**Aligning Your Car: A Step-by-Step Guide**

As a car enthusiast, understanding how to align your vehicle is essential for optimal performance and safety. In this article, we will walk you through the process of adjusting toe, camber, caster, and other crucial parameters to achieve a perfectly straight alignment.

To begin, let's talk about the importance of alignment. Over time, wear and tear can cause your car's wheels to become misaligned, leading to reduced fuel efficiency, uneven tire wear, and even compromised safety. By aligning your car, you can ensure that your tires are properly spaced, which improves traction, handling, and overall driving experience.

Now, let's dive into the process of aligning your car.

**Step 1: Measuring Toe**

The first step in aligning your car is to measure the toe. Toe refers to the angle between the rear wheels when viewed from above. To measure toe, you will need a string and a ruler or measuring tape. Place the string along the center of each wheel and mark the point where it intersects with the wheel's surface. Measure the distance from this point to the center of the wheel and record it.

**Step 2: Adjusting Toe**

Now that we have measured toe, it's time to adjust it. To do this, you will need to use a tie rod end adjuster. Locate the front tie rod ends and loosen the jam nut that holds the adjuster in place. Spin the shaft until the knuckle is at the desired position. This will either push or pull the wheel towards the center of the car.

**Step 3: Measuring Camber**

Camber refers to the angle between the tire's surface and the vertical plane when viewed from above. To measure camber, you will need a string and a ruler or measuring tape. Place the string along the center of each wheel and mark the point where it intersects with the tire's surface. Measure the distance from this point to the center of the tire and record it.

**Step 4: Adjusting Camber**

Now that we have measured camber, it's time to adjust it. To do this, you will need to use an eccentric bolt adjuster. Locate the front or rear wheels and loosen the jam nut that holds the adjuster in place. Spin the shaft until the tire is at the desired angle.

**Step 5: Measuring Caster**

Caster refers to the angle between the steering axis and the vertical plane when viewed from above. To measure caster, you will need a string and a ruler or measuring tape. Place the string along the center of each wheel and mark the point where it intersects with the tire's surface. Measure the distance from this point to the center of the car and record it.

**Step 6: Adjusting Caster**

Now that we have measured caster, it's time to adjust it. To do this, you will need to use a tie rod end adjuster. Locate the front or rear wheels and loosen the jam nut that holds the adjuster in place. Spin the shaft until the tire is at the desired angle.

**Step 7: Final Check**

Once you have adjusted all the parameters, it's time for a final check. Take your car for a test drive and make any necessary adjustments to ensure that the alignment is perfect.

We've reached the end of our step-by-step guide on aligning your car. Remember, this is just a general guide, and it's recommended to consult a professional mechanic if you're unsure about any aspect of the process.

**Tools Used:**

* String

* Ruler or measuring tape

* Tie rod end adjuster

* Jam nut wrench

* Eccentric bolt adjuster

**Tips and Tricks:**

* Make sure to use high-quality tools and materials when adjusting your car's alignment.

* Take your time and be patient, as aligning a car can be a tedious process.

* Consider using a wheel alignment machine at an auto parts store or mechanic shop for more accurate measurements.

