For those who do their own alignments:

What equipment do you use to set toe? How accurate? Cost?

I'm looking for quality tools here, so no home-brewed devices please.

At the shop we use the Snap-On optical alignment rack for initial settings. When we need to fine tune, change the setting at the track I user a smart camber gauge for camber, and something similar to this for toe.

I have used the smart string set up and find that it works very well.

The units I've seen F/S for toe are pretty much home brew devices. Their use really depend on how good you are at
setting up a dimensional system. Setting the rear toe & thrust angle equality would be the toughest part.

I take mine up the street to my buddy with a machine.

Toe is easy to very accurately. I use stuff made by Longacre (the roundy-round race car supplier.) For toe setting all you need is a floor jack the tire "scribe" (marking the tire eliminates runout error from tire sidewalls and whell imperfections) to make a reference mark and the toe measuring tool that is just a big caliper. You can do very well with this simple setup.
Steve

I use a set of Dunlop optical alignment gauges.





BTW .... this is not my car..

All you need is here.

http://www.smartracingproducts.com/alignment.htm

You can download the manuals to see how to do it before you buy.

Ken

QUOTE (KenH @ Nov 20 2005, 02:23 PM)

All you need is here. http://www.smartracingproducts.com/alignment.htm You can download the manuals to see how to do it before you buy. Ken

I have their camber tool and am thinking about the 'string' tool, but wanted to check first.

I just did an alignment on Rob Watson's car. Worked out great. Rob and Brent helped out and made the whole process go smoothly. Should steer straight enough to getaround town on.

BTW I have only done the string carpenter square measuring tape thing thing on ly car and I have 16000 miles on it. I run a pretty hot Autocross setup everywhere. Including the trip to Tampa ( I just pulled out some of that negative camber.

You can buy or, as I did, make a set of strings that bolt to the license frame holes.

With some practice you can easily measure to 0.03" or less across the rim.

Remenber Porsche specifies Toe in degrees so you have to calculate rim offset, in inches, into degrees.

Ken

You can check the home alignment article I have over on the Bird Board and make the toe plates from some aluminum sheet. There are dimensions to convert the measurements to degrees. The wheel size is 15 inch only though. I use this at the track if I have a bad bump (as in Mexico) or at home after doing some work. I have my race shop do the cars for race preps.