In reply to a message from chris87 sent Tue 15 Jul 2008:
Chris here’s my ten cents worth. I’ve never come across a wheel
alignment machine that couldn’t give a toe in reading in
millimetres (or the imperial equivelant).
You shouldn’t need to find new caster shims. There should be four
on each side between the top ball joint and the wishbone. They will
probably be in front of the ball joint (or perhaps three of them
will be and one behind). If some are missing, you could get them
from a breakers yard, but any suspension shop worth it’s name
should have generic ones in stock. You can use a washer instead,
it’s just that you have to withdraw the bolt to fit it, whereas the
shims are open on one side like a ‘‘U’’ for ease of fitting. From
memory the shims are 1.6 mm thick each, but you could check one
that’s in the car.
I have a belief that it’s hard to get a good wheel alignment job
from a shop that doesn’t specialise in suspension work. You can’t
tell with sufficient accuracy from the seat of your pants,
measuring across the tyres with a tape measure, low cost alignment
equipment or anything less than a proper job. The cost easily
repays itself in both driving pleasure and reduced tyre wear, and
should be redone annualy (about $50 - $70 here). If you go into a
repair shop and tell them what the problem is, and what you want
done, and don’t get an intelligent response just leave and go
somewhere else.
In this country cars are required to have an independant safety
inspection every six or twelve months depending on the age of the
car. Oil in the rack boots (if detected) means automatic failure.
You decide. Does the steering feel ‘‘lumpy’’ when you turn corners?
Suspension faults tend to creep up on us and we automatically
adjust our responses to accomodate them. Often it’s only when some
one else drives our car, or we drive another that realisation sets
in, and as someone else has stated, if there’s a suspension fault,
like a worn ball joint, you will never get a proper alignment
result. The shop should check all this before starting.
Wheh! That’s enough rant for today.–
The original message included these comments:
In reply to a message from Frank Andersen sent Tue 15 Jul 2008:
thanks everyone for your help,I’ll get this right if it’s the last
thing I do…I’ll be taking my biannual trip down to South Carolina
soon (about 900 miles from Boston)and want to be sure my front end
is stable.
–
Neville S1 XJ12
Christchurch, New Zealand
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