Raising is not done. The calibration and measuring takes....seconds. The repeatability is amazing. Heck, it even inflates the tires to the correct pressure, automatically.

Adjusting the suspension takes some skill....

 

The entire suspension had been removed and re-installed by another shop. And we had to remove and redo most of their "work", so it was all over the map.

 

Does this machine have integrated corner balance capability by any chance? The local dealers started a major upgrade to cope with expansion of their business including what I was advised would be a state of the art workshop. Their labour rates have gone through the roof but last I heard no corner balance capability. The machines I use are Hunter- one of them recently installed but no idea how old it is technologically speaking.

Either way congrats on the new acquisition- a very sensible addition I would opine- that way you can be sure of its accuracy.

 

Dave, we may have to send our 928's out west for the winter and let Greg work on them. I know Turq would love to see Southern California again. Between you and me maybe we could get a discount from the transport company.

 

Pfft. Road trip.

Drive out in the fall. Fly home.

Fly back in the spring, drive home.

That would give Greg adequate time to fit you in the schedule.

 

The ability to corner balance, accurately, is whole other factor in this new equipment.

I've had a set of Longacre corner balance scales for well over 20 years.

However, corner balancing a 928, (up to this point) has been a very frustrating experience, due to the poor repeatability of the weight measurements. The rubber suspension pieces, combined with the fact that these rubber pieces are an integral part of the spring rate of the car is just one of the issues. One can get different corner weights by varying the approach to the corner balancing scales ((turning radius before the scales affects the weights.) The difficulty in "pulling a 928 down" after raising the car is another issue....after all, to make a "height change", the car needs to be raised, almost every single time.

Frankly (again, up to this point) the amount of time required to go drive and settle a 928, after each suspension adjustment, combined with eliminating the affect of the rubber pieces, has made the cost of corner balancing extremely high (very time consuming) and somewhat questionable in its accuracy.

This new equipment, which has an extremely simple way to "pull down" a 928 after each adjustment, along with the floating plates should make corner balancing a much easier affair. I'm certain that we will begin to see bad pieces (like a weak spring) which we have never been able to see, before.

More factors I've found...already:

In the 10 928 alignments we've done, to date, the accuracy of the machine has already been a great "tool". "Worn" inner tie rods show up instantly....simply push out (with your hand) on one tire and make sure the other tire moves close to the same amount! We also had a steering box, worn so badly, where the shaft of the rack moved internally. That also showed up, quite easily.

There's another amazing thing this latest generation of alignment machine does. It allows us to measure "bumpsteer" and create a graph of the toe change in relationship to camber change. (If anyone has ever done a "bumpsteer" test on a vehicle before....it is a horrendous job, which takes hours and hours. to accomplish.) "Normal" bump steer measurement requires removal of the springs, creating a method to raise and lower the vehicle throughout the range you want to measure it (good luck with a 928, where the front control arms are a major portion of the spring rate), and then careful measuring of the camber change and toe change every 1/4" or so. This machine....pull the suspension down, push a button which takes a "snapshot" of the toe and camber, raise the car 1/4". and repeat. When you are all done, tell the machine to create a graph of the snapshots....and you then have a complete graph of the toe/camber curve.

I'm like a kid in the candy store.

 

Good idea but I'm not ready to subject Turq's paint job to that length of road trip.

That would be a lot of blue tape ( inside joke for some the Frenzy attendee's)

 

Here's 2 cents worth of advice on corner balance. Unless one is on the track, and eeking out the last measure of corning ability, a corner balance for street is pretty much overkill. Yes, it should be close, and yes any car will benefit slightly from correct balance. I've done it several times with track cars from an autocross Fiat(I know), all the way to a modified stock for paved oval. Unless one has had 15 years of experience, and the track car needs that last nanoscopic amount of performance, corner balance is pretty esoteric stuff for highway.

Each track is different, each driver style is different, each tire is different, each alignment is different. About 30 variables, and corner balance is a lot of time spent, with about 0.0000000000005% improvement(unless it is grossly out of spec).

Nice looking machine, it beats the broomstick I've been relying on hands down.

YMMV, objects in mirror, contents have settled, and may cause **** leakage.

 

Congrats on the new toy and the new directions you are going to go with this once you get to know it and start to get data. Custom steering racks? Top secret handling optimizations? We know you won't stop at just fixing what's broke.

 

Nothing like a new lift and alignment machine.
We have a similar machine at the shop I work at , its a fast setup and minimum time spent finding out how much things are off
the most important thing , always use a brake pedal push rod tool to hold the brakes on,
once a front wheel turns then all the bets are off and so is the alignment.

We do all the alignments for the other local shops.
I do all the 928 alignments,
I have been finding more than a few having bent front frames .
Possible causes are from having the car transported and the loader cranking the winch down that pulls the wheel and frame,
hitting a curb or sliding into a curb or pothole.
I have had to loosen the LCA clamps a few times to get things close or perfect.
Also finding the rear upper dog bone bushings have sagged thus the LCA eccentric will not move enough to get the camber into range./

 

When I got my flowbench, I realized what I thought worked, wasn't necessarily true.
When I got my dyno, I realized that what I thought worked, wasn't necessarily true.
I'm sure that this tool will be a real revelation, too.

 

When I used to sell Bear alignment equipment against the Hunter equipment we used to tell the shops that you can get the SAI (Steering Angle Inclination) at the same time as camber and caster. Just wondering if Hunter has fixed that?
This was in Southern California in the late 80's and half the shops didn't even know what SAI was.

Scott Peterson
Alpine Utah

“I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.”
― Frank Lloyd Wright

 

Interesting that Bear would "hang their hat" on this detail.

Measuring (calculating) something is one thing, but how does a shop "repair" this?

 

not wanting to date myself too much, but... Isn't that "king pin inclination"? From when we had king pins...

 

We didn't really "hang our hat on it" but it is a quick way to know if the suspension is bent then realigned. We were so busy in 89-90 selling the new emissions equipment we didn't have time for anything else. Every shop in Cal that wanted to do emissions had to have new equipment, It was crazy.
When the sai is not the same on both sides the car will still "Align" ,caster, camber and toe but it will wear the front tire on one side weird.
When I was working at a Ford dealer in Socal in the early 90's we had this customer with an SVO Mustang and they had purchased a SUPER expensive extended factory warranty, the customer had brought in the car so many times for front tire wear and they checked the alignment every single time but it was aligned perfect, The front end guys started having talks about Lemon Law the car and replace it. I asked what it was doing and told them to check the sai and it was off, That means the the customer had hit something and slightly bent the hub.
Sai will tell you if any of the uprights, a arms or other parts are out of the spot that they are supposed to be in.