aligning rear wheels?

[brake]

Until this W body Grand Prix, I've never owned anything without a live rear axle and parallelogram steering so this is all demons and wizardry to me.

 

 

 

How can an idiot align his new rear wheels to prevent a giant-ass wear strip on the inside edge of the tread?

[BXX]

You take it to a decent alignment shop and tell them to do a 4 wheel alignment.

 

The rear toe is adjustable if the alignment tech has the right tool to do so. Without it, it's a pain in the ass to align the rear end.

[White93z34]

would a camber bolt or a slot in the rear struts also allow that type of adjustment?

[brake]

Crap. It's possible we have the tool(s) at school. I will look into it.

[brake]

You take it to a decent alignment shop and tell them to do a 4 wheel alignment.

 

The rear toe is adjustable if the alignment tech has the right tool to do so. Without it, it's a pain in the ass to align the rear end.

 

I'm curious about the procedure, not how to get someone else to do it.

[jman093]

I'm curious about the procedure, not how to get someone else to do it.

 

He gave you the right answer though. Eyeballing it like an idiot is the best way to get a giant-ass wear strip on the inside edge of the tread.

[brake]

Thanks for the help. As stated in my second post, I am asking about the procedure - I want to know how it is done. How is it actually adjusted? I'm trying to understand the suspension in these cars as I am unfamiliar with them. I'm studying to be a mechanic and have an alignment machine/4 post lift in the shop at school.

 

 

We don't start chassis systems until after Xmas. I would like to know about W body cars in particular, however. Like I said in my first post, the only vehicles I have owned up until this point have had live rear axles (full size cars) so rear wheel alignment is foreign to me.

[jman093]

Rear camber is not adjustable by itself. You either have to slot the rear knuckle bolt holes so it can be moved or get one of those small eccentric camber bolts to replace a stock one. I don't like the camber kit bolts as they're too small and weak and don't always hold tight enough. The rear toe is adjusted by slotted holes on the subframe assembly allowing the rear lateral arm to move it on and out. There's a threaded adjustable tool to aid in pushing/pulling the lateral arm in and out, but it's usually pretty siezed in there and a bitch to get to move even with the tool. The 2nd/3rd gens just had an adjustable lateral arm. Bajillion times better design, and it's stronger than our 1G garbage as well.

[brake]

That's wild. Do many other cars have setups like these? Thanks a lot.

[jman093]

That's wild. Do many other cars have setups like these? Thanks a lot.

 

Yeah, lots. It's just an independent trailing arm suspension. It may have been somewhat unique when it first came out as the majority of FWD cars were not IRS. But now the only thing that could be considered unique about it is the transverse leaf instead of struts like gen 1.5's and newer have.

[brake]

that's cool, thanks. didn't know anything about FWD drivetrains.