Country road alignment?

[Seajay]

Just took the old Acura TSX 2006 in for an alignment and come to find out the last goofballs that worked on it rounded off the adjustment bolts on the rear. This is definitely a repair I can do at home but then I'm dealing with the possibility of being undrivable. So, ya 60 minutes in the shop and no alignment.

While I'm down there I also plan to replace the struts, control arms, and do some brake stuff.

So... is there a way to keep the alignment close to usable, so I can hobble to the shop? The upper control arm will be adjustable, but I think the lower is still fine, save the camber bolt itself.

[Mr. Hick]

Record all current measurements with a caliper.....

[Seajay]

I don't think I have a caliper that big lol
There is a string method, but that seems more for the front than the rear. I can get affectionate with a tape measurer, might be the way.

[Macdave06]

What do the control arms look like?

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[Altec]

If its just to get it to the shop, just use a digital protractor app on your phone and set the camber with the weight on the suspension. Shoot for 90* from the ground measured on the side of the wheel, or the hub surface. If you need to set rear toe, you can use 4 jack stands and some string. Just google "setting toe with string" and it'll come right up. This will get you extremely close, and be able to safely get it to a alignment shop.

[Tarsun2]

depends how the ball joint on the LCA is attached.

on the altima, the ball joint was a press fit. so new LCA's with the ball joint pre installed got me close enough.
on the audi, the ball joint is bolted in with 3 bolts. i took some basic measurements from the edge of the nuts to the edge of the LCA. that got me close.

the LCA adjusts the camber. its not CRAZY important for one trip to the shop. Its the tie rod ends that you reallllly have to worry about. if ones in and ones out, the car will do funky stuff and youll have a hard time driving it.

you could take a plumb bod and hang it off the fender (right in the middle of the arch). measure the distance from the string to the top of the rim and from the string to the bottom of the rim. this will get you close.

for toe, take a tape measure and measure from tread on drivers front to the tread on passenger front tire. do the same for the back of the tire and record that before you start the project.

[Seajay]

The lower control arms are just straight arms with round bushings. They do have adjustable arms now, but I've already got upper adjustable arms for camber, so I'm sticking with the solid lower arms and ordering new cam bolts for toe adjustment.

If the arms are still ok I think I will just take a bunch of measurements and mark the cam position and try to keep it. Bolt out bolt in, rust gods bless me.
Ya, not too worried about the camber, more the toe, the camber already sucks lol. Factory install has no camber adjustment and has always been a little out of spec.

I'll try the phone app idea, that might work well enough. Thanks!

[Macdave06]

The lower control arms are just straight arms with round bushings. They do have adjustable arms now, but I've already got upper adjustable arms for camber, so I'm sticking with the solid lower arms and ordering new cam bolts for toe adjustment.

If the arms are still ok I think I will just take a bunch of measurements and mark the cam position and try to keep it. Bolt out bolt in, rust gods bless me.
Ya, not too worried about the camber, more the toe, the camber already sucks lol. Factory install has no camber adjustment and has always been a little out of spec.

I'll try the phone app idea, that might work well enough. Thanks!

Anything that's adjustable length, just lay it on the bench next to the original and adjust until they're the same length. The cam bolts like you said you can mark the direction they're pointed. Just make sure to mark the bolt head and not the washer. In all honesty if you can't visibly tell it's out of whack it'll be fine to drive to the alignment shop. When I worked at another shop across town we'd regularly drive cars to the shop I work at now for alignments.

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[SignOfZeta]

If your plan is to take it back to the shop for alignment then unless the shop is 100 miles away it doesn’t matter what the alignment is as long as toe isn’t totally nuts. Eyeballing it will do fine. You won’t destroy your tires on a short drive.

BTW, copying the eccentric bolt positions to repeat alignment…hilarious. That will never work with any degree of accuracy unless you’re replacing brand new stuff. Eccentrics move all all over, bend, etc. There is no useful setting you can copy from looking at one, especially an old rounded one.

[Tarsun2]

i did a garage alignment on my camaro and FML it was dangerous to drive lol
my problem was that i didnt make sure the tires were straight before i made the adjustments.
meaning that they were pointing to the left a little. so when i spaced the front and back of the tires for toe, everything was fine on paper but since the tires were pointing left, one tire came out straight while the other came out really left.

it was fine in a straight line but if you hit a bump, it would dart one way and if you turned the wheel it would shoot over the other way.

[Seajay]

If your plan is to take it back to the shop for alignment then unless the shop is 100 miles away it doesn’t matter what the alignment is as long as toe isn’t totally nuts. Eyeballing it will do fine. You won’t destroy your tires on a short drive.

BTW, copying the eccentric bolt positions to repeat alignment…hilarious. That will never work with any degree of accuracy unless you’re replacing brand new stuff. Eccentrics move all all over, bend, etc. There is no useful setting you can copy from looking at one, especially an old rounded one.

Le Sigh.. this is exactly what I am expecting honestly. Shop is 18 miles away. It's an old car, probably will need to replace the arm too, so that is a new bushing.
I'll see if the shop down the street can help, they are great guys just don't have alignment service. I'll just soak the snot out of it with PBBlaster until the parts come in and I figure out time to get to the shop to do it.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I use a simple string alinement method. This will get you close and a short drive will be fine just keep her under 100.

If the car is close you can take pictures of the current adjustments then fine tune from there. Phones now a days can take quality photos you can count the threads if need be. This will get you close enough to get it to the shop safely. I have actually done a few cars that didn’t even need adjustment after it was put on the alignment rack.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9fxd9SOVh7s

[Seajay]

I use a simple string alinement method. This will get you close and a short drive will be fine just keep her under 100.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9fxd9SOVh7s

The string method really works for Front End, I'm not sure how well it works for doing the Rear because I won't be able to make sure the front doesn't change position/keeps straight.

[Chuck E Ducky]

You don’t really have to go that far. I think it’s going to be a lot less of an issue then you think. There are tools you can buy that allow you to do basic alignment in your garage. I bet you could rent the tool as well. For me I just use the string / eyeball good enough method and bring it to my brothers shop for fine tuning.