It's a good thing I was sitting down while watching this video, because I nearly fainted when I saw how easy it is. The more videos I watch on auto repair, the dumber I feel for having spent so much money with mechanics. Thanks (6 years later) for this video, sir!
Atleast I'm not by myself. My son & myself changed rods, sleeves, headers, cam.... everything! On a Silverado 5.3 LS swap... 700hp gang. All by watching RU-vid.
Fix a mans alignment, and he’ll he driving straight for a year. Teach a man to align, and he’ll be driving straight forever. Thanks for the vid, you got a new subscriber.
A quick note... if you need to turn the tie rod more than about 1/4-turn, it's a good idea to loosen the clamp on the boot so the tie rod can spin without twisting the boot. Just remember to re-tighten it when you're done.
Great tutorial. Just performed my own alignment after replacing tie rods, runs smooth and straight as an arrow. I recently had a professional alignment, so what I did was to measure the distance before I removed my old tie rods and then aligned the new tie rods/wheels to my original distance. Also, I used folding chairs and tied the string on the same height on each of the chairs to ensure the string crossing the same part of the wheel on front and back. Worked perfectly! You saved me $100 from having to go in again.
***** I always try to put my foot down when the light turns yellow. If it's too far, then I don't even bother. Sometimes I know when a light is about to turn yellow and put my foot down before.
Not shown in the video. Use a second wrench (spanner) to hold the tie rod (track rod) end when tightening the lock nut. Tightening against the tie rod ball joint may damage the joint, plus the lock nut may remain insufficiently tightened. The tie rod end normally has flats provided for this purpose, as can be seen in the video. This method also allows the ball joint to be held level when tightening the lock nut. Hope this helps.
petcatznz I was thinking the exact same thing. You'll turn everything if you don't hold the inner tie rod with a wrench. If you noticed, he never took his hands off the wheel when test driving afterwards...
just logged in to say this was the best video about getting your wheels aligned at home. I'm changing my tie rods, so need to get this right, no need to pay $50 for an alignment.
Steve Vento The tie rods cost me $30 and it took me 10 minutes to install them. To align the car it took me 20 minutes. And the car is just fine (passed inspection).) So for $30 and half an hour of work I got the job done. The mechanic wanted $150 for everything. Now do the math.
Nathan Oliver True. This is for diyers or people that need to do an alignment at home, or even for "emergencies" for instance if you changed your inner tie rods, or struts at home. Then, if you want, you can take the car to the mechanic.
A few things here that I need to mention.Do not adjust your toe-in with the front of the vehicle off the ground like R&W did in this demonstration.Your vehicle may be susceptible to "bump steer".This is a change of toe-in/toe-out as the suspension moves from full droop to full compression,due to differences in the arcs of the tie rod and the lower control arm. When you adjust the toe with the vehicle on the ground,use turn plates under the tire or something to break the friction between the tire and the ground,as you may get a false toe reading due to a slight tire slip angle through the tread.That is,the rubber is twisting. When centering the steering wheel,if the vehicle has power steering,start it up,center the steering wheel,then switch it off.This equalizes the pressure in the steering rack/box.
jimmy mushman I was watching this video and fully understand steering as I have been a car mechanic for 50 years, I looked down the comments to find what you said, otherwise I was going to say exactly the same thing ! also a lot of cars do have adjustable rear tracking.
why can't one just do what's done in the video then lower the car and remeasure? If it's off jack up the car once again and adjust. Keep doing this till measurement is correct when car is on the ground? Also how does one adjust camber?
thanks for the video. that tip about turning the wheels in 1/8" was perfect. I had them both straight and took it for a drive and just as you said, the wheels wandered. Went back and fixed it right up.
I like the video. My only tips would be to: 1. Put front wheels on the ground--use something like baking tins, leafs, dirt, to reduce friction, when measuring for toe. 2. When you get the steering wheel centered, but books between the steering wheel and the seat. You don't want it to move. I am going to use a rope, and lash the steering wheel to the rear view mirror. 3. A shop manual helps too. If you have the time/patience, and know caster/camber/toe you can get a pretty good alignment. If insure about caster/camber leave those adjustments alone, and just concentrate on Toe.
