[hairlesshobo]

Originally Posted by Mike_82_Shortbox

Hobo,

Sorry, I am in Oregon, and I know prices vary widely.

I don't really know if you need to lock your wheels or not. I don't know what kind of equipment you are using. But in order to properly measure the caster on an alignment machine, the brakes have to be locked so that the alignment heads will not move off-axis, and allow them to measure the caster angle.

For the left wheel, with positive caster, a line drawn from the center of the spindle will move in an upward arc when the steering wheel is turned right, and downward when it is turned left. That angle from horizontal is the caster angle, and it can only be measured by machine when the brakes are locked.

Your guage may work without having to do this, but I don't see how...

Mike

For reference sake, this is the gauge that I am using: http://www.longacreracing.com/catalo...id=129&catid=5

Even though I didn't have much room to work when I tried to look at my alignment yesterday, I was in fact able to try out the gauge and get a feel for how it works. I re-read the directions that came with the gauge about 10 times before starting. It appears that the brakes don't need to be locked when doing an alignment with the bubble style gauge. I assume this is because when you do your 40* sweep, you sweep out first, rotate the gauge until it is level with the ground and set caster to 0*, then sweep past center to 20* inward and rotate the gauge again to be level with the ground. With this in mind, they expect you to rotate the gauge when setting caster so if the tire were to roll a little, it wouldn't make much of a difference because you have to re level the gauge each time anyways.

I still think it's a wise choice to lock the e-brake anyways just to make sure it doesn't try to slip off the turn plates or anything like that.

Just my thoughts about this, but who knows.. I may be completely wrong, won't be the first time.

-Steve