Ok, so i went up to pepboys to get my front end aligned after installing new tie rods, ball joints, and A strut ... and i looked at the tech articles on the site and wrote down these specs for them to use...

.................................Caster.............Camber.................Toe Total
................................L..........R..........L..........R....................(IN)
Hard street use..........+5......+5.5......-1.........-1...................3/32


and they told me that CUSTOM alignments would take an hour or two more because they would have to mess with everything and adjust all the stuff that can be adjusted... and i was thinking, well don't u have to adjust all that stuff anyways to get it to the factory settings??? so why would it take an hour to two longer to just use different specs?? So i said screw that.. So why are they saying that?

Another question.. these are the specs that THEY gave me..
PepBoys Specs:

..................................Caster.............Camber.................Toe Total
.................................L..........R..........L..........R....................(IN)
Min.........................+4.2.....+4.2.....-.2........-.2...................-3/32"
Pref........................+4.7.....+4.7.....+.3.......+.3.....................0"
Max........................+5.2.....+5.2.....+.8.......+.8..................+3/32"

Now for a good street\ocasional autocross... isn't negative camber better????

does anyone else have any better suggestions or any ideas??

thanks alot guys..

 

Did they do any adjustments to your car? If not here is what I did.

I loosened my struts at the adjustment and pushed them fully inboard (-1). It works great! I work in an alignment shop full time. And custom alignments are a pain. We work on sheer production, that is how we get paid. The alignment computer is programed to be set only at the factory settings. To do otherwise requires a much more elaborate procedure from a production standpoint.

I think my toe is in only 1/8" not the 3/32". Try my method first and see if it works. But a word of caution. The struts must be nearly equal to begin with.

Thanx,ANDYZ28

 

no, i told them not to do the work yet.. i was going to try a few more places and see what they say.. i don't wanna pay too much..

also, in the future i am wanting to put on lowering springs and new struts.. as well as maybe changing out the A-arm bushings.. should i wait until then to get it aligned if it is going to cost me $$$.. in other words will that screw it up that bad??

 

Well............ In my humble opinion. Lowering springs are a bad idea. My reasoning is a long and very dry chassis geometry story. But some of the highlights are: available suspension travel, the "bump steer" phenomenon, and left vs right steering rates.

I know that the drop springs are all the rage. But this is just my opinion.

 

If you want a custom alignment, go to a place that is not a chain like Pep Boys or at least find a place that has actual car guys working there ( look for their cars ) , a retail chain run by people who don't give a crap about how much your ride means to you ( 'cuz they could care less about their POS Daewoo ) aren't going to align it like you want it or they will charge you extra for the trouble, ANDYZ28 is right, they are about volume.

 

i have the specs listed for 82-92 f-bodies in a tech article at www.fl-thirdgen.org yes negative camber is better for road racing. no more than 1 degree though.

 

Usually, those cattle-ranch alignment places only set the toe on your car when you get an alignment. That's all that every really goes out of whack for one reason or the other.

 

A third gen should take no more than 1/2 an hour to complete, even if all the possible adjustments are made. It's an easy alignment for most any shop. Keep checking around. Find a body shop that has a frame machine--they will know how to do a good alignment.

 

well i value and experienced opinion... Id rather get good parts for my car then go the cheap easy way.. And since u are in the suspension business, what are ur suggestions. For now im just doing research so i thank you for all the questions u have answred already.. Also, if i get lower spindles, then do i use the stock spring height?

thanks