Hey Tom, my rear height is 24-1/2" and I set my fronts at 25". I am too cheap so I drive mine at the local old air strip (concrete) and increase the load on whatever front (always the front) that locks up. I load it and the diagonal opposite rear until I can hard brake with either neither front locking or both of them. It has worked out pretty well but if I were to start racing it I would take it John Walker and have him balance it. I realize it's crude but it appears to work.
That's the same heights I'm targeting. Maybe slightly higher in the rear. Your corner balancing method sounds great to me. Just don't flat spot the tires ha ha. When I hit my brakes hard the rears lock up first and the car turns. So I know I have lots of adjusting to do
@@GarageTimeAutoResto Hey Tom, I just ordered a set of mechanical/hydraulic corner scales off of Ebay. I am going to use a jack to set my 911s on the scales but what about getting the suspension to relax? How much effect will that have? I was going to build a set of "Buggles" corner scale units that bolt to the hubs and have rollers that allow the suspension to relax but is it worth it?
Yes, that will work. Mine are metal with Teflon instead of grease, but same result. BTW, yesterday I was torquing some lugnuts and it shot the metal right out from under the tire. The full car weight was on them. So they are slippery! Be careful👍. Congrats on the scales too
Interesting certainly going to help a lot of viewers, I've spent many hours with the string setup over the years and one thing I'd recommend I didn't see is centering the strings to the axles, not sure if the grove's you've cut may alter this as I've never used a groved bar. So use the centre caps or ideally pop them off and use center point drive shafts ect to square your string box to, it helps account for an axle out(even new cars have an axle offset!) And helps eliminate crabbing. I could also do with doing a video on this subject myself! BTW each axle to be equal distance to the string, accounts for different track Good luck and have fun !!
Thx. The grooves in the bar were machined in a lathe to be exactly equal. ua-cam.com/video/nLb9GBxN66E/v-deo.html As I said in the video I'll be centering the lines to the car's suspension mounts to check a bunch of stuff, but if you use the online calculator the strings don't need to be centered. They just need to be parallel to each other. Send me your video when you make it👍
@@GarageTimeAutoResto agreed the groove's in the bars will help save a lot of time of measurement getting the end lengths equal ( or getting the wife to help!) Tweaking the centre of the mounting to square it to the axles combined with online will give great results, I'll try to treat each wheel as an individual, still think string is way more reliable than a Hunter machine I use frequently😕 Love the thumbnail, keep up the great work 👍
Great video Tom. I really have never understood what people were talking about when they said "Corner Balancing"... Now I do. Not sure if this is something I'm going to be willing to do on my own. I will trailer my car over to your place! In one of your next videos could you talk about overall price and time for a DIY vs taking it to a shop? Is it worth it to buy the equipment vs having someone else do it? There seems to be a few highly respectable alignment only shops around. Do you recommend taking a 911 there or to your Porsche mechanic? Can most shops do corner balancing? Maybe not a good idea to have a non-Porsche experienced alignment shop messing with my suspension components and touching my wheels.
Thanks Rodney, I've "invested" about $600 dollars in tools including the scales. Purchased used of course. The cost of a complete suspension setup is about $700 I think at a pro shop. Maybe more if you want custom settings. I will probably go through this exercise 5 or 6 times as I swap components, change engines, track test, etc. For me it's totally worth it and of course you learn more by doing it yourself. If I get stuck, then I'm happy to ask for help. Some shops refuse to set aggressive ride heights or alignment settings. Maybe it's liability? Ian's alignment settings are very different than stock. I may take my car to a "friends" shop to double the alignment just for fun. I'd love to do a video comparing DIY versus shop costs. Labor of love versus profit... Which is better? BTW, I've been told privately by a shop owner that he dislikes every one of my videos and I should stop posting immediately! Ha ha.
Impressive setup! And thanks for explaining the details to us! How much on center steering play / backlash / dead zone should these cars have? My 1969 912 has roughly 15 degrees of play before the steering firms up and the car starts responding quickly laterally. One front wheel bearing needed to be tightened but it didn't seem to make much of a difference.
