Took my 52 dodge truck to the alignment shop today. When I picked it up this afternoon, the guy at the shop stated the truck was too low. The truck body is sitting on a stock s-10 chassis, but the body is channeled. The guy said the front fender was too low and interfered with the laser. This sounds like b.s. Anyone else had this problem?
Trade tech learning at its best . Just say'n, find yourself an old school shop that knows how to do so called off the wall stuff. It's amazes me how all these laser guys don't know how to alignments.
If you can find a shop that saved the old setup; the kind that has magnetic heads that fit onto the bearing hub. Those don't need lasers or light beams for caster/camber settings. Toe might be a problem depending on what they have.
yes its posible if its a old alignment machine that the lazer couldnt see across the front. call around to see has a new one and it will work. the new ones read forward not across.
Yep, find an old school mechanic that's capable of reading a yardstick...laser alignment guru's are only for Hondas, Toyotas and newer cars... R-
Yes this happened to me not long ago on my 40 ford coupe. I had to pull the front fenders off for the alignment. I'll have to do the same on my Thames as well. Just part of having them low. With an independant front end you really need a good laser allignment!!
Typical! I see this more in frame and alignment shops than any place else! "Ignore the history! We can change it anyway." -You know who.
Yes it IS B.S. The B.S. is the fact that these "so called" wheel alignment experts can't do anything without a laser or a computer.
yeah, wasn`t b.s., now go to a real alignment shop that knows how to do it, not just watch a computer screen and follow the directions on it.......don`t need any fancy laser job to do a good alignment on and old car or truck, waste of money if ya ask me, they just buy those so they don`t have to hire a skilled alignment guy....just some kid straight outta high school and pay minimum wage....
the shop i work at has a top of the line hunter alignment machine and it really isnt bs. it does a great job on any kind of car especially one with independent front suspension but the targets can have problems working when cars are really low. that being said you can usually do one thing or another to trick the machine into working for you
In my area there are a number of shops that use the old style machines that read front to rear.Some use projected light that is reflected off of mirrors that are attach to the wheels and project the angles on a screen in front of the car.It doesn't matter how low the vehicle is.Old schoolers will tell you that those machines are just as accurate as the new state of the art stuff.The new machines just require a lower skill level to get the equipment set up properly. Shop around,I'm sure someone can handle the job.
Not BS at all. My OT daily driver is 3.5" off the ground and I've been told before that it was too low to align. Took it to a shop with a different setup and had no problems. Just call around.
Learn how to do it yourself, it's a lot easier to do your own alignment than to pull your fenders. This laser exactness would last about 8 minutes around here, I hit a canyon full of water and bent the frame on an F350 last month. I think it will be out of adjustment a touch.
we dont use lasers anymore[the latest ones anyway] .. his machine is an older model or a cheaper one ...with these models a laser is sent around the entire car any thing in the beams path will disrupt the laser and the measurement.. the new ones use a camra system that just reflects from a tower in front of the car . so the only thing that holds us back is being able to clamp the heads on the wheel or that the car is to low to get on our rack sense we dont have pits.. All we do at our shop is alignments..
Ya I bashed new tech's and the machines. But your last sentance says alot. Theres not many guys like you that are willing to work around the set standard way of useing them. And there are far fewer that seem to really understand they basics.
shop around you can buy your own caster camber guage for 99 bucks on sale usually.......build your own trammel bar and and be done with alignment shops forever........
you should be able to calibrate the machine for the heads being lower or higher , when the machine was set up originaly its programed in for the avrage cars ride hight.. this is in a pitt ??
That's exactly what we did for a club members 47 chev that is about 4 inches off of the ground. We did the caster/camber and toe with the heads at the lowest setting. It has been 3 years, and he hasn't scrubbed the tires off yet!
what they never aligned a Miata, or Vette..I call Bull shit.. Anyways, I was told the same thing about my 53 chevy..so i took it to a shop that knew how to work on cars instead of how to turn away business.. all they need to do is use a few 2x12's and lay them on top of each other (one longer than the other on each side) in front of the machine and dive on.. if they cant figure that out, i wouldnt want them to be working on my car anyways Now i guess it could matter with some of the new fangled machines, i dont know, i dont go to those..go to an old school alignment shop..
The guys who suggested this are correct. The laser alignment machines are nice and a real selling agent for the techs who operate them but find a shop that has a gage like F&J or one of the others suggested and you will be fine. Wheels were aligned with bubble gauges for around 80 years before the hi tech stuff showed up and most good front end guys still use their bubble gage to check the high zoot one and make sure it is working right. One suggestion, see if you can flag down a Snap On truck and ask the person driving it if any of his customers still use a Snap On Caster/camber gage (the bubble kind) Every operator of one of those fancy machines will at sometime tell you that it is "just as accurate as a Snap On gage if he has been around for a while. The guy who has that style gage will know how to set the toe in without an issue but a scrub gage as someone else mentioned makes that pretty simple. You might find shops that can't get the rig on the rack because it is too low but it shouldn't be that hard to find someone who can.
It isn't at all, the hats (adapters) that clip to the wheels to hang the laser equipment on to check the alignment won't clear the fenders. Some of that crap is pretty big and made for the big modern wheel wells. He just has to go to someone who has the old bubble gage.
mr48 is correct the heads are not made to work with cars that have fenders that cover the top of the wheel .. dating back to the late 80's they have been designed for cars that dont have fenders this large..
we got two shops tha ONLY do it the old school way,funny they get them dead on when we leave..........amd cheap
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