I'm temporarily coming into posession of an EA82 wagon (Trashwagon 6, some of you may be familiar) since my RX7 is out of commission for a while, and my family's Ram 1500 is horrendous on gas.

 

Anyways the rear is jacked up with lift blocks, which I immediately plan on removing with Fox's blessing, and the front end alignment is ************ed up.

 

What can I do to fix that? It's a Trashwagon, it's not really deserving of an expensive shop alignment.

its possible. I have done quite a few alignment in my garage and usually get really close. I use tape measures and a specially calibrated eyeball.

oh yeah and I usually try to figure out why the car needs to be straightened out first unlike many alignment shops. that will get to the root of the problem.

What can I do to fix that? It's a Trashwagon, it's not really deserving of an expensive shop alignment.

 

I had alingment trouble a while back.

 

I found this worked pretty well:

 

4 pieces of 4x4 bocks.

2 pieces of unistrut (or other straight bar, with moderate weight).

2 tape measures.

 

Check air pressure in tires. Tires the same make / model / miles. Drive car straight forward to a gentle stop on flat smooth surface.

 

Put the blocks just ahead and behind each front wheel. Lift the bar / strut by the center, and place it on the blocks, center aligned with the center of the axle. Push on the center of the bar, against the tire. Do this a few times to make sure it is evenly against the front and back edge of the tire.

Place a bar on each side. Hook the tape measures on the bar on the far side, just touching the leading & trailing edge of the tire. Read the 2 measurements. They should be very close, like under 1/8". The FSM actually has specific ranges.

 

If you use long bars (Unistrut comes 10' long) you can check how the rear wheels align with the fronts also. I found using the 10' unistrut even for the front check handy, because the weight of them kept them from moving around unintensionally while fiddleing with the tape measures.

Alright, I think I've got a good idea of how to get it straightened up. But what components would I want to loosen and move around to get everything in spec?

But what components would I want to loosen and move around to get everything in spec?

 

Take a look at the lower arms, etc. for damage, bent, etc.

 

The only adjustment is the tie rod ends. There is a jam nut against the tie rod end, and a flat on the tie rod. Loosten the nut by wrenching the end & nut. Adjust the toe in / out by turning the tie rod. Once you do a turn or 2, check the tape measures again to get an idea of which way / how far to go. If you adjust both sides, you can get the steering wheel to be straight when the car is going straight. It will probably take a test drive or 2 to get that right.

 

Tighten the jam nuts before driving.

forgot to mention this car has xt6 conversion 5lugs with 2wd legacy macpherson struts. Myoss Feece aligned the tie rods pretty good but we never thought of the alignment being off at the bolts on the strut-to-knuckle. i think if the struts were aligned the tie rods would then be way off.

 

the car is out of line to begin with since zanny dook crashed it into a the turbo wagon on our way back from midwest 2 meet

http://www.mdalign.com/products.html

 

find a copy of Truck Wheel Alignment A Common Man's Guide by Mike***Beckett

 

it describes several ways to do alignment with simple tools

are alignments that much? I had one done on my mazda for $35 for a 4 wheel alignment ($25 for a 2 wheel)

are alignments that much? I had one done on my mazda for $35 for a 4 wheel alignment ($25 for a 2 wheel)

 

they run 40-65 here