New suspension, corner balance, and alignment

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snowborder714

Guest
I figured this would be some good information to post since I haven't made a blog in a while. I pieced together a set of DG coilovers a while ago (Nov. 2010) and am just now getting around to installing them. It's been hard knowing they're sitting in my house and not on my car for that long, but I wanted to do everything right when I put them on. This included installing SPC upper control arms (discontinued), as well as corner balancing and aligning the car. I hate taking my car in for alignments as it almost never can get up on the rack without the help of some wood planks. The last time I brought it in, the person didn't know how to drive a car with a quick spooling turbo and heavier clutch, and sent the wood planks flying backwards. I told myself that was the last time I brought it anywhere for an alignment. I had also called around to a couple race shops in the area for corner balancing quotes and they were pretty high (~$300/session including alignment). So with having my brother's car to do as well, taking it somewhere would get very pricey very quickly. I shopped around and finally decided on all of the tools I needed to corner balance and align our cars. Here is what I used:

Intercomp SW500 and scale pad case
SmartStrings
SmartCamber
HubStands (HS02)
OTC Stinger Steering Wheel Holder


To start off, any time you corner balance and align a car, the surface must be level. We followed the steps in these videos to level the garage floor. I included all 3 in the series for your viewing pleasure, as they are not all about floor leveling.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZoL1gaWedA]DIY Alignment - Part 1 - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjcP07VKVZM&feature=related]DIY Alignment - Part 2 - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpEwSeSJVW4&feature=related]DIY Alignment - Part 3 - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZhZS-GhPE8&feature=share&list=PLC40FD31AB551D6BC"]Corner Weight - Part 1[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N89-Pr4jCpc&list=PLC40FD31AB551D6BC&feature=share&index=1"]Corner Weight - Part 2[/ame]


Once we got the floor level, number of tiles counted out and positions measured so they sat centered under each wheel, we drew boxes around each stack with chalk. The stacks were then moved from their boxes and the car pulled in, with each wheel centered in the box. The car was raised to prep for installing the new parts.

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We installed the new DG coilovers all around, the SPC control arms up front, and disconnected both sway bars (a mandatory when corner balancing any car). The new coilover height was guessed by comparing it to the coilovers that were pulled off. The SPC ball joints were packed with more grease and the ball joint boot was zip tied on, as the metal ring that they come with is horrible. They were also run through a Bridgeport to add measurement lines to the camber adjustment area to make fine adjustments easier. The mounting stud bushings were also greased up where they contact the arm. The camber and caster settings on these were also set by a guess, to be later adjusted.

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Once everything was installed, we mounted the HubStands, one side at a time. The tile stacks were put back in their chalk box and we got the scale pads out. We then ran the cables from the control unit to each pad, and tested each scale out by weighing a wheel on them (Evo 8 wheel with 245/40 Star Spec tire). After we verified they all read the same, we placed them on their tile stacks and zeroed them out to prep them for lowering the car down.

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Once we got a basic weight of the car without the driver, I climbed in and my brother took the weight of the car to use for corner balancing. You need to have the driver in the car, or an equal amount of weight, or the balancing won't be done properly. Once we got the weight, we plugged it in to a spreadsheet my brother created based on a few we found on the internet and one another member on here sent me. The spreadsheet will show us how much and in what direction each corner needs to be adjusted to get the car in balance. It took us about 10-15 minutes in total and adjustments in 2 corners to get the car in balance. We thought we had done something wrong as that took hardly any time or effort, but the numbers don't lie. So we moved on to the alignment portion, which we knew would take longer.

We unboxed the SmartStrings and SmartCamber tools and assembled them. It took us a bit to figure out how to get them properly mounted and adjusted, but wasn't hard.

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The steering wheel holder was also installed to keep it from moving, along with some tape between the wheel and dash to help us line it up if it did shift.

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We started by measuring rear toe, which was already in. The HubStands have a built in holder for toe bars, which make measuring toe very easy.

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We then measured and adjusted rear camber, which we used the SPC 73620 kits. These were very easy to install and just as easy to adjust. Once both of those measurements were in spec (also recorded on the spreadsheet), we moved on to front camber. We were fairly close with the guess, but it needed a bit of adjustment. Once we got that taken care of, we tried to check caster. However, without proper turn plates, this was a bit difficult, so we just set the SPC arms to max caster and called it done. We then moved on to front toe, which needed a lot of adjustment. Once the toe was in, we rechecked camber which had been throw out of our spec. We went back and forth a few times with front camber and toe until we finally got them both in spec.

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After everything was done, I climbed in again and Eric checked the weight to see how far out the corner balancing was after adjusting the alignment. It wasn't out much at all, which was good. He then reconnected the rear sway bar and rechecked. It had moved the weights around a bit in the rear, but nothing horrible. On to the front sway bar. This moved weights around much more, but thankfully we have adjustable sway bar end links, so we were able to remove the weight shift.