Thank you so much for sharing this great video. I replaced the rack and pinion on a GMC Yukon, and in spite of all efforts, the alignment was affected badly. Since it was the weekend, I resorted to try to find a temporary solution here, and found your video. Followed step-by-step and I was able to align it. That was fantastic.
Dude thank you for this video. So helpful. I woulda never thought you could do this. In the back of my mind I always think alignments are something you will have to have a shop do no matter what. Thanks again brotha 👊
lol,finally someone mentioned this alot of videos don't mention the boot ,the boot twist with the rod happened to me had to keep turning it back to shape
Hey man I just wanted to say that's probably one of the easiest explained videos I've seen in a long time I've had a lot of problems with my alignment just want to let you know I appreciate it thank you
Thanks for this. I just redid basically my whole suspension, but completely messed up the Tie-rods, I didn't even make it down the driveway before realizing something was very wrong. I got them adjusted now thanks to this vid, and am on my way to get a pro alignment. Thank goodness this nightmare is almost over. C/V's, struts, upper and lower tie-rods, lower ball joints, and sway bar links. My suspension was so bad, and so seized I had to actually cut off the sway bars and tie rods.
In the video, after he was done adjusting the tie rods, he locked them with only one wrench on the lock nut. This resulted in movement of the tie rod, which throws off the adjustment. So, when both unlocking and locking the tie rod, two wrenches are required. One wrench to hold the tie rod in place without twisting it out of adjustment, and the second wrench to turn the lock-nut. Flare-nut wrenches, commonly used for plumbing, are best suited for the job of holding the lock-nut, because these hold the nut on five of the six sides of the lock-nut. and next are the Camber and the Caster adjustments. Waiting for that video. Thanks. ( could your next video also explain concepts such as Ackerman Steering and the correction of front wheel drift during cornering. Thanks)
I had no idea it was that easy I love it when people like you make videos like this it helps people learn to fix their vehicles themselves and save a ton of money thanks for posting this video
I've seen in the comments a lot about how the wheels need to be loaded (aka on the ground) in order for this to be a more accurate alignment method. My question is; can't you just drive the front end, in this case, up on ramps to make this method more accurate? You would have room to work under the car while also keeping the tires under load so it seems like a win win. It might be a little harder to get the strings aligned with the center of each tire that way but tying the string to jack stands set to different heights could be a solution there. I'm no professional mechanic so maybe there's a reason no one seems to have mentioned this but I'd still appreciate a response to the question of whether or not driving it up on ramps would be a more accurate alignment method than using jack stands. Regardless thanks for an awesome and informative video and comments section everybody. Definitely one of the more useful and productive post I've seen on RU-vid. Think this comment ran on too long? " It's ok because we're doing a very important video" 😂
1 main thing to note and that I haven't seen anyone else mentioned it to have a wrench on the outer tire rod itself so when tightening the locking nut the outer tire rod does not turn to avoid adjusting the toe out of the desired specs of what you just took the time to adjust to the desired / correct specs 1 wrench to keep the out tire rod locked in the desired adjusted position and another on tightening the lock nut that locks in place the outer tire rod and inner tire rod new desired position(:
Toes measurements have to within a couple of mm's measured at the tread so when you set the rims 1 mm toe at tyre tread will be larger so accuracy is vital and the weight has to be on the wheels or it wont be accurate. You cant align the rope along the car or rear wheels as it simply will be out as the rears are always slightly out. To do this i use thin fishing line so i can see each mm on the ruler- 6 pound line is ok I set the steering wheel as straight as possible driving the car forward then lock of the steering wheel with a steel pole through the doors windows clamped to steering wheel- It must not move at all! Then some jack stands beyond the front and rear of car along sides and tension line with some weights at rear so line is taught. Now the critical step. You need to align one side