[alex1965]

Finally decided that learning to the my own alignments would be the way to go and I'm looking for tools. This tool from Tenhulzen claims to work for caster, camber, AND toe. Seems like a pretty nifty design. Has anybody used it?

Amazon.com: Tenhulzen Automotive 2-Wheel Alignment Tool - All-in-one (Camber/Caster/Toe Plates) - Made in USA : Automotive

Buy Tenhulzen Automotive 2-Wheel Alignment Tool - All-in-one (Camber/Caster/Toe Plates) - Made in USA: Wheel Alignment & Balancing Tools - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

Turn plates not needed, apparently. Some interesting videos and how-to's online regarding this tool and it seems pretty darn simple. Thoughts??

 

[patrickstapler]

Seems I remember @Kelly_H having some experience with this device.

I use the Longacre products.

 

[alex1965]

I'd love to hear what @Kelly_H has to say about how the Tenhulzen tool works on our classic cars! Will keep Longacre parts in mind if the Tenhulzen works out to be undesireable. Thanks @patrickstapler

 

[Huskinhano]

Yes Kelly has it. The only things to be aware. If you have stamped steel wheels, they don't run true, you'll get false readings. The other is that you have to turn the wheels 20° each way. It's possible in some conditions the gauge my hit the fender.

At the time my 66 had stamped steel wheels. I was going to build my own set up but because of the wheels I had to abandon it. So I bought a magnetic spindle mount. What I really like about my gauge is the end is cut at a 140° angle which gives you the two 20° angles to read caster. You strike a line on the floor parallel to the tire, then you sight the two angles by eye to the line. Makes setting all this up extremely easy. I used 3 mil garbage bags as turn tables under the tires. Cheap and easy.

 

[alex1965]

Yes Kelly has it. The only things to be aware. If you have stamped steel wheels, they don't run true, you'll get false readings. The other is that you have to turn the wheels 20° each way. It's possible in some conditions the gauge my hit the fender.

At the time my 66 had stamped steel wheels. I was going to build my own set up but because of the wheels I had to abandon it. So I bought a magnetic spindle mount. What I really like about my gauge is the end is cut at a 140° angle which gives you the two 20° angles to read caster. You strike a line on the floor parallel to the tire, then you sight the two angles by eye to the line. Makes setting all this up extremely easy. I used 3 mil garbage bags as turn tables under the tires. Cheap and easy. View attachment 802049 View attachment 802050

Great info here, thanks for sharing. I've got some Vision wheels that will hopefully work? Not sure exactly how (or even if?) the Tenhulzen tool mounts onto the face of the wheel.

I'll need to sit down and teach myself how each specification is measured; i.e., how to do the math to find toe, etc. I'll also need to dig up some proper alignment specs for the setup I'm running, which is pretty tame.

 

[Daniel Hartigan]

I bought the Tenhulzen 4 wheel alignment kit because I can use it on all align all my cars. It was a bit of a learning curve, but after a few hours I had my alignment dialed it to the exact specs I wanted. Now I can't verify my specs, but I can say it has never tracked straighter and handled this well before. Bottom line is, the Tenhulzen products are top notch and I don't think you can go wrong with them.

 

[New2me]

I have that kit and I can't really say that I care for it. The main problem that I found is that it only has two points of contact with the wheel, so the points of contact have to be perfectly aligned which is pretty difficult to do.

I finally wound up getting a digital longacre unit that is adjustable for uneven garage floors and attaches magnetically to the hub and only uses 15 degree turns for setting caster. Then I used the string method to set the toe.

The tenhulzen unit is useful for measuring changes in camber when adding or removing shims without setting the wheel/tire back on the ground.

 

[Huskinhano]

Great info here, thanks for sharing. I've got some Vision wheels that will hopefully work? Not sure exactly how (or even if?) the Tenhulzen tool mounts onto the face of the wheel.
View attachment 802054

I'll need to sit down and teach myself how each specification is measured; i.e., how to do the math to find toe, etc. I'll also need to dig up some proper alignment specs for the setup I'm running, which is pretty tame.

It'll work just fine on those wheels. The only wrong one to buy is the one you don't think you'll be comfortable in using. I will highly recommend getting the Ford shop manual. It has a excellent section on doing alignment. It explains how the shims work, their thickness to degree of caster or camber along with setting toe and centering the steering wheel. Really, getting the shop manual takes the black science mystery out of it.

The shop manual says there shouldn't be more the 1/8" variance in shim packs between the front and rear studs. Each 1/16" shim on both studs will change camber by 1/3° degree. Each 1/32° difference between front and rear shim packs effect caster by 1/2°. It's interesting to note that 1/8" difference between front and rear shim packs works out to 2° of caster which is the caster in the specs for the Shelby drop alignment specs of 2° positive caster. Keep in mind as you add a shim for caster, it's also going to have some effect on camber. It starts to become a dance between having some positive caster while not going positive on camber.

Here is a write up I did on doing a home alignment. Due to a forum "upgrade" some of the photos were lost. I really need to fix it one day but you'll get the idea.

Setting caster & camber

Recently I swapped out my old drums and 66 spindles for a set of 72 discs with stronger spindles. I wanted to check my camber since it looked like I gained a little more between different spindles and springs settling a bit since I did my suspension 2 years ago. In the middle of installing my...

www.vintage-mustang.com

 

[alex1965]

It'll work just fine on those wheels. The only wrong one to buy is the one you don't think you'll be comfortable in using. I will highly recommend getting the Ford shop manual. It has a excellent section on doing alignment. It explains how the shims work, their thickness to degree of caster or camber along with setting toe and centering the steering wheel. Really, getting the shop manual takes the black science mystery out of it.

