Earl Gillstrom

Alignement can be a DIY job.

You might go to my website. There is also a page that you can print and give to the tech doing the alignment.

DanielD

I have a hard time with "don't raise the car". When you have a set of tires installed they have to raise it off the ground. What do you do, wait a week and then get an alignment?

Tom in Austin

Yes, have to go drive the car until it settles back to the regular ride height.

Rob Edwards

Not necessarily a week, just 50 to 100 miles of bumpy roads to resettle the suspension. Yes, it's a pain in the ***.

James Bailey

There is a J hook tool which you can put under the alignment rack and pull the car down to the ride height. If you do the alignment after lifting the car the inside edges of your front tires will be the ones which..."have a hard time with ..." I have seen many many front tires with such wear from an improper alignment. Either let it settle or use the tool to pull it back down....assuming you have measured the ride height before lifting.

Landseer

Set the ride height and align it.
Then install tires.

vanster

I just went to Big O today and got and alignment. $99
They had all the latest wiz bang laser gizmo's. I had just replaced my springs and changed out to Bilsteins.....oh how sweet it is. It took them about an hour and now my steering wheel is even straight.

Onwards and Sideways!
vanster
80 5sp

dr bob

You failed to mention the CRITICAL step where you "drove it hard for 50 miles tosettle the suspension, chached and adjusted the ride height again to be sure, drove it again, checked height again", then and only then took it to Big O today...

Missing this critical step dooms you to the "I didn't notice that the inside tread band is worn through to the cords before I even wore off the little casting **** on the outside edges" ranks. Trust me on this.

Go drive the car 50-100 miles, verify the ride height etc, just like you would after the suspension work you did. Then roll it onto their rack again for a toe-in check. DO NOT LET THM LIFT THE CAR AT ALL. My nickel says that they find it toe'd out after all that, andthe adjustments they make will save you several $hundred in tire wear just in this set of tires.

mpesik

Took the car to a Dealership for an alignment.
Response was at the end of the day, 'we cannot do it properly". WTF is going through my head over and over.
Took it to another shop that is privately owned and repairs all makes.
Done.
Sorta hard to find a veteranarian to work on Dinosaurs, I guess.

blown 87

With older machines there are valid reasons for lifting a car, there is no reason for not pulling one down if you do.
one thing to remember is most of these guys are on commission, even if they can sell you parts, it is the old mantra of alignment guys, "Set the tow, and let it go"

pcar928fan

Dan I read your comment and nearly fell over...with that attitude and lack of understanding you will always be on new tires because the insides of the fronts will be worn out in about 1000 miles...maybe less!

Greg, set the toe and let it go is funny and unfortunately true most of the time! To align a 928 properly is a time consuming and tedious venture! Seems every time you change one parameter you change them ALL! If the tech does all the adjustments one at a time and gets them right on and then hands you the keys, you are doomed! If that same tech were to go back and look again I venture to say not one of his adjustments will be where he left them!

blown 87

I have a little over 12,000 miles on mine, and the fronts look like they have at least that much left in them, they are wearing perfect.

With the 295's on the back I am getting a little inside wear due to camber, not toe, i swapped them from side to side last week.

not real sure what taking a little camber out of the back is going to do the handling, not really a area that I am very good at, that whole make it handle better.

blown 87

Set the toe and let it go is very common.

Any 928 I have aligned, or any other car for that matter, the tech gets a full "How ever long it takes" as far as what he makes from the boss, from me.

He has a incentive to get me involved in the whole deal, they will push five cars out of the way to spend two hours on mine for a 50$ alignment, cause they know they are going to get paid, twice, and a tip.

The guy that owns the shop is fine with that, good lord knows how many tires he has sold because of me in the last 20 years.

It really comes down to the owner of a 928 knowing what needs to be done, having a current updated hunter machine, and a tech who is willing to make it perfect to what ever specs you want it set at.

pcar928fan

^^^^^
Amen to that Greg! You are right on the money there bro! I need to get my '84 and '92 in for a good alignment at our fav shop for those things sooner rather than later, while I still have some tire left! LOL!

jcorenman

What he said ^^^

We chased alignment problems on our S4 for years, and this was when it was a relatively new car. It started when a well-respected tire shop jacked it up to check the balljoints or whatever, found the alignment was off a mile and "fixed it" for us. We went back many times, each time they jacked it and then found that it was right on, and told us that we were nuts.

Finally, many years and many sets of tires later, I read what Earl has written, and Dr. Bob, and Andrew, and got out the sticks and laser-levels and strings. We even bought a digital angle-gizmo from HF for $30 for checking camber, slicker than sh*t.

It isn't hard, and takes a couple of hours to do everything from scratch. I just swapped springs & shocks on the S4 for E&B's, took an hour to adjust the ride-height, check the camber and toe both ends, and tweak the front toe-- it was within spec but I wanted it better. And another hour spent settling the suspension between tweaks. Ten miles is enough for this car, and our roads: check the height (at the fender lip is OK for this), do a lap around some twisty roads, check it, then repeat until it doesn't change.