line first and use that as your master line. Use ruler on RHF rim and move line till front and back of front rim is exactly the same to a mm! dont touch that line or stands anymore. Now get the left hand line close to car side and use measuring stiff rod to measure between the L & R lines at the stands front and rear till the line are exactly the same distance apart front and rear. now the 2 lines are precisely parallel. Try to get this as accurate as possible and make very small movements in the left side ONLY stands till it zero diff if possible. Now you will have already loosened off the left tie rod and now for eg ZERO toe, you measure same as right side get the left rim same front and back really accurately to same distance from left line eg 41mm and 41 mm- now 2 front wheels are exactly parallel with each other if not with car direction , but does not matter as they both turn sightly together when you move forward and stay aligned to each other. Accuracy- any small error in say 2mm 16 feet between front and rear stands between lines will be 1mm half the length and only less than 1/2 a mm for the metre width of tyre which means that you only be out that much if adjust to zero diff on ruler. Allowance is upwards of 1-2 mm on toe usually so set up is critical to success and thin line for accuracy of reading- dont use fat string or do when windy or line will bend. Rear wheels only have to be out of alignment a mm or 2 and that angle will be multiplied if you run lines to wards front and do you alignment off that so you toe could be out my 5-10mm! You can align rear wheel to each other using lines but CANT align to body direction as they stay fixed when car moves forward unlike front wheels. So rear wheel alignment is impossible without shop alignment machine that read the wheels turn as car is pushed forwards and backwards and can see if they roll same direction precisely as car body using mirrors or laser/cams ect strapped to each 4 wheels . So lines only possible to do on fronts accurately , rears cannot be done accurately using lines or used to align front wheels using rears. My rears are ok and camber out a little but effect is not noticeable and my car drives dead straight with dead still steering wheel. For an old car it not matter but out of alignment rears will affect the thrust line crooked to body line and in some case throw everything out making front alignment waste of time.Shop work will be necessary.
Just measure the distance between the jack stands at the front and the back where the string is attached example 67 in vs 67 in and make sure the number is exactly the same! Then the lines will be perfectly parallel
It appears the jack stands are on the pinch welds not underneath the lower control arm. You could place a jack underneath the lower control arms and jack the arm up to load the suspension.
I did this a couple of times and put 12 x12 vinyl tiles under the wheels ,but either way it's only meant to get temporary drivability until you can get it done at a shop
Even better on running the string line would be to run it past the back and front of the car and measure between them front and back along with aligning with the rear rims. A tiny error in measuring over the width of a rim will be a big error at the front axle. Making sure the string lines are parallel will help prevent this error.
thats exactly what i asked, he didnt mention squaring up the string, how do you know you arent settimg the tire at an angle? even squaring the strings to eachother could be wrong. really you would need to square rhe string to the car or back wheel right?
The only issue I have is what makes you think that rope is plumb or completely straight. If it’s off 1/16” there goes the whole procedure. A much better way to do it is with a tape measure and a mark on each steer tire. Usually making the mark in the center of each tire. Then you put each mark facing forward and measure the distance between them then rotate wheels 180 degrees so marks are painted to the back and do the same this way you have a constant reference and don’t have to rely on your eye and a string. Set your tow between a 1/16-1/8 in and you’ll be good unless you’re rear end is out of whack but then you have bigger issues to deal with than a front end alignment
I knew all this already except the string method of measuring.. Wich is an awesome idea and really simplifies things. I will say on a 4x4 its easier because your inner and outer tie rods are connected with a threaded rod that basically adjusts them twice as fast : D and I think the twin lock nuts are easier than the single big nut on a 2 wheel drive. PLUS its high off the ground so no jacks required for 4x4 vehicles.
