anyone align front end themselves

WONDERING IF THIS COULD BE DONE WITHOUT TAKING CAR TO AN ALIGNMENT SHOP

Youll never get it dead on at home.

I have used a level to set camber, and then used a tape measure to set toe, but setting the caster setting (vertical tilt of the centerline of the ball joints) is nearly impossible. Camber and caster are adjusted with the same components (eccentrics on the upper control arm pivots) When you change one you change the other. The way to set them both is to make the needed adjustments for each at the same time. Tough to do on your garage floor. Could be done, but pretty tough.

Caster and camber are measure in degrees of tilt. they make level type camber gages, but not for caster (that I know of)

Toe is a piece of cake, its measure (usually) in inches of toe in or toe out, depending on the specs.

Caster being out of spec wont cause your tires to wear, but it will cause many handling issues, such as puling to one side, poor returnability of the steering wheel to center, and instability a higher speeds.

The needed tools to set camber and caster at home would far outweigh the cost of an alignment done at a shop.

Getting toe & camber close isn't to difficult, caster is quite a bit tougher...

I use an angle finder. Find a level area for the car. Turn the steering wheel to the right about 1 to 1 1/4 turns, noteing where the spokes of the steering wheel are. You need to rotate the steering wheel to the same location but in the opposite direction later on. Once you turn the wheel to the right, using the angle finder find a flat spot on the wheel on the driverside of the car. Read and write down the angle holding the angle finder vertically. Now rotate the steering wheel to the left the same amount as you did for the first reading and take the same reading from the passengerside wheel. This will be your caster readings. Your passenger side should have about 1/2* more than the driverside. If adjustments need to be made, use the rear excentric to move the wheel in or out.
For camber, straighten the steering wheel and
take the readings from the same flat area used for the caster reading. Should be 0* to 1/2* + -.
Use the front excentric for this adjustment.
Find a couple of straight edges long enough to reach past the front tires fore and aft.(maybe 4" or so). Find 4 identical purches about 4" tall. I used Plastic wire spools. Place one at the front and rear of each wheel. Place the straight edge on top of the purches. Find a way to hold the straight edge in place and measure front and rear of tires. This will be your toe setting. Shoot for about 1/16-1/8" toe in. Make adjustments from one side and count the number of revolutions to get the right reading. Now divide that number by 2 and back off the side you adjusted and tighten the clamps. Go to the other side and revolve the same number and tighten the clamps. This will center you steering wheel. This is the way I do it and it works for me.

Google DIY alignment and read all 419,000 hits. Some are actually quite good. Some are astonishingly bad. Bottom line is you can get it close enough to drive it to someone that can do it right. The problem is finding someone who knows how or is willing to do an old Mopar. Alot of young frontend techs think if it isn't preprogrammed in their machine it can't be done. If so then keep looking until you find a tech that is older than your car and he will know how to do it.

If you are going to try to do it yourself, buy one of these.
http://www.longacreracing.com/catalog/item.asp?id=1074&catid=5

It's not hard at all with a cheap alignment guage. I've found lately it's not just old cars they can't get right, many of these guys doing alignments don't have any understanding of the angles and what they can do to help or hurt driveability.

I did some alignments when I turned wrenches back in the late 70s. I would cringe when a Mopar or Ford for that matter would come in. They both used similar eccentric type adjustments. The trouble is keeping one eccentric from moving when you have to loosen both to make certain adjustments. Its been over 30 years since I had to do it but I remember them being a nightmare. Least for me. It was one of the few things GM had going for them IMHO. Just loosen the UCA mounts and install or remove the right combination of shims and re tighten. Piece of cake

I do. Anyone that thinks it can't eitehr doesnt understand how it all works, or hasn't tried hard enough. It isnt easy, but anything can be lined up at home. They do make some easier tools now. Very few shops now even know how to do a proper alignment on a rear wheel drive without struts or 4wd. Ask a circle track guy who does their alignments...

I've tried a few. Got some surprisingly close after comparing the set up on a real alignment rack.

Some I thought were close and were WAY off when on the rack.

Moral of the story. Center the steering wheel. Make your tie rod assemblies the same length. Base line the toe at home. Let the lasers to the rest.

I've been doing my own for several years now, I got tired of paying $50-100 for some monkey to do a halfa$$ed job and tell me that's as good as they can get it because it's old. Plus, I just wanted to learn how my suspension worked, and needed the ability to refine things as I saw fit. I spent about $100-150 for the tools (caster/camber gage and toe gage) and some short ramps and shims to level the car on my driveway. I've more than paid for the parts now, and can tweak to my heart's desire. Just don't expect it to be a fast procedure, especially on an A-body. I probably spend 2-3 hours getting the front end where I want it, starting from scratch.

Clair

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I do. Anyone that thinks it can't eitehr doesnt understand how it all works, or hasn't tried hard enough. It isnt easy, but anything can be lined up at home. They do make some easier tools now. Very few shops now even know how to do a proper alignment on a rear wheel drive without struts or 4wd. Ask a circle track guy who does their alignments...

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That was probably the issue back then. We had a good front-end machine. State-of-the-art (for its time)Hunter. We were just plagued with crappy hand tools. I remember it seeming like I needed 3 hands to make some of the adjustments