Rear alignment adjuster, feedback requested please

#1

Hi gang,

I am following the thread about the rear adjusters not keeping an accurate alignment. We are also working on a new product that will solve this for you, but I have a few questions first.

How often do you adjust your rear alignment?
How often do you check it?
Do you have a professional align your car, or do you DIY?
Do you have weld on adjusters or eccentric bushings?
How difficult do you think the weld on adjusters are to access?

Thanks everyone for any feedback you can provide! I have some ideas we are cooking up that could help all of us keep more accurate alignments.

#2

[quote=“TC_Motorsports” post=58510]Hi gang,

I am following the thread about the rear adjusters not keeping an accurate alignment. We are also working on a new product that will solve this for you, but I have a few questions first.

How often do you adjust your rear alignment?
How often do you check it?
Do you have a professional align your car, or do you DIY?
Do you have weld on adjusters or eccentric bushings?
How difficult do you think the weld on adjusters are to access?

Thanks everyone for any feedback you can provide! I have some ideas we are cooking up that could help all of us keep more accurate alignments.[/quote]

How often adjust. When I find it’s wrong.

How often check. Depends on level of trust. Once I figured out how to do my own alignments I started doing checking every couple events. After installing the weld-on kit I started checking after every event and once I realized that it wasn’t staying put I started checking at the end of each day and then finally after each session.

Re. pro or me doing the alignment. Me. I’m a lot more accurate. My camber is more accurate because my alignment surface is flat to a mm. I have the alignment wheel positions marked on my garage floor and once I put down a 9mm thick spacer to raise the LR, it’s really really flat. My local shops hadn’t taken the same kind of care so their high tech laser system was off 0.2deg.

My toe measurement is really accurate because I shoot a laser from the rear wheel forward to the front wheel. That makes any rear toe deviation from neutral multiplied by 6. That makes it really easy to set exactly the toe that you want.

I had eccentric rtabs for the first 3 yrs and now have a weld-on kit. With the eccentric rtabs I couldn’t get the alignment I wanted but they were better about staying put. Not good, but better. At least I didn’t have to readjust them after every session.

I current can’t do 5 laps w/o one of my rear toe adjusters going way off.

re. access. The outside adjusters are a bastard to access.

#3

How often do you adjust your rear alignment?
How often do I or how often would I like to be able to? With the difficulty of cinching down the adjusters so they stay, I don’t mess with my rear alignment. I used to play with toe a little while at the track - and would again if I knew I could adjust it, set it and not worry about it moving.

We adjust camber a little for some tracks, so probably every other weekend on average.

How often do you check it?
Toe - once per weekend unless something strange seems to be going on. Sometimes more at a track with vicious gators like T14 at Carolina M.P. or 10b at Road Atlanta.

Do you have a professional align your car, or do you DIY?
Professional race shop, but using strings & plates for toe, handheld gauge for camber.

Do you have weld on adjusters or eccentric bushings?
Weld on.

How difficult do you think the weld on adjusters are to access?
Difficult. Unless you ignore the labor it takes to drop the subframe, then they’re pretty easy. :wink:

#4

How often do you adjust your rear alignment?
Before every weekend.

How often do you check it?
When drivers complain of oversteer, I check rear toe first.

Do you have a professional align your car, or do you DIY?
Pro. Hunter Laser Rack, not on the ground.

Do you have weld on adjusters or eccentric bushings?
Most have weld on.

How difficult do you think the weld on adjusters are to access?
8-10 hour job for a pro, depends on e-brake etc.

#5

How difficult do you think the weld on adjusters are to access?
I don’t find the adjusters that difficult to access for alignmnet purposes. I use 12 point aircraft nuts, which are smaller in diameter than hex nuts and some “artfully” bent box end wrenches. The outboard adjuster nuts are much easier to reach with the car up in the air and the wheel off. So those get loosened before alignment, snuged up enough to hold the setting, and then I put the car up in the air and remove the wheels to torque down those nuts.