When tightening the locking nut, hold the tie rod from turning..... you’re so usually right, I hesitate to point this out, but you undid the correction by 1/8-¼ turn
Good point, I noticed that too. C Luek! And also the whole car should be on the ground too. But everything else he did was pretty good. I can appreciate the tutorial and your catch, Thanks :D
@@mojakhaha You want the air pressure correct and lug nuts to correct torque. Plus the tires should be on the ground to show the full driving suspension as normal as possible. If the vehicle is suspended then you don't have the true normal driving conditions. Honestly, if you aren't really accurate with doing the way the tutorial is done, then have a professional do it. This is a very critical adjustment that is not to be taken lightly.
haha we are running red light's but it's OK because we're making important video's lol that was a good video buddy... made me spill my DrPepper laughing....
I have a fleet of 25 vehicles that all wear the inner wheel. Getting them aligned where I live is a slow process to say the least. I burn through tires like underwear. Sir you are an angel.
Very informative. Thank you. Only one thing I never got good at was measurements. While i do okay for simple ones like, ¼ or ½ or ¾. No one's ever been able to teach me majority of what you were saying. Not knocking your video. I just figured maybe someone will read and be able to send me a site or PM so that I could comprehend. Awesome though. I hope this fixes my crooked steering wheel and pull to the right.
The only issue I have with this procedure is taking measurements and doing adjustments with the front wheels off the ground supported with stands and leaving the front wheels hanging free, i.e., no weight on the front wheels and car not level. This can and almost certainly will change your measurements and adjustments between this position and wheels with vehicle weight on the ground. Reaching the tie rod adjusters is more difficult but not impossible, and makes for a more accurate setting.
You are right. What is shown in the video with the weight off from the front tires is totally useless. Alignments are never done this way. I would like to see these tires after he drives the car for 500 miles.
I'd like to see this addressed as well! From what I learned, when suspension jounces (de-compresses as the car is lifted), the toe naturally changes. Therefore, when the mustang is lowered back to the pavement, he will be left with toe angle in each tire. At least they should be symmetric now!
Would the toe change the same on both sides when you lower the car? If so I will probably raise my anyway, make it easier to get to the rods, then lower it and figure out how much the tow changes. I guess I'd have to raise and lower the car twice this way, but I doubt my driveway is smooth enough to put cardboard under the wheels anyway.
@@niteblaster1 The rears are on a solid axle. There is no way for them to be misaligned barring major damage to your rear axle. Only some trucks have rear wheels that can be aligned.
This is really cool! It does beat having to spend 60 bucks getting an alignment after changing a 20 dollar tie rod. But Im still a bit wary of the possibility of whipping a 300 dollar set of tires. You use this method regularly on your cars and have had no issues with tire wear?
yeah definitely make sure your tires are aligned properly. I learned this the hard way today. I knew your tires had to be aligned and balanced, but I had no idea that the rear tires of my car weren't. I have to buy two new rear tires a little sooner than expected along with a new rim. I hit a pothole pretty hard and it bent my rim causing a leak. I think the previous owners had their son rotate the tires himself and probably didn't bother aligning it or their mechanic didn't bother to do it. Either way, I still had to spend about $260 :/
Jesse Hooton Yeah. no one aligns their car after a tire rotation, only when buying new tires and hell only if the tires are already wearing significantly on the outside or inside of the tread due to too much toe in/toe out/camber +/- . A pot hole ate your rim dude, and the reason why you bent your rim is probably because your tire isn't properly sized to allow for proper clearance from the face of the rim and the sidewall of the tire. So if you have a wider tire, you offer your rim more protection when it comes to hitting pot holes and parallel parking. Also my sister and my mother can properly rotate tires, and I'm sure you could teach a chimp to rotate tires too.
