Big Dave

After installing new tie rods last night, the steering still felt like $hit. With every bump in the road, the car was wandering and wiggling and the steering wheel was turning with it. All of this was much much more evident ever since I put my wide summer tires on and put the narrow winter wheels in a pile to take a nap until November.

Taking the advice of other Rennlisters, I located a Sears near me that had the Hunter DSP400 alignment equipment.

45 minutes and $89.99 later, my car feels, on a scale of 1 to 10, like an 11.

The alignment was so far out of spec that the computer didn't register it until the wrench eyeballed it back first.

I think I'm reading the data correctly...here's the horror story:

Left front camber before/after: -0.4/-0.8
Left front caster before/after: 3.8/3.8
Left front toe before/after: -0.21/0.04

Right front camber before/after: -1.1/0.8
Right front caster before/after: 3.5/3.5
Right front toe before/after: -0.26/0.06

Front cross camber before/after: 0.7/0.1
Front cross caster before/after: 0.4/0.4
Front total toe before/after: -0.47/0.11

Left rear camber before/after: -1.8/-0.9
Left rear toe before/after: 0.35/0.06

Right rear camber before/after: -2.1/-0.9
Right rear tow before/after: 0.36/0.08

Rear cross camber before/after: 0.3/-0.1
Rear total toe before/after: 0.70/0.15
Rear thrust angle before/after: -0.02/-0.02

Lizard928

I am awaiting to do one of these to, once I get my rack rebuilt (soon) I have to take off my tie rods and I used a tape measure to get it fairly close, I know it isnt the best way but the car isnt doing what yours did.

Big Dave

I counted the threads on the tie rods to match the old with the new. Of course, it was already out of alignment so the new tie rods kept the same crappy status quo. The hardest part about putting the new tie rods on was actually getting the damn rubber boots positioned. Start to finish was about 2 hours. I used pipe wrenches to loosen the rods and counter hold the rack.

I took pictures along the way, so I'll probably add a page to my site soon.

I'm still amazed that I got a good alignment for less than $100.

Garth S

Good results - the huge 'toe - out' caused much of the previous problem.
The only point I'd wanted to note was the RF camber, which should be slightly negative to match the LF. Perhaps only a keystroke ...

Big Dave

Good catch Garth....RF camber is -0.8

Big Dave

Here's the whole sheet. I see some of the numbers are slightly out of the listed range. The car still feels 200% better.

Ispeed

David Lloyd of Musante in CT. did mine. They winch the car down on stands, and it took several hours. Here's one pic.

Ispeed

Each stand had a floating top that allows the wheel to move when they make an adjustment. My ride height was a little low but OK.

Normy

-Last fall, before driving up to Michigan, I reset my car's nose down pitch attitude via the ride height adjusters. After replacing my motor mounts and steering rack in the spring, I re-installed the tie rods the same way Dave talks about...marking them and then trying to put them back the same way. Hmm- I thought I had it right- at 100 mph, this car would drive straight for over 1/2 mile / nearly a kilometer before moving a meter into the other lane. It seemed like a very good alignment.

Seemed!

The tires I had on at the time had quite a bit of wear, perhaps 75% gone, so I didn't align it professionally, figuring I would set the ride height [that I discovered was ALL WRONG via Rennlist!] and have the car aligned at the dealer here in Orlando when they needed replacement. They began to wear rapidly.....

New job...and 6 weeks in "Motown". When I got back, the new tires went on, and the alignment came. WOW! My scanner is giving me trouble right now, or I'd dig up the alignment slip from my files....the car was WAY off! The tech at the dealer couldn't understand how I could even drive the car into the shop!

The moral: alignment by eyes might work on an old Ford F100, but it won't fly on these cars!

Normy!
'85 S2 5 Speed

AO

Hey Dave...

Which sears did you go to? My car has been wandering all over the place! Plus it appears that the inside of the tires are begining to wear unevenly. I'm going to check the tie rods just to make sure I don't have a problem there first, but either way it needs an alignment badly!

Ron_H

What a revelation. My car is doing the same thing: at lower speeds it wanders incessantly back and forth. I correct, and it wanders the other direction, then I correct and it wanders the other direction. Ruts in the road and it loves to follow them all over the place. Maddening. Constantly trying to find that straight ahead position that doesn't seem to exist. My Rabbit tracks better at low speeds.

At higher speeds, it is a different story, and the car is seemingly straight.

After a very expensive alignment and new tires several months ago, I was not too happy to find the inside edge of the tires wearing while the outside are unworn. To the point of needing to be replaced.

A trip back to the shop that did the alignment and it was discovered that the car had settled considerably since the alignment. Well, I used the old springs and installed new Konis. Conclusion was that I should invest in new springs, and the ride height was readjusted. Not so bad now but still there and getting worse. The poorest tracking Porsche I have ever driven.

Now I know that it is the toe.

I am off to Sears with a smaller bag of money to have it checked. Big Dave, you have brightened my day with hope.

Lagavulin

There is a writeup somewhere on how to properly align a 928, and one of the key factors to a successful alignment was to NOT to raise the car nor wheels off the ground; in other words, use a rack where you just drive the car up on.

If you raise the wheels off the ground, you must drive the car for approx 100 miles until the suspension settles again, then go get the alignment done without raising the car.

Mark

The key to the Hunter DSP-400 alignment machine is that the car is NOT lifted at all!

I am the one that originally found the Sears thing some months ago. I found it by going to the hunter website. www.hunter.com

There, you can send an email to the local rep and ask who in your area has a DSP-400.

Rez

Mark,

I emailed the rep on the website a couple of months ago. He never replied. Guess I'll try again. Maybe I'll CC his boss.

Big Dave

Andrew:

It was the Sears at Oakland Mall, right off of I-75 at 14 Mile Road. I was in and out of there in 45 minutes.