Every since I mentioned the old school string method of aligning vehicles back when I put out my series on mounting and balancing tires, people have been emailing me about it.
Well, here it is, and this method is proving to be neatly as accurate as professional computer controlled aligners.
Toe, camber and even caster are all able to be measured and adjusted with this cool tool!
You can (and should) get one here:
https://s.vevor.com/bfP6dN
And Save 5% with this code: VVPRO

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[Music] [Music] Hey guys it's Eric here at farpoint Farms in the Mounds North Carolina I've Got a really cool video tonight this one I I've been looking forward to doing This for a while now and I'm going to Run you through this about three years Ago uh maybe only two I can't remember At this point to be honest I made two Videos one of them was how to mount and Dismount tires using the Harbor Freight Tire changer did really well great great Video and I'm glad that people realized How inexpensive it is to do your own Tires pretty much pay for a set of what You would pay at the shop for the very First set and after that it's all it's All money in your pockets so that was Really cool then I made a follow-up Video to that how to balance the tires Using a bubble balancer also a Harbor Freight product both those videos did Well apparently in one of those videos I Talked about how you can do alignments Here at home and everyone was like what I'd love to know how to do a long Diamonds at the house well tonight I'm Going to show you how to do alignments At the house I have with me right here This this is the before alignment kit And really it's a it's a more precise Way of doing a very old-fashioned Alignment and so I'm going to unbox this

But uh you're just going to be taking Measurements and you can do Caster Camber and toe So what I'm going to be doing with this One is just a simple toe just to give You an idea of how simple it is to set This thing up and do it but look at what Comes in the box from before and and you Know I kind of looked at their website And was looking at the stuff that they Offer and I came across this and I said Wow this is exactly what the channel Needs to show because I've gotten so Many requests on how exactly did you do That you know that was pretty much the Questions I keep getting you say you can Do alignments at the house how do you Have an alignment machine hidden away Somewhere and and no I don't but using This which is a really nice way Of doing what I used to do you can do Alignments This is a plate right I'll set that Aside And this is a plate and if you look Carefully at these They have little places to stand Available carrying handles but they also Have some notches here and that's what We're going to be interested in these Little notches here we're actually going To take measurements across the fronts And rear of the front wheels and we're Going to be able to tell if you look at

It at like toe if we have toe out or toe In And so that's how simple this is and of Course geometry is probably no one's Favorite task but I promise you this Geometry is simple enough that you'll be Able to get it we're just going to be Taking simple mathematic calculations And we will make our Minor Adjustments Using our tie rods and tie rod ends We're going to adjust those to do any Alignment if needed the car I don't know If it needs it or not but it's been About two years so let me Put this down I'm going to get the Camera a little closer and show you the Other pieces that are in this box and Then I'll pull my wife's car in and I Will show you how to do an alignment all Right so here we are again like let me Show you these panels these are you can See they're aluminum cast aluminum and They're fairly thick but they sit Upright by themselves you don't have to Have them against anything and so it Does this this kit this alignment kit is Not going to be taking up much like the Tire changer and balancer they don't Take up hardly any room in your garage What the kit comes with will open up This one first So the very old-fashioned way of doing An alignment at home involves using tape Measures and measuring across the two

Tires to find The you know the difference you know is It like a sixteenth of an inch or how Many millimeters out and you really you Just put tape down the driveway and Stuff it's it's a pretty rudimentary way You're going to get close you're not Going to get as good as a computer Program would allow you to do like a Hunter alignment machine or a job beam Or whatever but with this Um having stationary plates and having These which are offsets right we're Actually going to be able to get right Up to it so what we're going to do with This is we're going to put these in And I'll go through this once we have it On the car but we're going to be able to Line these up so that we can get it Right up flush oops sorry about that With the rim we're going to be hitting It so it's exactly even it's not offset A little bit or not towed in or towed Out accidentally this allows us to touch The rim In exactly the right place so we know That everything is set up right once That's set up right now we're going to Use our tape measures and it's going to Go right through the center of that Alignment machine and it's going to come Out and you're going to be able to see Okay well I need to turn a little bit This way turn a little bit that way

Really really cool stuff It does come with a manual I'm not sure If this manual is going to show us how To how to do an alignment I think this Is just more of a setup yeah this is Just how to set up the alignment machine So there you go you can see Um And it says uh gauge is accurate to in 0.1 degree can be calibrated for Non-level surfaces and seconds and That's important too that you know if we Have up down issue or side to side issue Where the ground's not flat it can be a Little harder to figure out what your Measurements are but this is nice so toe Measurements camber and Caster all there It does have a little bit of Installation Instructions there which is cool Okay And then I don't know what's this here Toe plate degrees conversion to inch Chart so it's actually if your vehicle Spec is 0.4 degree the toe should be Halfway between 08 an eighth of an inch And 360th an inch measured by the toe Plates so it even has like a conversion Plate I'll stick that on one of these Two so that that doesn't get lost that's Really nice now I did opt for the a Little more expensive one It's a digital protractor so this one Also takes some measurements and and