+RatchetsAnd Wrenches , MAJOR problems here: Short version, the way you did it your reference (string) isn't accurate the way you set it up and you're performing your readings at the wrong point in the suspension travel. More specifically: 1- using measurements off the back wheel lips just won't work well for this, Almost no car will have perfectly straight wheels, hubs, axles... (yes a "laser" alignment measures off of them, but they are lifted off the ground and turned a few degrees to check how straight they are and double checked against a known). This won't work at all on something without a solid rear axle since the toe on many cars can be adjusted so you'll have no reason for the rear wheels to be facing straight forward. Finally, doing this using a tape measure (accurate to a 1/16", you can probably eyeball 1/32") across 2 points that are about 15" apart will have a lot of error (probably on the order of 1" or more across the length of the car. To do this right you need to extend the strings till they go past the front and back of the car, you can get it close like you did, then you have to measure the distance between the strings in front and in back of the car and make sure those distances are the same making the strings parallel to each other and then measure from one point on the suspension on the car (the center hub of a front or rear wheel will work) to the strings on both sides to make sure the strings are the same distance from the car (the second step is not absolutely necessary but could help you catch a car that has something that will prevent you from getting a proper alignment. 2- because of the suspension geometry all cars have "bump steer" which means the tire angle changes as you change ride height. Doing this with the front tires hanging is not representative of what you get with the tires on the ground rolling, as a matter of fact it will be SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT on most cars, and on many it will even be different side to side (the bump steer will be different on each side) so the car won't even track straight going down the road. They actually sell "bump steer kits" for the mustang that you did this on to try to fix that geometry so it doesn't bump steer as much as it does from the factory (it typically can't be eliminated completely) This really needs to be done with the vehicles weight on the front suspension on the ground and preferably (though rarely done) with it loaded as it's normally driven (driver's weight in the driver's seat and any cargo/passengers that are in the car most of the time). With the tires on the ground trying to turn them (through the wheel or by adjusting) will load bushings and suspension parts so it won't give you a true reading, especially on things with larger tires/shorter sidewalls so it's best to do this with something under the tires to reduce friction. An old school racer's trick is 2 use to thin flat pieces of something like linoleum tiles with grease in between them.
Wow, the tile trick is genius. I think you could get away with this method if you aligned off back wheels like in the video, THEN measured between strings like you said, then adjusted toes like in the video, then dropped the car, remeasure between strings, remeasure front readings, log numbers, and adjust with the car off the ground using the logged numbers, then do a final check with tires back on the ground. What if the rears are out though? Split the difference? Is the 16th per side toe-in the correct number? I'm about to do mine and understand the concept, but getting skeptical that this can be done properly without a LOT of time spent. We'll see...
Mark Pikas I had the exact same thought. The measurement is entirely arbitrary to the frame. A slight move of the box and presto, perfect alignment without turning a wrench! The string method works but there is a lot more to it than this
Nicely done. I watched a few videos on this and while others were nice and clear like yours, the dialogue was a bit rambling and I don't recall any mentioning the toe-in step. Obviously an important step!
+Imran Khan Correct. Whenever I've done a home alignment versus a professional one in the shop, I put it up, make the adjustment I thought was needed when it was down, but it back down and recheck.
+keith cunningham Of course it does, which is why I was able to get my camber better than the machines at work. I took different loads into consideration so that my tirewear would be better in more than one case.
***** I've done many alignments. The norm is to adjust everything with the tires under the load of the vehicle. Sorry man. You're not correct. Some adjustments require the wheel to be off. You put it back down and recheck. That's the real procedure. Understand, this is how cars are done made for American roads. If you're from somewhere else I suppose they have cars and procedures I've never seen.
I really appreciate this video I had to replace an inner tie rod and this video helped me until I can get it aligned at a shop but my wheel feels straight so I don't think I really need to
i never knew we could turn the inner tie rods as well, for adjustment. they were pretty stiff in my car. so i took the outer tie rods out and turned them. oh well, we learn something new everyday. i agree , you made an important video. Cheers.
Are you sure? I mean it KINDA resembles the Andresen Costco area, but that's not it, and I've lived here my whole life too, I can NOT for the life of me figure it out if it really is here in Vancouver, WA.
