Carfixer's Alignment Specs

[LoneWolf]

I'm planning on having the front-end realigned before I install new tires but seeing as I'm pretty ignorant in terms of alignment stuff I need a little clarification regarding the Carfixer specs. Please tell me if I'm reading it correctly...

Camber: Zero to negative 3 degrees (or is it negative point 3 degrees?)

Caster: 5 to 6 1/2 degrees positive with 3 degrees (or point 3 degrees ?) lead on right side.

[rayjay]

I know nothing about what the numbers mean either. I just printed them out and handed them to the alignment guy. Car handles great!

[fastblackmerc]

This is Carfixers alignment specs:

The inside edge wear of the front tires is caused by 2 things: negative camber and negative toe (toe out). Caster is not a tire wearing angle. The outside edge wear can be caused by excessive toe in and aggressive cornering.

Factory camber spec is -.5 degrees or- .75 degrees
Factory toe spec is -.15 degrees or- .20 degrees
(BTW, this info came from their website which is updated periodically and may differ from previously published material, such as CD's and paper manuals)
That means your alignment could have -1.25 degrees of camber and toe out of -.35 degrees and still be in the green. This will wipe out the inside edges in 20K miles IMO.

All of the MM's I've aligned (about 10) had at least -1.0 degrees of camber and always toe out of -.10 degrees or more from the factory. That's why almost all MM's you see have excessive inside edge tire wear.

For best tire wear, here is what I use on all MM alignments:
Camber: -.3 to -.5 degrees.
Toe: Zero degrees.
Caster: 5-6.5 degrees positive with .3 degree lead on the right side.

*Camber can affect cornering feel. The more negative camber you have, the better it will handle corners. Most drivers will never feel the difference, especially on the street.

I printed these and handed it to my alignment guy.... he said the car will not track straight..... The car tracks fine.....

I know how do do alignments but I wanted him to see the reasoning behind not following the factory specs.

[fastblackmerc]

I'm planning on having the front-end realigned before I install new tires but seeing as I'm pretty ignorant in terms of alignment stuff I need a little clarification regarding the Carfixer specs. Please tell me if I'm reading it correctly...

Camber: Zero to negative 3 degrees (or is it negative point 3 degrees?)

Caster: 5 to 6 1/2 degrees positive with 3 degrees (or point 3 degrees ?) lead on right side.

To answer your questions....

It's 0 to negative (-) .3 degrees camber.

Positive (+) 5 to Positive (+) 6.5 degrees with a positive (+) .3 degree lead on the right side.

My alignment guy can get the readings exact.

[LoneWolf]

Thanks for the clarification fastblackmerc. :)

[Ozark Marauder]

My guy said he had to take off some (covers?) to get Carfixer's adjustment, got the numbers right on, got 13,000 miles on the tires and the fronts have even wear.......BTW he wanted to keep my paper with the adjustments, said it might come in handy when the next marauder comes in .........

[fastblackmerc]

My guy said he had to take off some (covers?) to get Carfixer's adjustment, got the numbers right on, got 13,000 miles on the tires and the fronts have even wear.......BTW he wanted to keep my paper with the adjustments, said it might come in handy when the next marauder comes in .........

You must have meant the "flags".

[88LTDCV351]

My front tires have excessive wear on the outter sides. Do I need carfixer? I don't want to put new front tires on and have them wear out quickly or unevenly.

[Ozark Marauder]

You must have meant the "flags".

OOPS.........

you are correct sir..........looked at my receipt and they were referred to as "flags"

[88LTDCV351]

I take my car to Big O and I tell them for carfixer specs. Sometimes they give it to me, other times they seem to forget. Anyway, this time they said I need a camber kit. What does that mean? I said I'd come back for the alignment another time.

[RubberCtyRauder]

SPC camber bolts. available at summit racing, adtr, tirerack.com,

[Gryphonzus]

The camber kit requires some grinding of material to elongate the hole for adjustment. Look it up on youtube there is a good video of the process. or go to SPC website it may be on there as well.

[MyBlackBeasts]

SPC camber bolts. available at summit racing, adtr, tirerack.com,

Amazon, too: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I5KICUW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00? ie=UTF8&psc=1

[sflrainmaker01]

My front tires have excessive wear on the outter sides. Do I need carfixer? I don't want to put new front tires on and have them wear out quickly or unevenly.

Mine too. But only slightly. I'm getting ready for new tires. I'm guessing I should get an alignment. However, I don't want to be using caster kits etc. I hope my local Ford dealer can get this Carfixer specs to work (they price matched my tire deal so I can add up some Ford service points).

[rayjay]

Mine too. But only slightly. I'm getting ready for new tires. I'm guessing I should get an alignment. However, I don't want to be using caster kits etc. I hope my local Ford dealer can get this Carfixer specs to work (they price matched my tire deal so I can add up some Ford service points).

My local Ford dealer up north was able to do these specs no problem and no more premature tire wear.

[GreekGod]

SPC camber bolts. available at summit racing, adtr, tirerack.com,

My local alignment guy probably got a special camber bolt for my MM alignment from NAPA. Only needed it on one side.

Any good/experienced alignment business should know about the Panther chassis camber alignment problem. Mine did.

-

[Shornaday]

I saved car fixer's alignment specs into a pdf and save the file on my computer and print out a copy, that file is attached to post.

When ever I take the car to get an alignment I take the printout with me and give it to the service manager for the alignment tech. The last time the alignment Tech came to me to talk about the specs and stated that he could see how the alignment would work.

I always make sure the alignment tech gets the print out for his future reference on MMs. The way I see it the more techs that I give the sheet, the more techs there will be that learn about our vehicles.

[Gerry24]

I saved car fixer's alignment specs into a pdf and save the file on my computer and print out a copy, that file is attached to post.

When ever I take the car to get an alignment I take the printout with me and give it to the service manager for the alignment tech. The last time the alignment Tech came to me to talk about the specs and stated that he could see how the alignment would work.

I always make sure the alignment tech gets the print out for his future reference on MMs. The way I see it the more techs that I give the sheet, the more techs there will be that learn about our vehicles.


Thanks, I saved it for my next alignment. :beer: