Trackace Diy Wheel Aligner

[hardsteppa]

anyone had any experience with these

http://www.trackace.co.uk/ laser-pointer home wheel alignment tool? Have alot of good reviews online and fairly cheap at $140aud.

Not intending to be in place of a full 4-wheel alignment by a professional shop, but I have just bought Hardrace castor/camber/traction arms and I'd like to learn more about the change that each arm makes, and difference in feel it gives....don't want to go to a shop to get a wheel alignment constantly during my learning process though, so was looking at using one of these instead. Anyone with experience or thoughts on these?

thanks

[scotty nm35]

Looks pretty good actually. Go for it, and post up a review for the rest of us.

[GTSBoy]

It only does toe. You'll still have to come up with a way to measure camber and caster separately. Camber can be easy enough. A spirit level, some spacer blocks and a verner caliper (+ a calculator with inverse tan function) wil give you that. Caster is a bit harder.

[hardsteppa]

true it's fairly basic, doing only toe, but then priced accordingly too. I have a magnetic spirit level with a 360 deg adjustable dial gauge that I was planning on using for adjusting camber, and dial indicator/bumpsteer gauge for the traction rod adjustment. Really hadn't come up with any ideas for the caster measuring as yet though, apart from pushing it as far as I can until there's no further clearance lol.

None of it really needs to be *that* accurate, it's more just to give me a feel for changing what each aspect of alignment does and to get a better understanding of it overall, so that when I do take it in for the alignment I've got a better idea of what settings will suit my driving, but not putting up with shocking toe alignment in the interim. Although reading sydneykid's old posts, the bumpsteer/rear traction arm adjustment can be very time consuming so would like to get that as accurate as possible. The rear bumpsteer is also the biggest problem i can feel with the car at the moment, and the reason for me embarking on the whole adjustable arm/learning about alignment caper.

Question on the rear camber though, from searching here it seems like skylines don't like alot of negative camber on the rear, is this more a straight line traction thing, or leads to less traction when corning too?

[scotty nm35]

Caster is not that critical though, as long as both sides are similar, Most cars don't have adjustment for it these days anyway.

For camber, a digital protractor would be fine, even a plumb bob, lol.

I bought a Trackace anyway, I will give it a test and see how good it is, at least I can roughly align customers cars after changing steering racks, tie rod ends and compression rod bushes... Gotta be better than sighting down the wheels.

[hardsteppa]

haha you don't mess about do you straight into the purchase! Yeah but fair enough, for that price big deal hey, I will do the same next payday I think.

[Duncan]

yeah no need for a lot of camber at the rear, you just end up with traction issues, even in a reasonably low powered car. between 1 and 2 degrees is enough.

BTW great price on the toe kit.....the "race' stuff is hundreds of dollars for the same thing.

[GTSBoy]

true it's fairly basic, doing only toe, but then priced accordingly too. I have a magnetic spirit level with a 360 deg adjustable dial gauge that I was planning on using for adjusting camber, and dial indicator/bumpsteer gauge for the traction rod adjustment. Really hadn't come up with any ideas for the caster measuring as yet though, apart from pushing it as far as I can until there's no further clearance lol.

None of it really needs to be *that* accurate, it's more just to give me a feel for changing what each aspect of alignment does and to get a better understanding of it overall, so that when I do take it in for the alignment I've got a better idea of what settings will suit my driving, but not putting up with shocking toe alignment in the interim. Although reading sydneykid's old posts, the bumpsteer/rear traction arm adjustment can be very time consuming so would like to get that as accurate as possible. The rear bumpsteer is also the biggest problem i can feel with the car at the moment, and the reason for me embarking on the whole adjustable arm/learning about alignment caper.

Question on the rear camber though, from searching here it seems like skylines don't like alot of negative camber on the rear, is this more a straight line traction thing, or leads to less traction when corning too?

Don't add too much caster to the front. ie, don't wind it up until you have clearance issues and then back off a touch. The reason is that the upper and lower arm bushes then have a lot of fore-aft tension in them. This causes them to flog out, and it also makes the suspension bind up (ie, it won't swing through its arc without putting up a lot of resistance). I've always said to "put as much caster into the front as you can", by which I mean within the limits of feeling how tight the loading in the arm bushes becomes.

