Align your car with your I-phone or I-pad

I found a great ap for I-phone or I-pad called iAlign.

Cost like $1.99, but that's cheaper than any digital level that I have found.
Gives you camber and caster measurements. Now if only there were a simpler way to measure toe!

 

My model T just threw up

 

i can give camber and caster for $1.00 but it does not mean it is correct

 

damn guys ease up. hes just throwing the idea out there. i dont think id do it for a permanent alignment but if i were in a pinch. wtf it may not hurt to give it a whirl

 

It sounds like it might be a way to get your alignment set close enough for the drive over to the local alignment shop for the real alignment work.

 

I had a shop align my 59 wagon .... young guy on the laser-whatchacallit .... kept turning my ignition key to on, thinking I had a steering wheel lock ...... dumb.

 

Of course you can't post anything on your pc,laptop or Iphone/pad about technology and helping in anyway because the old farts like to reject it on their pc,laptop etc.
Grow up and get your heads out of your arses.
Pretty soon we'll have to be doing all our own alignment etc because the 'new' staff don't have a clue and them you'll be grateful for any help.

 

im still trying to find someone whos not to old or dead that can align my car who actually knows what theyre doing.

 

I align my own cars now. The I beam axle cars are easy, but i never did the IFS cars until a buddy showed me how using a circle track thingamajig with a magnet and a bubble level and somw greased pieces of laminate under each tire.

It may take a bit more time but I know it was done correctly and am able to fine tune if necessary, plus most of the time I'm starting from square one.

 

Thanks. just downloaded it and will use it to align the Thunderbird. Great information thanks again.
You guys pissing about modern technology WTF. How do you spend your time looking at the Hamb. Baked bean tins with string/ smoke signals/party line or a modern computer/laptop. GTFOI.

 

I've never once in my life had a shop do an alignment correctly. They have however, tried to charge for a 4-wheel alignment. Or told me they couldn't do it to the specs I provided (I know dozens of people with the same car who have used them, it was bloody apparent by the shim stacks there was enough room to do it, and they had already done it to stock specs and didn't want to put more time into it because it wasn't a gravy job.) Or stripped a control arm attachment stud. Or made the tie rod adjustment sleeves appear to have been chewed by angry wolves.

Yeah, I'll be looking into other means in the future. But I want tools, not apps. For now.

 

I'm one of the few that can still align an old car correctly. I've had almost everything up on the rack at some time. Old US cars, foreign cars, Vettes, road race cars, drag cars and of course circle track cars (those can be fun...).

Anyone that learned on the new 4-wheel systems would be lost, kind of sad.

Bob

 

Snap-On makes some nice magnetic spindle gauges. The greased plate thing is an old trick that works, but messy. If you do more than a few alignments a year, look around for some of those turntables that can be set on the floor, probably available on everyone's favorite auction site.

Bob

 

Meee thinks that the $500+ iPhone to run the app on is a wee bit more expensive than string, a level and a tape measure, or an actual alignment charge ;-)

LOL, just messin' with you dude. Apps can be cool but I'll join in the chorus that this could be (only) good enough so you can drive your car to a shop to get 'er finished off properly. I'd be willing to try it (the app) anyway. Go for it

Al (learned on a Bear machine, in a Pit) in TN

 

I, too, learned in a pit, with a John Bean Accraliner. Great old machine, but time marches on...

 

I can't get my smart phone to make a 100% trouble free phone call.
The GPS on it is questionable at times.
The search maps function will send me to India quiet frequently or Napa valley California when I search for local Napa parts store.
It constantly rotates whatever picture I may be looking at.
Google skymaps is a pretty cool app.
Now, I'm not going to trust it any further than I can throw it.

I've been getting them close enough to get minor adjustments at the alignment shop for a long time.

One app that is pretty cool is the decibel meter, I have no idea if its completely accurate but its pretty accurate on a relative basis. Prevents hearing damage.

 

Two greased Iphones (one under each front tire) will double the cost of the app.

 

Yeah.. I want to learn how to do it myself.. It's impossible to find competent mechanics anymore.. besides I like the idea of being able to learn this skill.. could prove handy. Main thing is not paying somebody big $$$ for a poor job. I applaud the guys who are doing it themselves.

 

This is one thing you can learn to get it back into a rough alignment state after replacing front end parts.

Tricks include measuring tie rod assembly lengths before you take them apart, marking a "witness mark" on a frame to get a sliding arm back in the ball park, keeping shim packs together and putting them back in the right place.

Bob

 

Some salt between the laminate works just as well as grease and is a lot easier to clean up. The grains of salt act like little ball bearings.

 

Ya all my customers would do it them selfs if they only had the times and the tools they would need a dumb mechanic.

 

clever....

we used the old spin-plates for alignment; simple but effective. never a complaint.

but, of course, that was a few years ago.

 

As for the original posters suggestion, not all of us have an I pad or I phone or want one and you can find a decent digital level at most tool stores or Home Depot for 40.00 or less that you can use for the whole build and not worry about dropping or stepping on the I pad or phone.
The app still has value though as it makes it a lot easier to hang a picture straight in the house or in the case of my house figure out why the door won't close. We never found a level or square in my grandfather's stuff and he built this house himself. It's fun to watch a marble roll across the kitchen floor though.

It's rather funny but when the computerized alignment machines came out we got told quite often that they were "as good as a SnapOn Gauge" I've still got the SnapOn gauge in my tool box that I used for years.

I learned on a gauge that was held on the hub by a magnet but actually started doing alignments on a John Bean Visualiner With the mirrors that clipped to the rims and the screen in the pit. That thing was damned accurate and I built up a hell of a good reputation with it. I'd probably still be there and be getting ready to retire if the manager had worried more about hustling business and less about the cost of having the sign out front lit up.

These days it isn't the machine that is the issue but the skill level and experience of the person operating it. One also has to remember that most of the younger "techs" these days learned on front wheel drive rigs and have never seen an I beam rig or may have never worked on a pre 1980 vehicle in some cases. Stand in front of the local tire shop for a couple of hours and watch how many pre 1980 vehicles even roll in for tire service these days let alone pre 1960.

As far as the alignment tech/mechanic not wanting to use your "custom specs" quite often those custom specs that you get out of some magazine or from one of your buddies don't work the best in the real world driving on roads and expecting the tires to last or the car to drive right. I've seen too magazine articles on front end mods that call for extreme negative camber that while it might be great for an Autocross course will eat the inside edge off a set of tires in a few hundred miles. By the vehicle's desired specs the magazine's suggested specs put the front end out of alignment. Make sure of your source for your specs and why your source suggested those specs.

 

That's great! I just spit my tea all over my tela-type!!! Jim.



Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

I have been aligning cars for 32+ years now, learned on a Hunter Lite-a-Line and used Visualiners, bubble gauges all the way to the Hunter Hawkeye that is latest greatest machine. It is all in the person who is using the equipment and if the equipment is properly set up and maintained.

 

If you're going to use this app for alignment, make sure your car is level side to side and front to rear, or it is all in vain. If the car is sitting 2 degrees from level, then your settings will be +2 degrees on one side and -2 on the other.

 

#15,...There was also the Bear "Telaligner",...Popular in the 50's.

4TTRUK

 

I also aligned cars, trucks, big rigs since 1958. Used 'em all, from Bear to John Bean to Hunter; and some others.

What bugs me is the inability of most modern 'techs' to understand the fundamentals.
"You have to do a 4 wheel alignment. The machine won't measure the fronts without the datum."
"Trammel? What's that?"

Magnetic hub gauge is still my favorite. And yes, my new shop floor is dead nuts level.

 

Ingenius!!! Perfect!! Why didn't I think of that?! I owe you a beer, my friend!!

I hope people are smart enough to realize this, but......

 

If you're ever in Rockford, IL let me know. I'll buy the second round.

Use 1/8 thick pieces of laminate tile stacked on top of each other to level the car. Just as an example, you might have 10 tiles at one wheel, 5 at another, 18 at the third and 2 at the fourth depending on what the ground underneath the car looks like. You always want at least two tiles so you have something to spread the salt between. If you do this in your garage, trace the stacks of tiles on the floor with a paint marker and write the number of tiles inside the square you drew. Now, everytime you do an allignment in your garage, you know how many tiles to throw down at each corner to make the floor level.