meinthe73

Well no shops can do my alignment now because they say my wheels are to wide. Ill have to do it my self, if you have any tips or a good write up that you share would be great. Thanks.

Sigforty

Too wide? I have never heard that reasoning. What size tires are you running?

meinthe73

i put flares on. The rear is 345/40/17 on a 17x11

midyearvette

go to duntov corvette website and you can download instructions for do it yourself alignment......

Sigforty

I honestly think they do not want to mess with it. That size tire is nothing all that crazy, especially since I think a 345 is what the new z06 has.

straub18045

doubt you will get car within specs doing it yourself. caster,camber, toe never will happen without a alignment machine. you can pop on regular tires and wheels for the alignment, if you dont gots then borrow from another vette buddy.

dmayhew

Call your local Chevrolet dealership. They did my 71 , it has standard wheels, but like others have said The Z06's can be aligned.

David

straub18045

problem is you need extensions for the machine because of wheel size, local shops may not have em but gm dealer will

meinthe73

I may be wrong but the guy said no because of the back being way wide compared to the front

Sigforty

How many shop have you tried. I have not heard of that being a problem. any good shop will put the pieces on the wheels and use the laser machine to get it right. The size should not matter unless the suspension does not have the adjustment to accommodate the wheels. What I mean is that you need more adjustment than can be provided by the current suspension components. That should be the only possible problem.

russde

Alignments are not the black voodoo magic they are made out to be...and fricken laser beams are not needed either.
Try here for some diy tech: http://corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13211< I followed the instructions and help here years ago and haven't paid a 'technician' since.
Russ

meinthe73

your from san antonio? if you know how to do I live in seguin maybe could lend me a hand. have you done a c3?

chevymans 77

Just got finished doing mine, I've done mine the last couple times its needed it.

Get on YouTube and watch some video's on the how to of a DIY alignment.

Caster is the hard one but it can be done if you take your time.

The last shop that did mine set the rear toe to 1/16" on the passenger side and 3/16" on the drivers side, car didn't drive right and the steering wheel was off center due to the rear toe being off.

The car has to be level to do a good job

Neal

69autoXr

It's not rocket science. If you take your time and are careful with your setup you can perform an alignment at home with excellent results. I'll even go so far as to say they can be more accurate that what some fool in a shop can produce with a high dollar machine because he doesn't take time to settle the suspension between adjustments. It's tedious work but worth it in the end when you have what you want and didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for it.

straub18045

mite get it close doing it yourself, then give it to me and i will show you were it is out of spec with the hunter machine. most mechanics dont do proper alignments because they dont want to adjust anything. cost good money to replace the chewed up tires due to a vehicle out of alignment.

wcsinx

Been doing my own alignments for years on both my '76 and '02. And everytime I've had it checked with a fancy shmancy laser machine, I've been spot on ... nothing to change.

As opposed to most mechs that think a 1/16" delta in toe left to right is "close enough".

It's basic geometry not rocket surgery.

straub18045

cool beans. everyone has there way of doing things that work for them.after 14 yrs. doing alignments i no what works, i have stricter tolerances than the given specs to, im just alittle more picky.

mrvette

That's about it, nothing to it really, just careful work....

doing it in the garage you will have to know the new track center for the rear, as opposed to the front, and I wonder if your tires stick out so far they are loading the suspension, and too much stress on the lower strut, shafts....I don't know to what extent you modded the t-arms....I did '92 vette wheels on my '72 long time ago....all I did was move the ebrake cable...same wheel/tire centerline....which BTW is 3/8 inch per side wider than in front.....if you have dis similar wheels, you have a problem measuring that, I just use a hub center, or in my case the hub cap to set the fishing line up on....my adapters are same on all 4 corners...2.5"......

mashinter

His machine may have heads that communicate front-to-back, and the wide rear is out of range of the fronts?

69autoXr

You're right, my alignment would absolutely be "out of spec", but that's how I want it. That's another of the beauties of doing it myself: I can set it where I want, and change it if I want without having to pay someone each time.

If you have a high dollar machine and take your time and understand all of the things that go into setting an accurate alignment then that is great, most shops have hacks or kids running the alignment racks who don't even understand the settings they're putting on and how they affect vehicle handling. But please don't try telling someone they can't do it at home and not achieve results that are just as good as using expensive shop equipment (using it properly I will add).