So yesterday and today I put on new Shocks, Struts, Front Sway Bar Ends and front Rotors on my 90 formula. Took it in for alignment today and the shop said "No Charge, it's already in alignment" Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket today.......

 

Lucky.. but did you see the specs of your car? They could have just said it was "good enough"... And they're probably using the stock GM alignment settings as a reference, which aren't good for handling or stability.

 

Honestly, with the work you said you did, I'm not surprised the alignment was still OK. With the solid bolts up front, none of those things *should* have a major effect on your alignment (sometimes they do, but in theory, they shouldn't have *much*).

That said, I'd go with Hellz_wings and say that you may be in spec, but that might still not be that great... It should mean you won't experience funny tire wear issues though.

 

Is there a certain setting that works better then factory for the normal daily driver that might get pushed on occasion?

Or are they different for everyone.

 

slide both bolts in the struts and don't tighten them, then wiggle the strut to see how much camber change it allows, the bolts are not in there tight!

Did the OP get a readout? sounds like the shop didn't care for doing an alignment and took the easy way out

 

Well, there isn't a one measurement fits all, but what I do know is that stock specs have low-ish caster, positive camber and I can't remember what toe. But for street handling and stability, in my opinion, you want:

-NEGATIVE CAMBER (I personally run -1.2 but that is alot for street but since I drive about 1000 miles a year I'm not too worried about tire wear.. If you care about tire wear that much go for something like -0.5 or -0.75 which is still good as I've run those specs before and had good results. Negative camber is better for handling and high speed stability.)

-More POSITIVE CASTER (these cars can't get that much anyway, but around 5 is good as the passenger side has 0.5 degrees more to compensate for road crown). The more positive caster the more the car wants to return to center which greatly increases high speed stability.

-TOE IN. Vetruck (or now referred to as SlickTrackGod) recommended 3/32 toe in. I've ran this and had great results. Car is much more stable at speeds.. Toe out tends to wander around but you get better turn in quickness. It's a compromise, but unless you're doing auto-x or slalom type driving all day, toe in is probably better for you.

Personally, I favor better mid and late turn grip (street driving), high speed stability over tire wear and quicker turn ins (autox and slalom).

For more juicy alignment info go here: http://www.familycar.com/alignment.htm

 

Camber won't affect tire wear as much as toe. I've run up to two degrees of negative camber on various cars and haven't seen any changes to tire wear. Now when there's too much toe out or something is broken (tie rod end, hub/bearings), then the inner part of the tires do have abnormal wear.

Pat

 

Thanks for that .. some of my understanding of alignments are still fuzzy lol

 

They are not hard to understand I do alignments at my work. Alignments are pure profit for the shop (after buying the rack that is). There are no parts to buy to do one on our cars, if they were honest enough with you to tell you its within spec then you found a trustworth shop and we need more of them. If it within factory specs thats all they need to do. If you want a certain setting you shoud have someone that is really good at alignments instead of a toe and goer.