By following these steps and tips, you'll be able to align your car like a pro. Remember to stay safe, and happy wrenching!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enWhat is alignment, well, it's like how your cars tires appointed right? Well, yeah more or lessWhy though do you care about how your car's tires are pointed your wheel seemed to go straight enoughyou're still driving down the road right may seem like a pretty small thing, butAlignment is so important in affecting how your car behaves is it squirrely is it dirty. Does it pull to the right?not only that it affects how long your tires last and how much grip you actually have and even your fuel economy a lot ofPeople think that it's really complicated but it's not it's actually pretty easyIt just takes a little time and understanding to perfect it and get it. Just rightSo in this episode I'm gonna show you exactly how to do just thatI'm gonna teach you how to do an alignment on your ownSo along the way we'll explain the different things that we're adjusting like the camber caster and toe which I'm sure you've heard of beforeWe'll talk about why you adjust each and what effect tweaking each one will have on your car, especially in a performance senseBut I'm very excited because this is gonna be a little bit of a learning experience for us bothI've done plenty of in shop alignments on alignment racksBut this is my first garage alignmentSo it's gonna be a little bit of a learning experience and I'm excited for itAnd by the end of this video, we're both gonna be alignment wizards. I'm Zack. This is money pit. Let's figure it outAll right, soAlignment the basic concept is aligning your suspension to affect the angle at which your tiresContact to the road. We're talking like this. This is camberAnd we're talking like this. This is toe andthen we're talking like this forCaster if you imagine that my arm is the steering axis or the axis that your steering pivots aroundWe've got positive caster up front if my arm is the steering axis to negative caster. Got itOkay, so what kind of tools do you need to perform an alignment at your house usually?Maybe some sockets and a socket wrenchsomewrenchesof the regular sorts and an adjustable wrench can be your best friend when you're doing alignment stuff because a lot of these parts areGonna be a little big. Alright, so the hand tools are pretty basicBut in order to measure the alignment angles, you're gonna need some specific tools of some sort or anotherSo first I bought these on Amazon these are camber caster and toe platesSo these will measure all three of the alignment angles and there are only about 200 bucksSo these should be pretty nice now for measuring toewellYou can make a set of toe plates or you can also use stringSomething that you need to think about when you're making alignmentAdjustments is that your car needs to be loaded when you make the adjustments which means it needs to beSitting on its tires like it normally would be so how do you do that and get under the car and make adjustments?Well in my case, I went to the old Home Depot bought some lumber and made some stands like this pretty rudimentaryBut I think they'll do the job and we've got some masonite hereSo they're kind of slippy because the other thing that's important is that your suspension isn't bound up and it's pretty free to moveSo we're gonna put the car down on theseI think we'll do that right now and then we'll talk more about caster camber and towAll right, let's start with caster caster is the backwards or forwards tilt of the steering axisWhich tends to stabilize steering in a straight direction?What does any of that mean so caster angle is the tilt of your steering axis?OkaySo your steering axis is the axis that your knuckle and your wheel and your tire all turn aroundwhen you turn your steering wheel on a double wishbone car like the Miata the steering axis is anImaginary line through the upper and lower ball joints because that's what determinesThe angle of your knuckle the forward or back tilt got itSo if we draw an imaginary line through the steering axisWe can see that it would intersect the ground in front of the tireBut your tire touches the ground all the way back hereSo when you're rolling forward what that means is that there's a lot of drag back here where your tire touches the ground a lotof force pulling backwardsAnd since the steering axis is all the way up here the force pulling back hereThe wheel automatically wants to snap around and rotate that steering axis to pull itself back to straightSo that's why when you take a turn the steering wheel wants to come back to Center afterEvery turn you take so now that we understand that let's try to understand how to measure Castro to do thatI'm going to use those tow plates. We're also gonna have to use my homemade turn platesWe're gonna take a measurement at two different points first for this wheel. I'm gonna turn the wheel 20 degrees to the leftI'm gonna set 0 on my plates and then I'm gonna swing40 degrees back to the right andThen I'm gonna take a measurement then I'm gonna multiply that measurement by 2 and that's gonna be our caster measurement. Okay, so we havecurrently six point two degrees of positive casterAwesome. I'm gonna write that down take note of that and we'll move on. All right now the right side same thingOkay, so on turn the wheel to the right 20 degrees, please. All rightSo we've got four point seven degrees positive caster on the right front which seems to be a little bit less than that sideThing doesn't drive perfectly straight right now and that might be whyOkay, there's no caster adjustment at the rear. So on to camberSo camber is essentially tilting the wheel in or out from the wheelPositive camber, okaySo what is the point of each well beyond just trying to cram your two wide wheels under your fender from a performance perspectiveNegative camber is a good thing up to a point you see in a hard cornerThe outside tire is gonna want to roll under the car. And that means that your tires contact patch will be sacrificedWhich means your grip will also be sacrificed, but if you add a little negative camber to the equationThen we're perfectly prepared to take that hard corner positive camber isn't really goodPerformance wise but it does have some benefitssometimes big buses or RVs will use a little bit of positive