Homemade alignment

[Mark V]

I've been wanting try try this for a while and finally got my chance yesterday when I did some tie rod ends. I strapped some straight boards (I had some nice straight 1x2's) to the outsides of the tires. (on the ground) Then measured front and rear distance (at the tire, not the end of the board) I adjusted the tie rods on the passenger side ( they had the new ends) untill I had the front 1/8" less that the rear. (spec is 2-4 mm) On the road, it is very close. I had a viscious tug right and the wheel was about 20-30 degrees off. Now It is just a gentle pull right (It can turn into a left pull given the berm of the road) and the wheel is about 5 degrees off. I think I'll live with this till I do the subframe bushings all around then I'll have it shop checked.

On the bushing front, I checked the factory manual for the procedure for changing the front bushings. Is all that necessary or can it be steamlined?

Mark

[MikeTangas]

That is fairly close to the way I do a rough alignment after front end work. I'll admit though, that I never considered strapping boards to the tires for a measurement point. Not a bad idea. Will probably try boards after I do the front end work on the 560. The home (rough) alignment works good enough to get you to the alignment shop for fine tuning.

As for the subframe bushings, not sure which chassis you're working on, but a fair description of the job for 108/109/111/113 is in the DIY section.