Once everything was set, we swapped the wheels back on and took a final measurement. We had forgot to account for the extra weight in the wheels, so we made a few quick adjustments. It was in spec and ready to go.



Next up is we have to figure out a bump stop solution, mainly for the front coilovers so we don't have the SPC arm self-clearance our shock towers.
 
K

kalco

Administrator
Staff member
Brian, you could have packed that 2gb Talon front bumper in your suitcase for me that last time you visited in Denver!!! :)
 
K

kalco

Administrator
Staff member
Nice job by the way - I'll be picking up all of those tools as well, as it's becoming more difficult and expensive to keep taking the car for alignments. Shops don't like doing custom specs anymore. And with as much as I keep swapping in new parts it doesn't make sense to keep paying for an alignment on both cars.
 
A

airmail96

Guest
Truly an awesome write up, thank you for putting the time into this.
 
S

snowborder714

Guest
The bumper/garage isn't mine, sadly. (However, I could have brought it to swap you for your TIG :D) It's my friends, who thankfully allows my brother and I to have the media blasting/powder coating setup stored there. Leveling his garage floor was probably easier than trying to level my parent's driveway. Plus, I wouldn't have left the car out over night with the HubStands and scales there, so that was why we used the garage.

That was another thing I forgot to mention is that I could not find a normal alignment shop that'd let me specify what alignment specs I wanted. Only the race shops allowed that. Just another reason to do it yourself.

Only things I can't do now mount/balance wheels and tires as well as inspection.
 
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Scott McIntyre

Guest
Thanks for posting that Brian. I was curious about the Hub Stands and Smart Strings on a 2G DSM.

I've been using DG's method for the stings, leveled the floor the same way you did, and use a long 2x2 across the doors with zip ties locking the steering wheel. Haven't used an alignment shop in years! :D
 
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TSIMonsteR

Guest
awesome post! I'm very jealous of the properly setup suspension you have there!
 
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PieEyedPiper

Guest
Awesome job you guys, I've always admired how you two brothers are always attacking the really cool stuff when it comes to our cars. What kinds of adjustments were you making for the corner weighting, besides adjusting the sway bar?

Is it easy to accidently introduce a change in toe when adjusting camber in the rear?

How long did it take you guys to level the floor?
 
T

turbosax2

Guest
A few notes:

To corner balance the car you raise/lower the suspension. We set all 4 corners to the lowest point we wanted, then raised the light corners. We mostly had to adjust one of the rear corners, then a slight raise in the right front corner. Like Brian said, I was amazed how fast this process went. Our goal was to eliminate any preload on the sway bars at the very end, so we adjusted the front sway bar end links so that the corner weights were the same with and without the front sway bar attached. Unfortunately in the rear we still have stock sway bar end links (non-adjustable) so there is a bit of preload on the rear bar. It only changed the weights by a few pounds though.

The rear camber was set before the rear toe. I can't answer how much the rear camber affected the rear toe because we didn't check toe beforehand. When we did check it, it was in spec so we let it be.

Leveling the floor took maybe 5 minutes once we understood what to do. I recommend placing the scales on the tiles during the leveling process so you account for any differences there as well, and also so the tiles are fully compressed.

The Hubstands were amazing. Well worth the money for the time and hassle they saved.

I plan on making some type of CAD template to measure caster easier next time. We weren't attacking the measurement in the best possible way with the Hubstands. Like Brian said, a real turn plate would have made the measurement 1000x easier, but it can still be done without them if we rotate the Hubstands properly beforehand.
 
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turbosax2

Guest
I can also post up the spreadsheet used if anyone is interested, once I get time to revise it a bit...
 
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Scott McIntyre

Guest
turbosax2;bt15491 said:
I can also post up the spreadsheet used if anyone is interested, once I get time to revise it a bit...
Click to expand...
Yes, please & thanks! I'm a big fan of your spreadsheets. :thumb:
 
R

rbwtrans

Guest
I have used vinyl floor tile squares with dish soap between them as cheap turn plates. Just an inexpensive idea that works.
 
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PieEyedPiper

Guest
Now tht you're all balanced, it would be interesting to note each corner's ride height. Are they all identical?
 
S

snowborder714

Guest
PieEyedPiper;bt15549 said:
Now tht you're all balanced, it would be interesting to note each corner's ride height. Are they all identical?
Click to expand...

That's a good question. We didn't take any after measurements. Next time I'm home I will.
 
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Twinturbo120

Guest
Very nice, good job! I noticed the harbor freight jack stands, I use them too xD
 
D

Dyesuperman

Guest
Seeing the posts about shops not doing custom alignment specs and paying for multiple alignments makes me grateful to have Firestone here. Lifetime alignment for $180 and all of the custom specs I want. Nice work with the car, I would love to do this with mine sometime.
 
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