Driveway Alignment

Okay, as some of you may have already heard I've had quite a bit of drama going on in my front end. Anyway, as it stands now I can't go faster than 50mph (not good!), problem part now is my drag link.

Anyway, the joint up at the pitman arm has a lot of slop in it, nothing else is very bad. I'm goign to replace just that end of the drag-link tomorrow maybe (if I can get the part locally) and wanted to do a simple "driveway" alignment job because I don't want to align it twice.

On Thursday I will have a new drag link and tie rod, the reason I don't want to wait is that this is my daily driver and I feel it's okay to lose the $20 for the part. When I put the new drag link and tie rod in (and UCA's and LCA's, they were dirt cheap) I'm going to take it in to get a real alignment done.

Thanks,
Sequoia

The only allignment attribute that you can impact by this work is toe. You should be able to set this as well or better than any "pro" if you are even a little bit handy. You're shooting for about 1/16" toe-in. I do this by making a fine mark on the forward facing tread of each front tire. I stick a piece of masking tape on the tread and make a mark on each tire that is 12" above the ground. Measure the distance between the marks on the two front tires with a tape measure. Roll the car back until the marks are the same height above the ground as before, but now on the back side of the tires. Measure between the marks again and compare the difference with what you previously measured. When the front measurement is 1/16" less than the rear measurement you then have about 1/16" toe-in. Idealy you would do these to measurements at the height that is the same as the hub centerline, but it's hard to measure that high up with stock suspension. If you're lifted, it might be easy to measure at hub height. Not measuring at the hub height contributes a small error but it's probably less error than the allignment shop will give you. One could compensate for the error if one was sharp with their trignometry skills.

Thanks Paul.

Another question..

Anybody remember offhand the size of the nut holding the pitman arm to the steering box? I was looking under it today and it looks like maybe it loosened? (Funny how every time you look you find something new, isn't it?)

Sequoia
(I know it's bigger than any socket I have, so I'd like to pick one up on my way home)

1 5/16" is the size of the nut.