Tie rods, ball joints, bushings, & alignment

[Kaie]

I need to freshen up my suspension.

Im getting a kit that has.

• Control Arm Bushings
• Control Arm Hardware
• Tie Rod Ends
• Sway Bar Endlinks
• Lower Balljoints (with hardware)
• Upper Strut Mounts
• Upper Strut Bearing
• Upper Strut Mount Nuts

I will also be getting new inner tie rods while i'm at it.

Most likely i will do the tie rod, ball join, and SOME of the bushing installs myself. However the shop i do it at [my brothers] is about 60 miles from the shop i would have install the items i cant or don't know how to. They will also be doing my alignment.

My concern is driving the car the 60 miles to the shop for them to do this. Do you guys think my alignment will be so terribly off; that it'll mess things up?

I suppose the biggest concern would be the tie rod install messing up the toe.

PS: im doing this to cut down on labor costs. I don't really want to pay someone 4 hours to do 2 of the hours i can do myself.

 

[JHZR2]

You can chec and make some mods yourself to get yourself close enough. If I had new tires Id be sweating it. If I was planning on getting new tires in a few months, Id not be concerned.

 

[garlicbreadman]

the replacement tie rod should be the same....so MARK the spot of the old one to get TOE as identical as possible.

 

[Astro14]

You can get the alignment within an 1/8" for toe with a couple of good measurements. Caster and camber will have to wait for the shop, but they're not going to kill your tires in a 60 mile drive...though you might feel a bit of a change in the steering response until properly aligned.

From the list of parts, you're doing a rack and pinion car with struts. Make sure you get the strut mounts in the same location. Measure the tie rod distance from the sleeve to the center of the end. Different parts may have different thread lengths, what matters is the location of the end in relation to the rack.

When you're done - with the car on the ground and the suspension settled (bounce it a few times and roll the car back and forth), check that the distance from the rim to rim on the inside of the front wheels is the same at the front and at the back. That's your toe...becuase you're replacing so many components, the toe may be off, even if the tie rod length is the same...Toe will be what you feel in the steering. If needed, adjust the tie rods in/out to get the measurement to be about 1/16" shorter between the front of the wheels than between the rear. This is how they did it in the old days, before today's sophisticated racks...

Driving 60 miles with the toe set within an 1/8" won't abnormally wear the tires.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I basically rebuilt my whole front suspension recently. I installed the upper arms where they were before, but because my old control arm bushings and ball joints were so worn, the camber, and all the alignment specs was so far off it was almost comical.
I put in way too much toe in as well.

My tires are too old to really care about, but I put about 75 miles on them before an alignment and could not see any obvious uneven wear incurred in those 75 miles. Perhaps you should just have them rotate the tires before you get the alignment. I meant to do that.

 

[MarkM66]

What car? How many miles are on it?

 

[eljefino]

Get a laser level and put it on the sidewall bulges of your front tires at 4 and 8 oclock. Aim for the rear tires, you want to just barely miss the outer bulges. I crunched the geometry and about half an inch of missing the rear tire is about half a degree of toe-in, once you factor in how far the laser head is from the edge of the level etc.

 

[Kaie]

Originally Posted By: MarkM66
What car? How many miles are on it?


MkIII Jetta 230k

 

[mechtech2]

Set your toe to '0' for your drive. At least get it as close as you can with careful tape measurements. Then let them have at it.

This will give you an advantage of having a bit of a drive to let new parts settle in. A better and longer lasting alignment is then very likely.