Reading from alot of magazines and talking to a few racers ... alot of the alignment places out there are just cheapo alignments not meant for real racers. I remember reading an article a few years back in a magazine about how to do it at home with some basic tools and can't seem to find any articles like that, but I have come across one that seems to be a good one and very presice. Its is available through:

http://www.smartracingproducts.com/p...atalog2006.pdf

Scroll down to page 16 where it starts at the smart strings and then followed by the smartcamber. This is by no means a cheap way as it does cost about 1000$ for everything, but i'm pretty darn sure that you'll be able to make the some of the best alignments out there.

If you know of any articles though about doing alignment at home for cheap or something like this setup that is acturate and maybe cheaper shoot it out. This would be great to save money on this part and know its been done properly. Also an advantage for the race guys mens better times, but also for just regular people better gas mileage.



A second question kinda off topic, but do you guys know how when you take out the front suspension you're suppose to mark top to the chassis for refereence when installing it. Well when i first bought the car without really reading any books about our cars or knowing this forum i just kinda took them off without really know how they were in. Are all FB's mounted the same way? If so can someone point out where the arrrow is pointing to?

 

http://www.extremehowto.com/xh/artic...ticle_id=60130
http://www.allpar.com/fix/alignment.html
http://www.carcraft.com/howto/48938/

Stuff like that?

 

what you need are some toe plates witch are flat pieces of aluminum with slots cut in them. you will need two tape measure so you can do toe. then you need the caster camber tool that mounts to the wheel. thats the way that we adjusted everything on a miata that we raced in SCCA. you can get most of that stuff in hot rod books or Summit or Jegs. hope that helps some

 

Thanks for those links, i'll read them up. Also I will look up that tool from jegs.

 

I get Auto Restorer magazine and they had a nice writeup in the last few months on how to do your own alignment. Their method required some expensive tools though, turntables for the front wheels, platforms to set the car on (the author welded up his own) and a camber/caster gauge.

Rich

 

--Bump
Quick Suspension Question:
Problem: Clanking Knocking noise happens occasonally over bumps and tight turns, also heavy vibration (almost like a bounceing feeling) when over speeds of 90 MPH in right front(passenger side)
Solutions: Could this be my Idle Arm Bushings are shot? cause i can move the bar up and down and the bushings appear to be kinda there(deteriated, ripped, etc.) Knowing to myself that this bushing is gubbered up could this cause the vibration,bouncing,clanking,kocking,etc. noise? or would it be the ball joints? maybe a bent sway bar? any Ideas?

 

I have been doing inexpensive home alignments on my road racer for the last 12 years - do some reading, get educated, get a few simple tools, and then you can do it too! Another way to learn fast is to help an experienced (not a newbie) road racer as he preps his cars.

 

Sam, the alignment arrows on the strut tops are listed in the FSM as to which position gives what camber/caster.