I love this video. We're running red lights, but that's ok cause we're doing important videos... This was the best part of the whole video... I really enjoyed this. LOL 😅😅😅
Exactly CORRECT. The car MUST be sitting on the ground at the time of the measurement. And you MUST roll it forward and backward about 1/2 of a tires rotation to accurately position your wheels after you make each toe adjustment. (I know what I'm talking about! Been here - Done this - CORRECTLY)
@@realistmw - Thanks Mike, as I read the title of the video "How to Perform a Front End Alignment Yourself - Easy and Free" I didn't get the (this is just a hack until you pay for a shop to do it right). I thought he meant, "this is how it's done". wow - don't know how I missed that, or how you got that? Oh well, thanks for posting. NOTE TO VIEWERS, COMMENT READERS ______________________ This video is NOT about how to align your front end (set the toe alignment). THIS VIDEO IS ABOUT how to try to minimize damage to your tires while you drive yourself to a shop so you can pay them to do the alignment for you. I hope this helps end the confusion concerning what's presented in the video and in the comments.
I didn't know that guideline about wanting a slight toe-in of 1/16" on each side. Do you find that having wheels off the ground doesn't affect the numbers very much?
Most people recommend doing it on the ground, I personally havent had much problem raising the car and adjusting the tie rods then. Thanks for your comment.
Slight toe-in makes the car want to go straight, like when you snowplow when skiing. Otherwise the car wanders and does not return to "straight" after a turn or when you let go of the steering wheel. Stay gold
Every road has a crown which is why you don't put the alignment perfectly dead on straight. The degree of the crown depends on the state you live in, here in Florida we have a 5 degree crown so you'll pull to the right more often, so adjust accordingly.
Lifting the tires was the first in a string of mistakes made in this process. It can affect the tow as much as 2 degrees. That may not sound like much but what feels good on dry roads can land you on a ditch when the weather turns bad.
Thanks for the video. I watched this 😮before but I needed a refresh because I just did some front end work and I wanted to check my alignment since it's Sunday and the Alignment shop is closed.
"+mw10259 I wonder how people did that from the 1920s to 1960s..." They used an alignment machine like this. www.google.com/search?q=alignment+heads&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSiIjqqIPSAhVGeSYKHTfjDLkQ_AUICSgC&biw=1024&bih=503#imgrc=yckdCD_O8AMaDM: The guy in the pic is John Bean. He's known for being a pioneer in the industry. FMC has the license to use his name/designs. All of their alignment machines are marketed under his name. That said, aside from that really old pic, most of the old machines were the Aamco style. You removed the dust cover on the old style cars that was used to keep the wheel bearings clean, and the alignment head had a magnet on it that secured the head to the hub assembly.
Only one thing you didn’t do. When you finished and tightened up your nut, you didn’t hold the rod still. So when you tightened the nut you adjusted the alignment more so it will be out again…
Definitely do your alignment with the wheels on the ground, if possible. When the suspension decompresses there's alot that can change, especially if you had to use a camber kit after doing the ball joints.The distance necessary to keep the wheels straight when fully compressed might not be the same distance required to keep the wheels straight when decompressed. On my truck, the wheels toe in considerably when jacked up, then return to straight when the truck is back on the ground. Even with jackstands under the spring/shock wells on the lower control arms the suspension can decompress a little. If you have to raise the car up, put the jackstands as close to the wheels as you can get them safely, to try to replicate as closely as possible the same leverage force as the wheels are putting on the vehicle's suspension. I'd almost use ramps before jackstands if raising the vehicle is necessary, and then jack the rear up with jackstands so the car is level and a good string can be run on it, then keep the jack under the front chassis as a safety precaution.
Nice explanation! However you changed from a more aggressive alignment to an economical alignment. 0 toe all around is great for saving tires, but for a better driver to vehicle feel, your original alignment with a little toe in in the rear, and a little toe out in the front gives you a quicker turn in for corners, with greater stability in the rear upon accelerating out of the corner. If anything I would have kept the slight toe in in the rear and zeroed the front. I’m nobody special though.
you 100% right. I did my Envoy. I made it perfect with wheels of the ground.. But after I lowered it the wheels had TOE OUT! It should be done with whole weight of the vehicle on its wheels.