Rear camber is a problem. Like any car, more camber will always help cornering. If you have a really stiffly suspended car with sticky tyres and a smooth track, then lots of camber is required to keep the outer tyre surface on the road when cornering hard. But it certainly does negatively impact on traction, and espeially tyre life. And our cars are never (or should never be) as hard sprung as proper race cars (unless proper race car!) and have to get driven on the road. So typically no more than 1° neg camber on the rear is wise. Less if possible.

[hardsteppa]

cool, thanks for the suggestion on the caster gtsboy, I was wondering about the effect of binding/tension on the rest of the components for this. I was thinking about using a plumb-bob down the centre of the wheel to measure before and after change (maybe even using a degree wheel on the string vs wheel centreline afterwards) to get an idea of the amount of degree change?

[byebye]

Has anyone tried these? http://www.nengun.com/ikeya-formula/maple-a-one-gage

I see one member in the build threads has them and says they are a good thing!

[hardsteppa]

looks like a nice piece of kit. More on the pricey side...trackace one has fricken' laser beams though

[dan.1337]

Has anyone tried these? http://www.nengun.com/ikeya-formula/maple-a-one-gage

I see one member in the build threads has them and says they are a good thing!

If a some people shared the cost, they would pay themselves off pretty quickly.

[byebye]

Bit more expensive but they do camber aswell so probably worth it in my opinion, just need a decent way of measuring castor then

[D.I.Y. Mik]

I use a piece of string like the nengun one does. And a ruler.

That one looks like a fancy ruler, big cost, no advantage.

The laser one claims high accuracy, thats nice.

Seen this vynil tile method? He craps on quite a bit, but the wheel levelling method he uses is nice and easy for diy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZoL1gaWedA

Ps: i found -.9 camber on the rear was too much, the tyre was much hotter on the inside after a lap.

[boostn0199]

Havent looked at this specific one but tge problem with all these self alignment devices ive seen they only tell u total toe out on the front which isnt that helpful since you have to assume when you take your initial measurement that both sides are equal which most times they are not.

Thats why if doing it manually o stick with the string method of referencing front and rear tyres that way you will see the toe on each side, but if u just want something quick and temporary to adjust it which is better than an eye alighment itvwould serve its purpose.

Edited December 1, 2013 by boostn0199

[hardsteppa]

instructions/tutorials on their site go into a bit of detail about this, making sure you start with steering wheel centred and both tierod ends having the same amount of thread showing, then making even adjustments to both sides, to get it as even as possible and not favoring one side.

[boostn0199]

instructions/tutorials on their site go into a bit of detail about this, making sure you start with steering wheel centred and both tierod ends having the same amount of thread showing, then making even adjustments to both sides, to get it as even as possible and not favoring one side.

Yeah but thats the thing in reality both tie rods at same length dont have ssme toe in both sides due to many factors such as slight hits, arm bush joint wear etc. if u go check your threads on your rods after a shops alighned they are most likely not adjusted evenly due to to all those factors. Espcially track cars that have modified custom lcas and knuckles etc the issue is even more. For example on mine there is 5mm diffrence between both sides to get same toe.

[hardsteppa]

arrived today, very quick postage. Looks good, seems fairly good construction/materials, not throwaway plastic junk. Will give it a crack on weekend.

[sucram]

You could have just googled how to do toe with string. Its pretty easy.

Camber you can use an IR temp gun, not as good as a probe but you wont be cracking disc's either. If you want to

know degrees you can use a drafting 90 deg ruler, 1 measurement and year 9/10 maths.

Castor is harder, but once its set, toe, camber and small changes to ride height don't effect it too much to worry about

measuring. I would go as far as saying once its initially set, its pretty much forget. If you need to take a touch out or put a

touch more, mark your adjustor and turn it 1/4, 1/2 turn etc, rinse and repeat for other side. Would be a bit harder on

whiteline castor kits