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Step 4:- Checking for a straight chassis VERY OPTIONAL
This is a very optional step. You don't need to do this but if you come across some unexplained problems with the procedure later on this step may help.
I decided to do this extra stage as I had previously discovered that there had been some welding work on my W123's sills which has resulted in a wonky driver's seat. (See)
I don't have the jealously guarded crash repair man's data of exactly where each part of the W123 body should be but I figured that if I measured between certain points on the underside of the car I could get a pretty good idea of whether the chassis is straight or not.
I chose to measure between the solid mount points, such as the differential mount, the sub frame attachment pins, the lower control arm mounts (eccentric pin), and either end of the stay that hold the LCA in place (the FSM calls this the brake support). In other words each easily accessible part of the chassis that is utilised to hold the wheels in place.
I used a plumb bob to transfer the positions of each point on the car onto a point on the ground. By chalking each position on the ground. I then rolled the car out of the way so that I could measure between, across, and diagonally from point to point. I built up a set of relative measurements from which I then made a scaled drawing (on a computer drawing package actually but pen and paper is just as good) that would show if there was a misalignment.
Despite my worries my car turned out to be fine. Each dimension I measured put each point within a few millimetres even though I was measuring with a tape measure on my terribly uneven driveway.
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