Motorsport Wheel Alignment: Step 5: Perform Alignment
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Step 5: Perform Alignment
02.33
| 00:00 | - In step 5, we're ready to go ahead and make our alignment changes. |
| 00:03 | The order we do things here is important to take note of. |
| 00:06 | The first thing is to deal with the caster as it tends to have a lot of flow on effects for the rest of the wheel alignment. |
| 00:12 | In this case, the caster settings we measure in the set down are the same as our targets so they don't need any attention. |
| 00:19 | One thing to mention here in addition to keeping track of the set down and set up values, I like to record the values I measure in order as I go. |
| 00:27 | This helps me keep track of where I started and how much change I'm getting in each step. |
| 00:31 | This can be really valuable to do this so I recommend doing it as well. |
| 00:35 | Now we're ready to set our toe and camber. |
| 00:38 | These tend to affect each other to some extent, meaning making a camber change will often result in a toe change. |
| 00:43 | This means it becomes a bit of an iterative process, going around a loop of toe and camber. |
| 00:48 | Some suspensions are more sensitive to this than others. |
| 00:52 | You'll start to zero in on the settings pretty quickly and the closer you get, the less these settings will affect each other. |
| 00:58 | Starting with the front left camber, we make the adjustments on the top arm. |
| 01:02 | Jack the car up and with the car in the air, record the current camber value. |
| 01:06 | Even though this isn't a useful number in itself, it gives us a reference for how far we need to move the camber setting, by knowing how much we need to change the camber. |
| 01:15 | Cracking off the adjuster bolts in the top arm and making the adjustments by sliding the clevis in the slots, we can temporarily retighten the bolts. |
| 01:22 | Refit the wheel and measure the new camber value. |
| 01:25 | After making a second smaller adjustment, we're now at our target and for now, we're done with the front left. |
| 01:31 | We can now repeat this same process on the front right to increase the camber and then drop the front of the car back down onto the ground and settle it. |
| 01:39 | The rear camber adjustment process is simpler, however the car does not need to be jacked up to make the adjustment. |
| 01:45 | Which is a time saver. |
| 01:47 | After cracking off the top link adjuster lock nut, the adjuster can be turned by hand to adjust the camber. |
| 01:53 | With all the camber adjustments made, we can now move around the car and record the new camber values. |
| 01:59 | Now measure the new toe settings at all 4 corners, record them and adjust the steering arms as required. |
| 02:05 | As you gain more experience, you'll start to anticipate how much you need to compensate the toe for, for a given camber change for your car. |
| 02:12 | Once the toe is set to target, recheck the cambers and record them. |
| 02:15 | At this point, we're just moving iteratively, repeating the loop of checking and setting camber and toe on both axles until we reach our targets. |
| 02:24 | Once we have our camber and toe settings to target, we're finished with the alignment and we can move onto step 6. |
