Alignment Class Update

Our instructor Jamey Abercrombie demonstrates how to compress a spring the safe way. 

At school we've been busy learning about wheels, tires, suspension systems, and alignments. One highlight was getting to put the NMS Cayman on the alignment machine and see how it is doing. In five years of driving this car I haven't had the alignment checked, so why not do it myself? It turns out that it was overdue given the amount of track events that keeps chewing up tires, so maybe the car will be even better now!

Here's a list of cars our class is working on. 

For any car, an alignment means checking the caster, camber, and toe. Caster is pretty much set and not an issue on rear wheels, so doing an alignment starts with checking the camber on the rears, then the toe in back. Once you have the rear set up to go straight down the road, you can check the front. 

Chevy Volt

Up front, we check the caster first, then the camber, and then the toe. On the alignment machine at school it has a lot of great features that basically shows you all the measurements, will tell you what tools to use, and even pulls up photos and videos showing you how to make the adjustments along the way. 

Hey look, suspension stuff!

PRO TIP: Remove the OLD shock or strut BEFORE you put on the NEW one!

The only measurement where I went beyond the specs was on camber. For autocross and track driving it is always recommended to go with a lot of negative camber, so that your tires will maintain more contact with the road on cornering. For instance, on my front wheels, the specs say to set the fronts from 0.1 to -0.4. My left front was at -0.5, so even though that is a tiny bit out of spec, I left it there. Most Cayman drivers suggest going to at least -2 and -3, so this little -0.5 will be fine. 

The NMS Cayman BEFORE alignment started. That front toe is really bad, with the left wheel pointed inwards and the right wheel pointing outward. They both should be positive from 0.00 to 0.08. 

NMS Cayman with MUCH BETTER TOE!  The red left front camber is only out of spec by 0.1 degree, and since I want even MORE negative camber than that, I left it there for now. Caymans doing racing and track driving shoot for a minimum of -2.0 camber as a starting point.  

On the rear wheels, the spec says to set camber from -1.1 to -1.6, and I'm as far as I can go negative at -1.6 on the right and -1.7 on the left. To adjust beyond this would require some different suspension components, which translates into more money, so I'm happy with this for now!

At the very top center of the photo is the nut to loosen and start making adjustments. 

A Kia Soul gets some work too. 

Some wear on an old bump stop,  not a big deal. 

Another group of students was working on this 97 or so pickup to replace some leaking power steering hoses. 

Not a great photo, but trust me, there was power steering fluid all over the place. 

OLD power steering lines...

and a NEW power steering line.

I think this is the strut we took off of a 2016 Buick Encore. 

End of the old strut. The top of these struts were held in place on the Buick with just one nut over the stud you see here. 

After doing the alignment on the NMS Cayman at school, back at NMS HQ I adjusted the front camber to as negative as it would go. This was easy: just loosen the 3 bolts on top of the shock, and push the center of the shock as far inward as it goes. The bolt on the bottom has the nut taken off, so you can see the slot where it will adjust (left to right in this photo, which is tilting the top of  the wheel in or out, which is what camber is). Torque those 3 bolts to 33 Newton Meters and you're back in business.