1967 Ford Mustang Alignment Correction - The Car Craft Mustang TA

Home Alignment Tricks
If you're one of those guys who prefer to do the work yourself, for a small investment, you can do the same job as most alignment shops and be able to do it at your leisure. Many outlets, such as Longacre, Smart Racing, and most circle-track shops sell alignment tools that will allow you to do it yourself. A new magnetic-bubble alignment gauge costs less than $200. Always adjust the camber first, then caster, and set the toe last. This is because camber will affect caster, and both of these will directly affect toe.

After adjusting toe in your garage, you must always roll the car backward and then forward roughly half a car length before measuring. This places the proper force on the tie-rod ends. If you do not roll the car, the toe will be incorrect. The other important consideration is a level or near-level work surface. If your garage floor is not level side-to-side, this can introduce errors into your measurements.

Measuring camber is easy for most cars; all you have to do is place the gauge on the hub of the front tire and read the numbers. For caster, the big boys use turn plates to turn the tire 20 degrees in and zero the gauge and then turn the tire 20 degrees out and read the change in camber. This change in camber creates the caster angle. If you don't have turn plates, you can pin two pieces of 1/8- or 3/16-inch flat aluminum plate together, and put chassis grease in between to help them spin. Then use a protractor to mark 20-degree turn-in and turn-out points on the plates. It sounds cheesy, but it works. A better alternative is to buy a pair of used, cast-iron turn plates at a swap meet. We bought ours for less than $30, so the stuff is out there. Try it. You might have fun with it!

This is a high-quality bubble...        read full caption This is a high-quality bubble gauge our buddy Tim Moore bought at a swap meet that he uses to do his own alignments using a set of turn plates. Camber is a direct readout. To find caster, turn the tire in 20 degrees and zero the camber reading. Then turn the tire 20 degrees out, zero the gauge, and read the caster.

Competition Engineering sells...        read full caption Competition Engineering sells these toe plates that make checking toe fast and easy.

Here's our backyard setup...        read full caption Here's our backyard setup for measuring toe using four coffee cans, two lengths of 1-inch rectangular tubing, and two tape measures. The only problem with this system is that it assumes the sidewalls of the tires are perpendicular to the centerline of the tire.