re do it yourself front end alignment possible davidd lonestar utsa edu david de leon writes in article bu edu selick csa bu edu steven selick writes i ve got an plymouth colt that i d like to do a front end alignment on is it possible to do without all of the fancy schmancy gadgets the pros have how steve no no no no if you do so you are putting the lives of others on the road at consider able risk why do you think mechanics are ase certified anyway you put it you need those fancy scmancy gadgets awww right you want all the home mechanics lined up against a wall and shot eh bull pucky you chicken read the service manual and get your head out of the sand certainly there are tools for the job that are cheaper than an alignment rack that do the job as competently albeit not as swiftly if not more accurate due to the natural pride an owner mechanic places on his work you can do an acceptable job of aligning a car using simple tools and some imaginative work that would never have the effect of endangering anyones life the worst that happens is that your tires wear oddly well you could have the wheels aiming totally pigeon toed and not be able to steer the car raise your hands those that think their vision is so poor that they would screw up this badly i bet you are one of those people that feels that honing a cylinder wall with sand paper will kill millions of people it aint magic go take the certification course and look at the people that have never learned to add in their whole life that are taking the certification btw i am disgusted at the colt and some of the other chrysler offerings because they go out of alignment if you sneaze at them my chrysler laser similar to the daytona a reskinned colt needed a realignment every months bolt a good grade x to each wheel using a carefully welded spacer jig measure toe in adjust to manufacturer specs camber a bit more difficult to adjust and measure i used a micrometer to measure the space between the rim and a funky bent up pipe that could be placed on upper and lower portions of the rim on the inside of wheel hard to explain this same tool could be used instead of the x s i had made these tools up right after the last alignment done professionally so i had a reference that the original poster might not ciao mark