caster because it makesTurning them big Betty's a little bit easier. We don't really care about that in this case. So let's (meem)Measure our camber as it is right now to do an alignment. You need to be on a level surfaceIdeally perfectly leveled and this is pretty level. It's very close, but it's not perfectly levelso with the digital gaugeWhat I can do is zero this thing out to the level that we're onLike on these stands and then measure camber for an accurate measurementnegative two point four or five degrees of negative camberLet's write it down and keep measuring so that the rear we've got negative three point five five degrees camberOkay, negative one point eight degrees camber three degrees negative camberAll right. So here we've got all of our caster and camber measurements written down so we don't have to remember them. Let's keep movingAll right, let's talk about tow tow is probably the easiestaspect of alignment to describe andThe easiest to remember just think of your own toes point your toes in that's toe in point your toes out and that's toe outSo as simple as that really a little bit of toe out can be beneficial for increased turn in or steering responseBecause you kind of already ready to turn a Liberto in will help straight-line speed stabilitySo a lot of performance oriented alignments will go with a tiny bit of toe outA lot of MiAtA guys will go with a tiny bit of toe inI think we're gonna split the difference and go with zero toe just straight ahead. So let's get after itSo we got the toe plates set up here on the front wheelsAnd now we're gonna take our toe measurement these plates. They touch the lip of the wheel hereSo we're measuring from the wheel again, and then we'll take a measurement from the rear of these toe plates and the frontAnd then we're gonna figure out our toe see what it's at currentlyAll right (K)So we've got our two measurements from the tape measures on the toe plates and basically you plug those in to this little formulaRight here or the rear tape reading minus the front paper reading, okayThe front tape reading is a little bit longer than the rear tape reading. OkaySo if we exaggerate that a little and think about it from a top-down perspectiveOur front tape reading across the front of the wheels is longer than our rearSo if you look at it like that, you can see that's a toe out condition, but that is just total toeWe don't know where that toes coming fromSo we got to figure out how to measureIndividual toe and I will show you how to do that using some strings which I think is gonna be awesomeBut first let's talk about our target specs and what we're trying to hit what we're going for hereSo for target specs, this is what we're going with in the front five degrees positive casterboth sides two degrees negative camber both sides zero degrees toesNo toe dead straight then in the rear we're going to do two degrees negative camber as well. And then we're gonna do1/32 of an inch of toe in on each sideSo a little toe in on the rear so that should give us a pretty goodMildly aggressive yet, still drivable and good tire wear alignment, but how did I come up with that? How do I know that?Well, I went on the Internet. There's a company called flying Miata if you have a Miata, I'm sure you're familiar with themIf not, check them out, they're greatThey have a lot of good write-ups as well on their websiteIncluding one about doing alignment and in that write-up, they give you their recommended specs which are close to theseI tweaked them a little bit made them a little bit more aggressive. I added a little negative camber andWent with no toe in the front where they recommend a little toe in. So I think this is gonna be a goodSetup for what we want for the car, but there's only one way to find out. Let's put these specs into the carOkay, so we are ready to make some adjustments to the Miata, which is very excitingBut before we make any adjustments, we need to talk about the order in which we make them because it mattersThere's an order of operations to doing alignmentsSo the order that you're supposed to do things is casterAdjust caster then adjust camber then adjust toe and that should be okayBut if you do toe first, and then adjust your caster that the caster change will also change your toeso that saidWe're gonna adjust our caster. Meet me under the car and I'll show you how should be pretty easy. Okay?Where were we? All right, we're under the car. Ah, where to the car now?hey andWe're gonna adjust caster. OkaySo the way to do that on the Miata is this bolt right here. This is what's called an eccentric boltWhich means that when you turn it it changes where the position of this control arm mounting position is it'll move it in or outWhich will ultimately affect the lower ball joint position, which changes casterOkayOkay, 285 we'll take that 285 so that's multiply that by two and we're gonna get five pointsBut I say two eight five five point seven point sevenSo that's we're in the right direction we came down half a degreeBut we need to come down another seven tenths of a degree. So same adjustmentI just made on this side just more of it. Alright, let's swing that puppyThat's the one this is the one I can feel itTwo point four two point four twos out of joke. Oh my the way to do for our YY is stupidI'll take it (GOOG)2:55 so we're at five point one degreesWe're gonna go with thatLet's measure the other side and see how that sides going. Okay?Surround twenty degrees to the right please more. Yep, okayOne back right there. Well, it seems that we went in the wrong direction on this one IGuess I can believe thatpeople onTwo point fiveIt says two point five. I'll take it two point. Five times two is five. That's what we're going forWell, let's had done. All right, so I'm gonna walk down my castor measurement and then we'll move on to camberOkay, so now we're getting ready to adjust our camberWe've got the same tools which is kind of handy because it requires the same tools. It's another eccentric boltSo this one as we turn it it will pull the lower control arm in or out so we're going to turn our eccentric boltto pull it back in okay to straighten the wheel out a little bit andSee if we can you know hit it first try. Okay, so we made a look. Ah too far OhDaddy IWould really like to see it tooWe're gonna take that that's just fine. That's just fine