Order of alignment

[JPhil]

Somewhere I remember reading about the order in which the wheel alignment should be done--something like, front toe, rear toe, front caster & camber, rear camber. Or maybe the other way around. Now I can't find it.
Anyone know where it came from, or know about it? Jim Shea's papers come to mind, but I couldn't find it there either.

And on a similar note, any changes to stock specs for a lowered car? Stock specs are fine with me. I am more concerned about it being well behaved in traffic than 'sporty'. I had it set up 'sportier' at one time but it was too sensitve to be comfortable in high-speed rain-groove bad-pavement congested traffic.

 

[BBShark]

DSon't know about the sequence stuff but do have a question about the "sensitive" description. Was it darty (best term I can come up with)?

 

[JPhil]

Yeah, "darty." I had the toe-in set wider than stock spec. It jumped into corners faster, but it was too darty to be comfortable on the street, especially on rain grooves. I tweeked the toe a bit more in and it was better.

 

[pancake]

I have one of those SPC camber/caster gauges with the toe arms on it and the instructions for it say set camber, check caster, and then do your toe adjustments. In the rear, it's set your camber and do toe.. so that's just how I've done it.

 

[Belgian1979vette]

on my alignment rack it's like this:

- finding center axis
- rear toe in
- rear camber
- front caster
- front toe in
- front camber

 

[JPhil]

on my alignment rack it's like this:

- finding center axis
- rear toe in
- rear camber
- front caster
- front toe in
- front camber

That sounds more like what I thought I remembered--get the rear dialed in and then the front.
Hopefully, weather permitting, I'll do it this Saturday.

 

[JPhil]

'Nother question:

Anybody have any tips to make setting the rear toe easier with the wheels on? Jeez, that was the biggest bitch last time. I finally ended up pulling the wheels, adding/subtracting shims, then wheels back on & redial in the alignment rack. Several times.......

 

[Sky65]

I always set the rear alignment first. Camber than toe. Then front. Caster first then Camber, then toe. May not make any difference if you set the front first but definitely caster, camber, toe.

Tom