Covers back on, ready for some night driving (after some aiming).

I took the 914 to a shop for a "real" four wheel alignment, but the process failed. After getting the car on the rack and some initial measurements, the tech reported that the assemblies mounted on the front wheels ran into the fenders when the wheels turned. So no camber possible and questionable measurements all around. Rats.

Once home I got out my vintage primitive camber gauge.

But my home readings are not close to the suspect shop readings. Now what?

First step: I checked the zero on the gauge (I know I did this last year), and found it off by about 0.2°. Unfortunately, it has no calibration, but I know the correction factor now.

I also tried using my iPhone, with a clinometer app that claims 0.1° precision. To use the phone I had to hold it against a straight edge, while holding a straight edge against the rim, and with a spacer in-between so the phone side buttons did not screw up the measurements.

Here's my new measurements, with the phone app and the corrected camber gauge. The variation is probably within error, and these better match the preliminary camber numbers from the shop.

I decided to make a new gauge to use my phone from aluminum bits around the garage.

I used more JB Weld to glue the parts together. I will test this tomorrow.

If ever you visit the city of Pueblo, this is a "must" upgrade.....

Even in my "happy" town somebody once tried to peel the renewal sticker off my wife's plate.

Here's my new camber gauge, without the phone. I was too lazy to find a mirror once I had the phone attached with a couple of rubber bands.

I checked the camber on the car again, and got the same numbers as yesterday, within 0.1°.

And here's the gauge with the phone attached.

Time to get into some suspension adjustments, front and rear. Since all my camber numbers, about -1.1° in the front and -1.2° in the rear, are higher than my target (about -0.75° all around), I need to reduce the negative camber.

But...the front right strut top is already as far to the outside as possible. To reduce the camber by about 0.4° I need to get the strut top further out. I will also raise the ride height a bit.

I dropped the strut top to make work space.

Strut stashed inside the fender.

I first filed a bit less than 1/8" from the outside of the square holes. Then I expanded the flange for the central opening as much as I could without getting in deep.

And then some touch-up painting.

But then the strut mount made contact with the inside of the fender tower. I bit of work using my hydraulic press and a hammer and I narrowed the outer edge by almost 1/8". Along with rising the ride height a bit, I hope to get the camber down to my target.

Meanwhile to keep the rear in sync with ride height changes, I pulled both shocks.

I changed the strut spring perch one notch higher, to the 3rd from the bottom. That's about 1/2" ride height increase.

One side benefit: now the springs are barely in compression with the assembly back together.

Another side benefit: I got to use my new large metric wrenches.

Then I installed the two remaining shims I have, 2mm and 3mm. Since the camber was more negative on the right, I put the thicker shim on that side.

Wow Bob, good luck, you are venturing into my "no mans zone" . Hope I don't have this issue......seems like every new portion is a bit scary for me.....

No sheet...I'd definitely call that "no mans" land.
I would never have the wherewithal to attempt aligning any of my cars.
Way above my paygrade.
Great work there Bob.

We'll see. Back when I did the race car thing, I did my own suspension set up, from corner weighting to alignments and tuning. Once I got my SCCA/PCA 914 car running well, the most seconds of improvements in lap times came from tweaking spring rates, shock settings, anti-roll bars, and alignment specs.

And on that car, my quest was always for more negative camber, especially in there rear. I might have modified the rear trailing arm outer mounts by moving the pivot holes up--but that could be just a rumor.

Back on the job. Before finishing the alignment, I installed my new speedometer angle drive. The new one (on the right) is by VDO, and has number markings, compared to the no-name unit on the left. Most important, the new drive spins correctly.

I was hoping the cable would screw on correctly, but it still tends to cross-thread.

Just for fun, I tried my spare cable. This screws on fine. Once again, stay away from the no-name brands.

Anyway, here is the new drive installed, with the cable screwed on as best as possible.

Without a rubber cap, I improvised with rubber tape.

Sealed up--I hope.

OK, back to suspension work. I need to raise the front slightly, but the torsion bar caps are aready twisted as far as possible.

So I reset them rotated 1 spine.

I reinstalled the front strut tops, and got them aligned by eye.

After a first camber check, I removed one 2mm shim from the right rear.

Then I worked on adjusting the front.

Here's how I ended up with camber, measured with my old analog gauge and my iPhone app and tool. This time, I had no problem getting to -0.5° all around. The ride height is about 0.25" higher, but still where I want it.

For setting caster and toe, I will use a trick others have suggested: thin poly kitchen sheets to eliminate twisting friction.

With a pair under each tire, I should be able to twist the wheels more easily.

I set the caster (or castor) today. The process is straightforward: turn the front wheels a certain amount to the left, measure the camber, and then turn the wheels the same amount to the right, and measure the camber. For each wheel, the caster is then the difference in camber, multiplied by a factor based on the angle.

Here, the right wheel is turned 20° to the left, lined up with a guide on the floor.

BTW, in a 914 20° is a little more than one complete turn of the steering wheel.

After the first round it was close, and so I had to nudge the strut tops forward while maintaining the actual camber at -0.5°. Don't worry, the marker is dry-erase.

Here are my results. The caster spec is 6.0° and I got 6.2° on both sides.

Last thing today I set up the parallel strings for measuring front and rear toe.

Before I started working on setting toe-in, I reset the strings using cross bars. Much easier this way to maintain constant distance front and rear.

Here are my initial measurements, which I could repeat. Uneven in the front and toe-out in the rear.

To adjust the rear, I loosed the 3 bolts for the outer trailing arm mount, and then shifted the mount forward with some taps from the love hammer (using a bit of hardwood dowel).

Of course the front is more civilized, with adjustable tie rods.