I've got an '89 IROC-Z that I rebuilt the frontend on. Obviously, I'm going to want to have a professional alignment done on it; but, I have to get it to the alignment place first. My guess is that it's grossly out of alignment right now (I can put the steering wheel in the middle and the tires don't even *look* aligned).

Another concern that I have is that I have put all new tires on this car, and they've never even left the driveway (they've even got the little rubber hair things still on the bottom surfaces of the tires). I don't want to screw up my tires driving the the alignment shop.

So, is there anything that I can do with standard tools and methods to roughly align it so that I can make it to the alignment shop (about 15 minutes away from my house)? Do I just eye it to see that the front wheels look parallel, or is there a better way?

Thanks

 

Never thought about it but I'd say jack up the car by the control arms so the wheels aren't just hanging. Then measure distance from tire to tire, at the front and back. Adjust it til both measurements are aboutt he same. This way your tires are running pretty straight. Once you get to the shop they can straighten the steering wheel and adjust it to specs. I don't think your tires will wear out that much with 15 min of driving though. Maybe someone else has other suggestions.

 

driving a few miles to the alignment shop is not going to hurt anything just make sure that you don't drive on the freeway or something and don't try to drive fast. Take it easy.

 

yeah drive it directly toget the alignment. you should of taken some referance measurements before you started and then you could of put it back in the same place.

 

Do you still have the old pieces??? If so, piece them back together and hold them up against the new stuff to get a rough estimate and get you in the ball park, then drive it to the shop. I did it that way and wasn't too far off. I just laid the old stuff on the floor and put the new center link and tie rods next to them and "dialed it in".

Ed