The shop manual says there shouldn't be more the 1/8" variance in shim packs between the front and rear studs. Each 1/16" shim on both studs will change camber by 1/3° degree. Each 1/32° difference between front and rear shim packs effect caster by 1/2°. It's interesting to note that 1/8" difference between front and rear shim packs works out to 2° of caster which is the caster in the specs for the Shelby drop alignment specs of 2° positive caster. Keep in mind as you add a shim for caster, it's also going to have some effect on camber. It starts to become a dance between having some positive caster while not going positive on camber.

Here is a write up I did on doing a home alignment. Due to a forum "upgrade" some of the photos were lost. I really need to fix it one day but you'll get the idea.

Setting caster & camber

Recently I swapped out my old drums and 66 spindles for a set of 72 discs with stronger spindles. I wanted to check my camber since it looked like I gained a little more between different spindles and springs settling a bit since I did my suspension 2 years ago. In the middle of installing my...

www.vintage-mustang.com

As usual, you're coming in hot with very valuable information. Thanks a LOT!

I have a shop manual and I browsed the alignment procedure back when I was trying to just eyeball the suspension to get it ballpark, but I'll have to sit down and take a solid look at it. It's interesting that there should only be 1/8" maximum difference between the shim packs; I think right now, with the Shelby drop, I have no shims on the rear bolts and probably about 1/8" of shims in the front to get some positive caster. I'll have to be careful with that; hopefully I'll be able to get enough caster too. If not, I guess I'm finally buying the adjustable struts. General consensus here is that they are well worth the money.

Thanks for the writeup, too. That's gonna be super helpful when I'm doing the job!

 

[eticket66]

I have the same kit and used it recently to align my new coil over system from SoT.

I’ve never done an alignment before and was a bit intimidated by the whole thing before I started. However, it was not hard at all. I used a folded up a trash bag under each front wheel and that allowed me to turn them with ease.

The hardest part for me was to remember which direction to turn each rod or turnbuckle to move the wheel in the correct direction.

It was an iterative process and I adjusted each of camber, caster and toe maybe 4-5 times until I was in spec per the SoT instructions.

As for contact points, there are actually three of you consider the two posts and then the tray itself is contacting the wheel at the low point. Set up for toe:

I recommend the kit based on my limited experience, for what that is worth.

 

[zray]

I have their toe tool, it works fine , but for caster and camber I recommend the LongAcre digital gauge with the 3 arm accessory,

Z

 

[tx65coupe]

I have been interested in getting a DIY alignment tool for quite some time, but just could not ever decide which one would be best.

So, this Tenhulzen tool doens't work well with stamped steel wheels like Mag 500's? Thats a bummer. I came close to ordering one of these not long ago.

 

[ylexot]

Tenhulzen Wheel mount and Longacre toe plates. Rock and roll. Excellent gear. The first time you do it expect to burn an hour plus. You will get better with time. It's not rocket science. Just be methodical. And I used them on M500's no issue. The tool comes with two types of 'ends' for the mount; one for alloy and a second type for steelies. Just watch out for the location of the wheel weights so you can rotate the wheel unit 90 and not hit a weight.

 

[Mach1 Driver]

So I bought a magnetic spindle mount. What I really like about my gauge is the end is cut at a 140° angle which gives you the two 20° angles to read caster. View attachment 802050

Could you share make and model please?

 

[patrickstapler]

Longacre Racing Products 52-78272 Longacre Caster Camber Gauges | Summit Racing

Free Shipping - Longacre Caster Camber Gauges with qualifying orders of $99. Shop Caster Camber Gauges at Summit Racing.

www.summitracing.com

 

[alex1965]

I have the same kit and used it recently to align my new coil over system from SoT.

I’ve never done an alignment before and was a bit intimidated by the whole thing before I started. However, it was not hard at all. I used a folded up a trash bag under each front wheel and that allowed me to turn them with ease.

The hardest part for me was to remember which direction to turn each rod or turnbuckle to move the wheel in the correct direction.

It was an iterative process and I adjusted each of camber, caster and toe maybe 4-5 times until I was in spec per the SoT instructions.

As for contact points, there are actually three of you consider the two posts and then the tray itself is contacting the wheel at the low point. Set up for toe:

I recommend the kit based on my limited experience, for what that is worth.

Great info here, and a snazzy pic to go with it. Thanks on sharing your experience with the product. I think I'll be ordering one of these soon; love the fact that it's an all-in-one type tool. Also impressed with the clever setup that incorporates toe measurements.

I don't have the adjustable suspension pieces from SoT unfortunately, so I get to go through the joy of fighting with shims. Oh well! We'll see how hard it is.

Thanks again for sharing your experience; much appreciated.

 

[alex1965]

Tenhulzen Wheel mount and Longacre toe plates. Rock and roll. Excellent gear. The first time you do it expect to burn an hour plus. You will get better with time. It's not rocket science. Just be methodical. And I used them on M500's no issue. The tool comes with two types of 'ends' for the mount; one for alloy and a second type for steelies. Just watch out for the location of the wheel weights so you can rotate the wheel unit 90 and not hit a weight.

I'd be happy if I could have it done in an hour, lol. With my current setup, I'm expecting this to be a couple days worth of checking and research. But, it'll be easier the next time I do it. That's also kinda the point of getting the tool.. I want to mess around with it and get my alignment just right (and have the ability to do so again later). Thanks for sharing your wisdom!