Alignment options, Can I do it myself?
 

As stated above. I'm ready for an alignment and taking the car to any shop near me scares me. I'm in rural Southern Indiana and classic P cars aren't common around here at all. I have seen some videos of BBI Autosport doing the string alignment. Is this something that can easily be done at home or are specific tools needed?

You can do a string alignment at home but you'll need some tools or to make some jigs in order to do it accurately. Main things is having your car on a level surface and also in a position high enough to work under to make adjustments or a repeatable way to raise and lower the car to make adjustments and recheck.

You can use the string method. I ended up getting this. https://wheelalignmenttools.com/store/
They work really well I’ve been doing alignments for 30 years but didn’t have access to an alignment machine so got there kit and did it at home. The only thing you would need to get besides this are scales to properly corner balance the vehicle. I didn’t because I aligned then drove it and made small adjustments till I got it to what I wanted.

Here's all you need to know:
https://nineelevenheaven.wordpress.com/adjusting-the-toe-on-a-911/

Not hard at all, just tedious.

You can make string jigs for almost nothing.

If you don’t have a lift it’s going to be a real pain, particularly the rear but it is doable. With a lift it’s not all that bad- still time consuming but worth it for sure.


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I did it in my garage with strings, jack stands and rods, some measuring tools, angle gauge, level, etc. No lift. I would jack it up, roll it back/forth to get the suspension to settle, had some big zip lock bags with a little grease in them under the front wheels so they would pivot without a lot of friction.

I made up some simple plywood forms to hold 3/4" EMT tubing that was exactly the same width (at the strings). With some time, I was able to accomplish an accurate alignment. My first effort was using stands to hold the strings which I found to be a pain as any movement of the car or bumping into the stands meant starting over again.

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Yeah but one of the most critical alignment parameters in a 911 is corner weight.

If your car has not been corner balanced ever your string alignment is going to be mediocre.

Do the string, plan on finding a proper shop to do a complete alignment unless your car was corner checked before

A friend of mine races dirt track cars and has scales. Are there specs on the corner balancing somewhere?

Yes, you can do the alignment yourself. Strings or dental floss. Or a longacre caster camber gauge and a toe bar.

One thing about corner balancing that many people forget (or simply don't know) is that, to do it accurately, you need to disconnect one end of the sway bar(s) before attempting. If the sway bar is binding up, your weights won't be accurate.

yellowbee.

I have only watched the job being done. To me it's an art.

I can tell you Left to Right Front to Back and cross weights..... Affects the handling the roll and more important braking.

There is something call the "911 rake"

Plenty of threads to read if you are doing it yourself.

People post 4 corner weights all the time in here.

Also depends on the use of the vehicle. I'm assuming your car is a street car.

I am in Southern Indiana, also (Georgetown). I just bought this and it arrived yesterday. I tried it for 20 minutes last night and it seems pretty accurate. I will be testing it more next week. https://gyraline.com/

You are welcome to stop by and check it out.

FWIW, I have used the string method in the past and it works well, but it is tedious, for sure.

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No likey?

If you have time and patience, then yep. I gave up, got older, shop does it and it's well worth it. It's kind of like the house I just moved into. I used to mow the lawn myself at old house, the hell if I'm doing it on a 1/4 acre with a push mower.

Haha my emoji skills are sadly lacking. I thought that was the “cool stuff” emoji.

Been waiting for someone to get one of these new alignment aides and give a report.

Next time you head this way give me a holler.

Regards

Do you put 200 lbs. of redi-crete in the driver's seat before you corner balance?

This thread may be helpful: https://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/97217-toe-adjust-techniquest.html

Corner balancing is easy enough … but you need the equipment of course. Do a little reading, make sure you have a level surface as with alignment.

Curious as to why people are hesitant to just have it aligned at a shop that deals with Porsches. Corner balancing aside, it cant be that costly for a simple 4 wheel alignment, and unless you're tracking the car or making suspension changes, I don't see alignments as something that's done regularly.

I used cinder blocks. Cheap, easy to handle and didn't have to worry about making a mess.

I paid around $700 for a local reputable shop to do mine. First round they slammed it so low I couldn’t fit my hand between the tire and fender even after I told them I set the height were I wanted it- they should have only had to do minor height adjustments to corner balance on one or two wheels, when I returned for them to correct it, the car pulled pretty good to the right- they told me it was for safety, yea right, I cut my losses and learned another life lesson.

For some it’s about the experience of doing it themselves. If it were all about convenience and what easiest or most efficient, I guess we’d all be driving Toyotas instead of classic Porsches :)

My '71 Ford Econoline has never been aligned. 295,000 miles & 54 years. Camber & caster were dialed in at the factory courtesy of twin I-beam front suspension. Any adjustment requires a big torch and a big lever. Bumpsteer... yeah, there's plenty. But not in the rear. Camber, toe, caster in the rear covered by the Dana solid rear axle. Corner balance, yeah that's where the permanent sandbags come in. A lot of them make the rear drum brakes work better too....once.

These are not my photos, I think from a shop in NY. To me they show the ultimate equipment:

- nice Hunter tables, presumably all leveled.
- hub stands, SO much easier to make the adjustments without the wheels/tires in place
- the hub stands are on scales
- Smart Strings

Obviously expensive when all added together. And in terms of what a good shop charges, when done properly, with corner balance and all the adjustments done right (not a “toe and go”) the time involved in not insignificant.

Does a street driven car need that? Probably not.

I made my own Smart Strings-knock off (not as nice as the plywood version on the previous page though … well done on that!), using fishing line rather than string, my own homemade tables, borrowed digital scales and a purchased camber gauge. I was really into it, would have been bucks I even if I’d only charged myself say $40/HR. Did I a good job? It goes straight, wheel is level, tires wearing evenly, but without getting it verified by a pro shop, or having someone more expert than me drive it, I’ll never know … ignorance being bliss, etc.

John

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FWIW I have been told by several persons intimately familiar with our cars that even a street driven car noticeably benefits from a proper corner balance.

I have also been told that the Porsche factory corner balanced every car before leaving the factory.

YMMV

To RODSRSR original question: Because very few shops do it correctly, as comments above indicate.

Once you get a correct alignment, it says that way for a long time, unless you hit a curb or pothole really hard.

I’m a little confused why people don’t go to a decent shop that has a Hunter machine, and at least know the specifications I want the car to set to. That’s how I get mine done and the shop I go to doesn’t even need to know the old Porsche 911. I can tell them which pieces to adjust on the car to set camber, caster, etc. I also know to start with the rear of the car, and once that’s dialed in then move to the front. I typically pay way less than $300, and it might take an hour. And usually the guys in the shop are very appreciative that they get to work on such a cool old car.

As a street driver, even if you’re canyon carving, that should be plenty. If I want to corner balance, I can corner balance the car before I take it to the alignment shop. That’ll help me set the ride height and get the corner weights pretty damn close. Again for a car that street driven 99% of the time I think that’s more than sufficient? More than that, and I think we’re just picking the fly **** out of the pepper, as we say here in the south.