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Squiggle Dog · #10 07-19-2019, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ykobayashi

You’ve done some really nice work on the steering and suspension. I thought I’d chime in on what I ended up doing for my cars’ alignment.

When I changed out all the front end bushings on my 126 it stood up a lot in the front. Camber was visibly out. It should be about zero degrees and I could see with my eyeball that it was negative by quite a bit. I used an iPhone level app and some steel rulers on the rim to measure camber and I adjusted it. I then used a tape measure thumb tacked to the tire tread to set toe. Not perfect but it seemed to get it in the ballpark. The car dropped down in the front once I got it dialed. My thought was the PO had it aligned and the people adjusting it kept doing so for bushing wear. When I changed the bushings to fresh rubber it was way off.

That was about seven years ago. I put 50k on a set of new tires and didn’t have any wear issues. I recently acquired a 300d and it had a little pull to the right. My 126 always had a similar pull. I played with differential camber a bit to see if I could compensate for the pull in both cars but I never could quite get rid of it. It was very sensitive to road draft/crown.

Rather than bring it in I watched some videos on YouTube that said differential caster could cause pulling. Also some people here mentioned too much caster made these cars sensitive to road crown. I decided I really didn’t want some uptight tech at MB’s messing with it, or some idiot kid at the chain alignment shop touching it. I heard idiots can actually make things worse.

So I bought a used SPC Fastrax for $120. Does camber and caster. Piece of cake. I had to redo toe but I’ve gotten pretty quick at it using two (free) tape measures from harbor freight. Same thumb tack to the tread trick. I don’t use a spreader but I set my toe an extra 1mm in. It seems to work. I know this isn’t orthodox but I’m really happy with the results. No funny wear. No pulling. And best of all, no idiot techs telling me they cannot align the car or worse, messing up the alignment.

The fact your mb techs won’t do caster is a no go. Caster transformed my cars. My 300d was way out and it really stopped pulling after I evened it up. The SD runs a tiny bit of differential caster to dial out its pull.

Good luck squiggle dog. The car is looking great mechanically. I’d be itching to get some paint or wrap on it.

Thanks for the detailed information on doing an alignment at home. The Specialty Products Company FastTrax tool looks really neat! With that and their spreader bar, I could probably do a good job on my own. But, for right now that would cost more than I can afford, so I'll just get an alignment done at a shop for now and then might buy the tools the next time it needs to be done.

I'm not sure why the front setting up higher than the rear, or the leaking steering damper would matter to the technician at all. It seems they would have no affect on the alignment.

I also don't understand the difference between camber and caster. I know what camber is, but isn't caster measurement of toe? It seems a wheel can only be adjustable in two directions--the direction it tilts in and out, and toe brought in and out. It seems caster is simply a measurement of toe angle?

I've been wanting to get my car painted for years, but it's just too expensive. It takes all I have just to keep it on the road mechanically. It has a lot of dents, rust, and body damage that would need to be repaired before it can even be painted. Maybe one of these days.

I pressure washed it, and while it did a great job of removing peeling clear coat, it knocked off a lot of paint and so there is a lot of primer showing through now.