Long ago, nearly two years before I started this blog, #2100 got a new steering rack. This was due to the incredible steering difficulty that came from a completely seized intermediate shaft as well as the fact that it wasn’t tracking straight. No big deal, it was a relatively simple job for an afternoon.
But since then, it hasn’t had the wheels aligned. We did the best we could with tape measures and bits of string, but that’s far from accurate.
Since Clint has access to a fancy Hunter rig at his shop – one of the ones with frickin’ lasers on it – and I actually trust him to do a job like this and not screw it up or crash my car, David and I took a trip to visit him and see what the story was.
So, here are David and Clint getting ready to check 8Bit’s measurements.
She looks really good on the rig. The alignment machine is a really amazing piece of technology – I know it’s pretty common but I haven’t used one before, and I guess I’m easily impressed.
For those who aren’t familiar with how this works (I wasn’t until last weekend), you basically attach these specially calibrated giant reflector panels to the wheels…
And then the tower at the front of the machine shoots frickin’ lasers at them, to measure the telemetry from the reflected light.
And then… voila! Instant and incredibly accurate measurements. Too bad they really aren’t that positive.
Unfortunately, many of these adjustments are not fixable on the DeLorean. A lot of the suspension points are permanently set by the frame and fixed rear links. We did correct the front toe, since that is adjustable via the tie rod ends. Fortunately the others are not really dramatic and shouldn’t hurt anything. I do want to try and get the front end straightened out a bit (there is a little play to be achieved using washers in certain places) to try and quell some of the wheel vibration. Tire balancing may also be an issue, which we’ll check next time.
We also did a quick oil change on her while she was on the lift – amazing how much easier it is when you aren’t laying on your back.
And then we brought in David’s car for a check as well. He seems to be surprised at how out of whack it was….
Until next time!