=?iso-8859-15?Q?Tekkie=AE?= wrote:
They are cheap asses whom think they know it all and can fix it for free
with everybody else's help. I am surprised they don't invite people over to
help them (actually do the work). Alignment racks are a thing of beauty
these days. Rather than strings and bubbles they use lasers. Out of specs
are printed out and adjustments verified. This guy is jabbering about nuts
on valve stems???

The problem, at least here, is that there are very few shops that can actually
do a competent alignment.

We used to have a place called Davis Alignment Service that had both some
laser systems and some mechanical measurement gear from the sixties, and
you could go in and expect to drive away with either a solid alignment or
a good diagnosis about why the car isn't going to align properly. You
could explain how you wanted the car to feel and they could adjust the
alignment to match your request.

Today what we have are shops that have automatic digital alignment systems.
They put the car on the system, it prints out some numbers, they put in
some shims and drive the car off. Tie rod ends bad? They won't notice,
they'll put some shims in anyway. You want a little more oversteer? They
will look at you like some kind of alien. "The factory manual says we
are supposed to set this parameter to this and we won't set it any other
way."

Because it's very difficult now to find someone who can actually align the
vehicle who knows what they are doing, a lot of people are interested in
doing alignment at home. Can you blame them?
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."