Originally Posted by
Yell88CRXsi
What you are talking about is called "stringing" and it's something we do to our race cars each time before we truck them off to race the weekend. There's a bit more to it than 4 jack stands and fishing line and it takes an experienced person to do it correctly.
As I said before, I will stick to and say again...I was simple implying that with todays technology, you would have to be a dumb ass to try a DIY alignment for the street. Especially when you can go to a shop and get it done for CHEAP!
BUT if you feel the need to go and do a DIY alignment, when go right on and have a nice day.
BTW, how many degrees are there in your 1/8"?
Except that professional alignments get quite expensive when you're getting alignments done twice a month to balance weekend racing with daily tire wear.
On my car, 1/8" equates to about 0.15° toe split between the two tires. 1/32 accuracy (0.04°) is not hard to get with a tape. My owner's manual calls for 5'+/-5' which is not at all unreasonable to get with string or a tape.
And yeah, I do expect to be replacing these tires in a year. But even a half-assed attempt to zero it back out after a race will yield better results than knowing full well it's way-out of whack for street driving and leaving it anyhow. I agree that if you're not racing... it's worth $60 for a good alignment. It's going to more than pay for itself in tire longevity.