Dodge SRT Viper Forums : ViperAlley banner

Wheel alignment for Gen 1 $$$$ quote

4K views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  85vett 
#1 ·
Called dealership about a wheel alignment for my 94'. Told me about 3 hours labor and total cost around $350+. I could see that for a Gen IV or V.
I drive around town and don't track the car. Just need a basic alignment due to having new front tires and it has a slight pull to the right. If it takes a viper tech three hours, two of those hours must be jacking off somewhere. Any alternatives?
 
#3 · (Edited)
If the dealership does a BY THE BOOK ALIGNMENT, which includes ballasting, height measurement with Viper fixtures, retorquing preloaded bushings and a 4-wheel alignment with rear caster gauges installed, then that's about what they might expect for time. If they are just going to roll it up, set the front caster, camber and toe; then set rear camber and toe, you are better off going to another commercial shop with a Hunter infrared system where it will spend about 45 min on the rack.

The one thing commercial shops cannot do is measure rear caster. But, they can f*ck it up without knowing it and you will have a very nervous ride.

https://www.viperclub.org/vca/threads/rear-caster-alignment-spec.606810/
 
#4 ·
The one thing commercial shops cannot do is measure rear caster. But, they can f*ck it up without knowing it and you will have a very nervous ride.
This.... I just finished replacing every bushing, ball joint, inner and outer tie rod ends on my car to make sure it was 100% ready to go (several of these were bad). I've got my camber, front caster and toe (front and rear) good but my car still doesn't feel right at speed. I'm going to bump up the caster a little in the front to see how it feels next.

Dean - I still plan on bugging you at some point when all this COVID stuff dies down a bit. I think it's the rear caster at this point. I've tried to keep things even (left and right) with my adjustments but still not where it seems it should be. In your opinion, siding on the error of caution, would slightly negative caster in the back be better than positive from the butt dyno? My hope was to get it damn close before bugging you to much.
 
#6 ·
From a PM yesterday with WDW MKR:

(me) I usually don't have too much trouble with caster. Remember this: Dodge designs the slotted ears so that the center of the slot on each corner pair should give you very close to your +6F, +1R design settings (GEN 2). Before I got the 6990 kit and DRB, I was fiddling with the rear alignment before Viper Days when I had stock cams installed. Not knowing how to set it, I just put a 3/4"/19mm wrench on each end of the wishbone, *and in unison* rotated them full range inboard to outboard, then centered them in the slots and did the same on the other side. That should get you nominal caster. Then I just pulled both wrenches toward myself in time until I got the negative camber I desired. Once I borrowed the gauges from the dealer, my caster was within about 0.2 side-side.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Here are some photos of relevant Gen1 suspension pages from the service manual. The rear caster angle is dramatically different from the Gen 2+ cars. After something like 40+ Viper alignments done by myself, I can tell you this: Loosen adjuster locknuts slightly, blow road grit out of the cam and ear locations and start adjustments from both ends of a lower wishbone with the cams centered in the slots. Camber should be adjusted by moving both cam pairs in or out in time with each other to get most of the camber adjustment, then snug locknuts, lower onto rubber and check readings.

****Don't let the tech make any more than fractional degree adjustments to caster/camber with weight on the suspension! I've seen mangled ear stops, fucked up cam bolts and cams from careless gorillas trying to get all the work done with just one cam pair under load.*** That's one of the reasons I started doing my own.
 

Attachments

#10 ·
Yes that's correct. If your camber is good, then you can add caster by moving the front pivot inward and the rear pivot outward to hold camber. Since you have poly bushings and not rubber, the dartiness could be a combination of several factors: unequal rear caster, BUMP STEER, or shock valving too stiff/uneven. The rubber bushings - shocks and wishbones - really should be torqued pretty closely per the manual. I've tried it both ways and correct bushing preload is a real thing.
 
#11 ·
Not sure if it matters with the Poly bushings but I followed the torque specs to the letter from the manual when putting the car back together. It's a lot better now then it was before but I had several suspension parts that were bad, included a couple bushings that were severely cracked and falling apart.

Thanks again for all the info. I'll put it to use this weekend to see if I can get things better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GTS Dean
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top