This sits on the unit as well and plugs In And it has a 0.02 resolution so this One's this one's pretty fancy but it Allows us to take measurements as well Using laser sights so Very cool very cool very cool okay that Also comes with its own Power cord and its own charger and its Own manual I'll go ahead and read Through that as well I think for this Demonstrational alignment I'll probably Just show you real quickly how to set it Up and what I'm going to do with this is It's actually going to be a two-piece Video in this video I'll show you how to Set it up and give you a rough idea how To do an alignment with one of these I Think in on the Far Point Restorations And repairs Channel you go over there I'll show you both how to do a full Alignment using this setup and show you The differences between just using tape Measures and also using the protractor Fair enough okay then I'm gonna pause The camera pull my wife's car in and I Will show you how to properly set up This cool device from before all right It's really hard to see on this side Just because I've got a bunch of stuff That I'm working on you can see seats Out of a car right there but I'll Explain it on the other side but you're Going to set for the toe anyway you're

Going to set one plate on this side and One plate on the other side I'll show You on the other side how setting the Plates up with this is done now this Side has and it's a little hard to see The protractor attached to it so you Could do a camber adjust but that's a Different process that again I'll go Into a full alignment on my second Channel with this the way this is done Now first thing you're going to want to Do you're going to want to make sure That your tires are inflated to the Proper spec a low tire can cause a Variety of issues when you're talking About the geometry of a vehicle the Second thing you want to do is if the Vehicle has hubcaps like this one did You're going to want to remove those Because we're going to be taking a Measurement from the edge of these rims Or in this case I'm going to take it From the inside of the rims just because I'm a little close on this piece of wood Here for doing this properly now I'm Going to take my alignment piece right Here and you can see we have these Pegs that stick out so hopefully you can See those right those are adjustable Depending on the vehicle size you just Loosen that up and move it around and we Want this to be sitting pretty much Upright we're going to lay those in There put our board down and lay it till

Those line up pretty square that looks Good on this side That means when we You pull this in when we're pulling on Both sides and you're going to see what We're about to do here that we have an Exact alignment right we don't want to Have guesswork and when you do the the String type alignments which is the Original at-home alignments uh well You're going to get in the ballpark Probably good enough not to wear out Tires but you're not going to have a Perfect alignment with these you should Be able to get a pretty darn perfect Alignment the last thing you're doing And they're already hooked up over there On that side is you've got your tape Measure and you're going to let it ride Through here I've got mine in the bottom Notch you Can use the top one too if you wish and You're going to put those through and Then we're just going to tug on that a Little bit to make sure that our system Is perfectly tight it's probably very Hard let me move the camera closer in For you to see it's probably not too Easy for you to see the actual numbers Even in 4k but Pulling on both of these You can see my alignment is actually Very very Close on both sides

Right right about there so a little bit Of toe in is what I'm looking at and in Fact in this case that is the correct Now there is some math involved in this I went online and you can see right here That I got my specs and it gives me my Total toe you're going to have to Convert that first from degrees and You're going to be converting it into Inches this also has metric but the Degree so if I have 65 in the rear and 64 and three quarter in the front that's Means we have negative toe but you have To figure out the degree angle of that And there's charts online websites Online that can help you with that but For the most part what you're looking For is either zero toe or slightly Negative toe and so in the case of this Car we have slightly negative toe I will go ahead and make any adjustments If it needed but first I have to do the Math on that Anyway that's as far as I'm going to Take this video this is the vavor Alignment machine this thing takes up no Room it's relatively inexpensive and It's super easy to use they're You do one alignment with this one Single alignment and it is paid for Itself well alignment costs in my area Anyway 109. so this kit here cost a lot Less than that so just one alignment and You paid for yourself also if you just

Don't have the money to afford to do Alignments in town this is a great way To make sure your tires if you put new Tires on your car don't get worn out and If you're like me a hobbyist who just Loves to work on cars does it Professionally and privately Well here's another reason that I don't Have to give money for myself to Somebody else I can now Mountain balance Tires and now I can do alignments as Well At some point over the course of the Winter or early spring I will break this Down on a car that actually needs an Alignment and I will go through all of The adjustments front and rear with this Kit it is capable of doing Caster camber And of course tow like I've shown you Here but I'll show you the website that I use to get my angles based off of Measurements Thanks to before I'll leave a link down In the description below as to where you Can get one of these things and I really Do highly recommend this this is this is Like the modern version of a string Alignment and it is way more accurate With these hold offs and everything it's Just it's just a great great little Inexpensive tool take care