to the other side. YeahWhy do we go too far?270 what did you do? Nothing? Good. Give me a break what I literally don'tAll right, let's do the rear cameraAll right. So now we're at the rear of the car. We're gonna make our first adjustment back hereSo we're gonna do that by adjusting these two eccentric bolts basically to move them outYou get more negative camber pull the bottom more in you get more positive camber- too flat - on a dot2.1 we were shooting for two, but that's as low as she's gonna go. Okay, let's do the other side. What do you think?The leather when a plan comes togetherOkay, so that's caster adjusted and that's camber adjusted now. We got to figure out toeAll right, so to adjust so what we're gonna do here is set up a string box pretty simple in theoryWe just need to build a perfect box around the Miata withString and then we can measure from the string to the wheels to the front and the rear of the wheels to seeWhat our toes looking like and adjust from there?So we've got our string set up and how do we get them Square to the car? Well right hereI have the track width for the Miata. So the front track width is fifty five and a half inchesThe rear track width is fifty six point two inches that's important because the rear track width is a little bit wider than the frontSo for the string to be squarethe string needs to be point seven of an inch closer to the rear wheels in total or0.35 of an inch closer to each rear wheel for it to be squarePrecision measuring milk crates, okay. All rightWe've taken our measurements from the wheels nowWe're going to measure from string to string and if those measurements are the same front and rear then we got a box, babyKnot pull that string right there Oh buddy, sixty six and three-quarters dead nutsWe got a string box and we're ready to adjust some toeOkay, now we've got our strings all set up and we're squared and now we can take a toe measurement and then adjust andFrom when we took that toe measurement earlierWe saw that we had some toe out and it's visible against the stringYou can see that there is more room between the string and the back of the wheel than there is at the frontSo the wheels pointed a bit that way it's the same on the other sideit's also important to note that we've got the strings running through about the center of the wheels because you want to measure toe fromopposite sides of the wheelso now we're gonna do is take this measurement from the string to the wheel and from the string to the wheel andThen we're gonna adjust and try to get those measurementsEqual make them the same and that's how we'll know. We have a perfectly straight zero toe wheel to adjust the toeWe need to adjust the tie rod ends and to do thatwe need to break this jam nut loose and then we can spin the shaft which willPush the knuckle that way or pull it in nowLet's take a look at things and see if we've affected any change point seven eight. So we're at seven zero here. SoOkay, so cool. We're close now. I'm gonna bring the toe back out a little bit andEven it upIt is important to note that while you do this while you make any toe adjustments to the frontYou got to make sure your steering wheel is straight or else. Well, come on back underDing ding ding ding ding ding ding. Okay, we're at point seven one away from the string on both sidesIt doesn't matter what that number isIt just matters that they're the same that means that we're straight with a string and we know the string is straightSo that means we've got no toe in this wheel nowOnward now that we're in it. This is kind of the easiest adjustment to makeAnd often this is what you get when you go to a shop for an alignment on a lot of cars these daysCaster isn't adjustable and often camber isn't either so on a lot of newer cars, especially front-wheel drive stuff. You'll just findToe to be the only thing you can really adjust and it's honestly pretty easy to do at home WowThat part of my hand feels real weird enoughWe'll take it that's zero toe on the frontso now ourFront wheels are alignedNow we got to do toe in the rears which is not quite as easy to adjust as the front because there aren't just tieRods it's adjusting those same eccentric bolts that we used for camber. SoAll right, let's go do itOkay, so thisThis wheel is now alignedSo we've got 1/32 of an inch or eight tenths of one millimeterToe in on this rear wheel now we need to do the same thing to the other sideAnd we're done nowThat should be pretty freakin close0.9 of a millimeter, I'll take that IThink that's it finally we're gonna have to tighten all our bolts make sure everything's good and tight very tight. So nothing slipsI'm gonna paint mark all the eccentric bolts too so we can tell if anything does moveI think that's going to do it for tonightThe next thing we need to do is go for a test drive and I'm going to do that tomorrowBecause it's lateWell, it took a lot of work a lot of guessing check a lot of trial and error, but the car goes straight down theHighway and it feels great in the twisty stuffWhich is a lot better than it felt before feels nice and balanced left turn feels identical to a right turn nowWhich is great. It feels like me in the car really starting to communicate. So that's nice. Other than thatWe used a lot of tools todaySo I'll put all of them in the description below so you can guys can check that stuff out if you're interested overallI think I'm happy with the settings that we went with I think car feels really goodAlthough next time around I'll probably max out the front caster just to get a little more stabilityand I would like toSomeday take the car to an alignment shop and put it on a machine and have them measure our settings just to see how accurateWe're getting in the garage. I think that would be interesting. So thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you learned somethingI definitely learned a lot this week a useful skill, which is aligning your car which especially if you're under the trackIt's nice to be able to tweak that stuff. We're going to donut everydayI know you guys are cooped up during this quarantine, and I know that sucksSo we're gonna try to bring you as much entertainment and information as possibleSo we're bringing you content every single day of the weekSo make sure that you're subscribed to the channel and that you have the notification bell rings