1981 Shark

Maybe I'm being too picky, but I'm still not totally comfortable at the thought of having Sears align my car. Am I alone in this? Is the Hunter machine that fool proof? However, I don't know what my alternatives are as far as alignment.

Maybe a little reconnaissance and discussion with the Sears automotive manager may put my fears to rest, but I've not had the best of luck at any Sears store. They once dropped my dad's Suburban off the rack... Yeah, there wasn't a whole lot of damage and it was covered, but what a friggin nightmare!

Any comments or suggestions??

Rob Edwards

I have to confess I was dubious about Sears at first, and I still wouldn't let them change my oil (there were techs changing oil, doing a brake job on a Celica, and changing shocks on an old Chevy van- I didn't see any torque wrenches in use, anywhere....)

However- perhaps I lucked out, but I actually went a few weeks ago and talked to the manager, who showed me the machine, assured that the car wouldn't be lifted, and encouraged me to watch the procedure. The tech that did the work was fine with all my questioning. The DSP-400 has a little wired remote display that the tech had with him under the car- he'd turn an eccentric and you could watch the LED bar graph move into the spec range. Pretty cool.

Honestly, I'm a complete novice with suspension setup and alignment issues, so my opinion isn't worth much as to whether the job was done 'right'. But- I saw the guy do the whole thing, and the car tracks better than before, so take that for what it's worth. I'd take it back to Sears, at least for an alignment.....

Richard S

I took mine to Sears as well. I printed out the alignment pages from the workshop manual and gave them to the tech guy. He had never done a 928 before, so he said they were a big help. I went early in the morning before they got busy to be sure they gave it their full attention. The guys were enthusiastic, and showed me the settings to see if I was happy with them before finishing. Absolutely no problems, in fact I drove the Pony Express open road race a week later with ease....solid at 155mph. (But I did have him add some extra caster to the settings)

Rich

1981 Shark

Thanks. I guess I need to pay a visit to Sears and see what they have to say.

I did buy some tools there on Labor Day that made Shark-work a whole lot easier! Gotta love those ratcheted wrenches!

RyanPerrella

yeah seems like a good bet, especially considering they waranty the work for what a year?

Richard S

6-month warranty, job cost $94.99.

Rich

dr bob

Rob--

It won't hurt top reach in there and restore the height to the previous settings. And keep measuring for a while to make sure you negate all the additional sagging. Your experience reinforces mine with the ride height changing. I did motor mounts, adjusted ride height, drove half a dozen laps of my little Glendale speed-bump Gran Prix course. Car seemed to be settled pretty well. Off to the alignment store, where they said that everything was really close to spec. Even the toe was pretty close to good again with the ride height back to 180mm in front. So drive it home and measure. Hmmm, sagged 5mm in the 80 miles or so of driving in between checks. I ended up restoring that 5mm within a month, after noticing that the inside was wearing again. It showed up with the tire depth gauge, not apparent to the naked eye gauge.

We probably need to do a slow-speed tire wear test on Angeles Crest in the next couple weeks. This weekend is booked, but maybe next weekend would be a good time if it isn't date night for you. If we leave here around 5PM, the knee draggers are pretty much off the east end. Drive east as the sun sets, come down west with the sun below the mountains. Back here by 8, nice time to sit out in the back, destroy some evidence, and watch the city lights for a bit before we ship you home. And it is in fact a slow-speed tour. Speed limits are 45 and 55, and that's a comfortable speed if you don't want to touch the brakes for the corners. Go through that way and see how nice and neutral the car drives. I'll post a separate event notice for other area listers.

Bill Ball

Before you change anything, measure it again in a couple of days. I get somewhat sporadic readings that can vary over a range of 5 mm in the rear. Sometimes 165, sometimes 160. Taken at the same place in my driveway.

dr bob

How much driving between measurements? Is your driveway sloped at all? Did your driving between measurements include any trips through a gas station?

These are all variables that can and will affect the ride height in the rear. I promote chronic measurements for a while after the alignment, and then at least every time you change your oil. The reason I get picky about this is that I had to prematurely spend some of my hoarded lunch money on new tires in front. It wasn't necessary. It was the result of me not keeping up on the maintenence of ride height.

I bought the car with new BFG T/A's on it. They lasted almost 30k on the fronts. In that time I restored the ride height twice. It still scrubbed the inside rib on one front a little excessively. Bought new wheels with Mich Pilots on them. Much better than the T/A's that's for sure. But a little spendy. 15k later, the fronts are scrubbed on the inside, and the car has sagged again. New PS-2 fronts, almost $450 for two tires installed. Raise the car back up again, drove it some, aligned it, drove it some more. Measured it a little lower than the height it was aligned at. Measured it again over the next month, during which time it sagged 5-6mm in front and then seemed to stop sagging. Suspension movement or springs getting even worse? Then measured the tire depth with a tread depth gauge. Inside showing slightly more wear than the center and outside, and that's in only a couple hundred miles. I adjusted the front up again without lifting the car at all, droove it and remeasured, then back to the alignment rack. It was right where it had been before the ride height sagged. Now I keep a careful eye on the height and on the tire wear. A very frequent careful eye. It's cheaper!

Bill Ball

Dr. Bob:

I do these measurements periodically after pulling in the driveway after driving home from work. Usually there are several days in between with 80 miles a day average. I pull into the same level area on the driveway when I get home. So, the rear appears to have slightly different settling points when I measure it.

Bill Ball

Rob:

Did you install the Red Boge's yet? That would be the time to consider a realignment. If you installed the new Boge's I'd like to know what you think of them.

Rob Edwards

Bill-

I haven't done them yet- I have some CS springs and some OEM brown rear springs (damn, the rears are expensive- $390!) coming from Germnay via Sunset Porsche, so hopefully I'll have as close to a factory CS suspension as possible.

Then, there's the small matter of getting a weekend to install everything. Honestly, it probably won't happen until Christmas week, though we're expecting our 3rd kiddo on or about January 1, so it may be springtime before I can get to it. I will absolutely get it realigned again.

And then, of course, there's the small matter of my newbie status and inability to say anything about the 928's ride besides how awesome it is. I haven't really driven any other sharks under, uh, sporting conditions. Besides, I haven't gone faster than 125 (under controlled circumstances ), so I can't even comment on the high speed stability issue that would be relevant to your needs......

dr bob

Probably wouldn't have gone even that fast if your dad hadn't beeen egging you on... 'Show a little backbone and STAND ON IT!' were the words I heard over the little radio. Why d'ya think you guys got to drive in front on the way back?