I rebuilt the steering rack in this video. ua-cam.com/video/kjg82Gv_-Go/v-deo.html There is no play in the rack at all when new or rebuilt. You may have a bad steering shaft coupler, bad steering rack or bad ball joints. My car has very tight steering when I drive it.
@@GarageTimeAutoResto Wow, thanks Tom for the expert advice! I will check all those areas you pointed out. Looks like people on the PelicanParts forums found the potentially failed push-on retaining rings on McMaster Carr. Hope your weekend is going well! -Yue
Before my shop baught a drive on lift, we used stands similar to your diy ones. I would then do my alignment adjustments on my back on a creaper. Would you feel comfortable making your adjustments on your diy setup rather than moving the vehicle up and down on your lift?
I'll give it a try and see if there's good access to the rear camber plate bolts? I could put the scales on top of my tire stands, but I'm a little concerned that the car could slip or roll off. Might be able to remove one tire at time and make adjustments with just a jack without the lift stands. I've never done this before, so I'll share more experiences once of done more wrenching on the suspension adjustments.
Chris Freed guessed 1875lbs and won the guess Macs weight game. Send me an email and we will get a garage time coffee mug out to you! Thanks everyone for guessing 👍 tperazzo356@gmail.com
Longacre makes a laser for leveling the scales.
You just brought back many memories of putting our race karts and cars on the scales.
Oooh, karts sound like fun👍
Unbelievably light. Congratulations.
😊
Quite the elaborate set-up, Tom. Very informative and strangely entertaining at the same time. Keep the videos coming.
Elaborate and dodgy all at the same time. Really happy with how it all works so far though
Hi Tom, I have used fishing line in the past for diy alignment of my Lotus Elise. It is thinner and make reading of the values much easier…
Good idea, I will try that too👍
Piano wire is best
Hey Tom, my rear height is 24-1/2" and I set my fronts at 25". I am too cheap so I drive mine at the local old air strip (concrete) and increase the load on whatever front (always the front) that locks up. I load it and the diagonal opposite rear until I can hard brake with either neither front locking or both of them. It has worked out pretty well but if I were to start racing it I would take it John Walker and have him balance it. I realize it's crude but it appears to work.
That's the same heights I'm targeting. Maybe slightly higher in the rear.
Your corner balancing method sounds great to me. Just don't flat spot the tires ha ha.
When I hit my brakes hard the rears lock up first and the car turns.
So I know I have lots of adjusting to do
@@GarageTimeAutoResto Yup, you get a flat spot it’s gonna lock up on it for sure!
@@GarageTimeAutoResto Hey Tom, I just ordered a set of mechanical/hydraulic corner scales off of Ebay. I am going to use a jack to set my 911s on the scales but what about getting the suspension to relax? How much effect will that have? I was going to build a set of "Buggles" corner scale units that bolt to the hubs and have rollers that allow the suspension to relax but is it worth it?
Ah, discovered a couple of smooth vinyl floor tiles with axle grease between them placed under the scales will work.
Yes, that will work. Mine are metal with Teflon instead of grease, but same result.
BTW, yesterday I was torquing some lugnuts and it shot the metal right out from under the tire. The full car weight was on them. So they are slippery! Be careful👍. Congrats on the scales too
Well, you're off to a good start.
Thanks Jeff👍
Interesting certainly going to help a lot of viewers, I've spent many hours with the string setup over the years and one thing I'd recommend I didn't see is centering the strings to the axles, not sure if the grove's you've cut may alter this as I've never used a groved bar. So use the centre caps or ideally pop them off and use center point drive shafts ect to square your string box to, it helps account for an axle out(even new cars have an axle offset!) And helps eliminate crabbing. I could also do with doing a video on this subject myself! BTW each axle to be equal distance to the string, accounts for different track
Good luck and have fun !!
