the car onto the machine without hitting something), the second is that without adjustable camber-plates, there is not enough adjustment at the spindle to get camber within specs (too much neg.).

ribs

Thanks guys! Sorry I've been away for a few days...I started moving all of my stuff into my new house (about 1/2 a mile from my old house) and I've had final exams on top of that so I've been pretty busy recently. I finally got my computer stuff back (my biggest missing component was my 33" DTV/monitor that the insurance company was sitting on for 3 months) so I'll be able to visit more often. Turbopop was able to help me out via e-mail and I found 2 places that think they can align my car...one is some place called B&E (I think) in Delaware and the other place is Delaware tire here is Salisbury...I made appointments at both places...one monday, one tuesday, and if the place in Delaware can't align my car, then I can go to the place here in town on tuesday. The guys in Delaware said they have all kinds of adapters and extenders to clear lowered cars since they deal with a lot of that stuff. My car isn't that much lower than stock...maybe an inch or inch and a half in the front (thats with the coilovers on maximum ride height) so hopefully they will be able to get my camber pretty close to stock in the front so I don't shred through tires. If it is a major problem, I'll see if I can pick up some camber/caster plates. I think the guy said it would be $60ish for a front end alignment, too. I'll let you all know how it turns out...in the mean time, I'm going to wash and wax my car since I haven't done it since last november ...the car was in storage for 3 months so its not that bad, but I would like to see it looking real shiny again.

Chris Martin

Not exactly close, but Tif in annapolis can align any porsche there is, (410) 268-8288.

yOnKiNaToR

i have the same problem of my car pulling to the right and feeling floaty. i have a bad rear right tire where you can see cord and low tread on the inside edge. I got an alignment from the dealer (which actually wasn't to expensive) but it still pulled to the right. is it b/c of the tire or is it b/c the dealer didn't know what he was doing?

i got the car aligned a while ago so i doubt that they would give me my money back if i took it back to them.

yOnKiNaToR

i have the same problem of my car pulling to the right and feeling floaty. i have a bad rear right tire where you can see cord and low tread on the inside edge. I got an alignment from the dealer (which actually wasn't to expensive) but it still pulled to the right. is it b/c of the tire or is it b/c the dealer didn't know what he was doing?

i got the car aligned a while ago so i doubt that they would give me my money back if i took it back to them.