Thx. The grooves in the bar were machined in a lathe to be exactly equal.
ua-cam.com/video/nLb9GBxN66E/v-deo.html
As I said in the video I'll be centering the lines to the car's suspension mounts to check a bunch of stuff, but if you use the online calculator the strings don't need to be centered. They just need to be parallel to each other.
Send me your video when you make it👍
@@GarageTimeAutoResto agreed the groove's in the bars will help save a lot of time of measurement getting the end lengths equal ( or getting the wife to help!) Tweaking the centre of the mounting to square it to the axles combined with online will give great results, I'll try to treat each wheel as an individual, still think string is way more reliable than a Hunter machine I use frequently😕
Love the thumbnail, keep up the great work 👍
Great video Tom. I really have never understood what people were talking about when they said "Corner Balancing"... Now I do. Not sure if this is something I'm going to be willing to do on my own. I will trailer my car over to your place! In one of your next videos could you talk about overall price and time for a DIY vs taking it to a shop? Is it worth it to buy the equipment vs having someone else do it? There seems to be a few highly respectable alignment only shops around. Do you recommend taking a 911 there or to your Porsche mechanic? Can most shops do corner balancing? Maybe not a good idea to have a non-Porsche experienced alignment shop messing with my suspension components and touching my wheels.
Thanks Rodney, I've "invested" about $600 dollars in tools including the scales. Purchased used of course.
The cost of a complete suspension setup is about $700 I think at a pro shop. Maybe more if you want custom settings.
I will probably go through this exercise 5 or 6 times as I swap components, change engines, track test, etc.
For me it's totally worth it and of course you learn more by doing it yourself.
If I get stuck, then I'm happy to ask for help.
Some shops refuse to set aggressive ride heights or alignment settings. Maybe it's liability?
Ian's alignment settings are very different than stock.
I may take my car to a "friends" shop to double the alignment just for fun.
I'd love to do a video comparing DIY versus shop costs. Labor of love versus profit... Which is better?
BTW, I've been told privately by a shop owner that he dislikes every one of my videos and I should stop posting immediately! Ha ha.
Thats light.
Indeed
Wouldnt you check ride height from bottom of rim to fender, to allow for descrepency of tyre pressure.?
Not a bad idea. This could also introduces errors because the tape measure may not be vertical anymore.
Motivation...ugh, I need to find that to work on my car. There are so many other things to do around here other than the car.
I hear ya. So many things to do!
Impressive setup! And thanks for explaining the details to us! How much on center steering play / backlash / dead zone should these cars have? My 1969 912 has roughly 15 degrees of play before the steering firms up and the car starts responding quickly laterally. One front wheel bearing needed to be tightened but it didn't seem to make much of a difference.
I rebuilt the steering rack in this video. ua-cam.com/video/kjg82Gv_-Go/v-deo.html
There is no play in the rack at all when new or rebuilt.
You may have a bad steering shaft coupler, bad steering rack or bad ball joints. My car has very tight steering when I drive it.
@@GarageTimeAutoResto Wow, thanks Tom for the expert advice! I will check all those areas you pointed out. Looks like people on the PelicanParts forums found the potentially failed push-on retaining rings on McMaster Carr. Hope your weekend is going well! -Yue
Before my shop baught a drive on lift, we used stands similar to your diy ones. I would then do my alignment adjustments on my back on a creaper. Would you feel comfortable making your adjustments on your diy setup rather than moving the vehicle up and down on your lift?
I'll give it a try and see if there's good access to the rear camber plate bolts?
I could put the scales on top of my tire stands, but I'm a little concerned that the car could slip or roll off.
Might be able to remove one tire at time and make adjustments with just a jack without the lift stands.
I've never done this before, so I'll share more experiences once of done more wrenching on the suspension adjustments.
👍
Chris Freed guessed 1875lbs and won the guess Macs weight game. Send me an email and we will get a garage time coffee mug out to you! Thanks everyone for guessing 👍
tperazzo356@gmail.com