So..... I am now down to 10 days before departure. The final countdown has started - yes, you may sing the song.... if you must. So much to do and so little time. It is daunting, I can't lie, however I must push on. THIS WILL HAPPEN!
As you might know (you've been reading my blogs right?), I recently installed a fresh set of parts on the front suspension. It was control arms, steering arms, tie rods and all that kinda jazz :-). After doing this, there was clunking going on under the car and I still had a cruising speed shimmy / vibration.
I had reached out to my MEYLE man and I was sent replacement parts. I had the opportunity to install them today at my buddy's shop. I replaced the driver's side thrust arm. I then went on to tackle the alignment - very necessary when you install new suspension. I had a crash course on car alignment from my buddy, then I faced the task.
34 % SLXLM
This was my first attempt at alignment so go easy on me. As the car is running DINAN Stage II suspension, I decided to set the alignment as close as possible to the specs DINAN provided me. Lord knows I barely know what I was doing here, but I had a secret weapon. My buddy is a 20 year BMW veteran and was literally holding my hand through this.
I was all worried about camber, caster and of course. He assured me that once the toe was aligned most of the rest would follow. Lo and behold.... the 20 year veteran was right. Go figure.... LOL! One thing I could not do much with was the camber as that is pushed out of wack a bit once you lower a car.
We got it into decent specs - still off by a little bit. My buddy said there were acceptable parameters of error, slightly anal retentive me said I want it to be perfect! So....we shall once again mount the rack and redo it.
I gotta tell, ya, with the new parts and the alignment, the car feels completely different. Like WOW! My thanks again to MEYLE for the support and assistance and my buddy Cliff at Bay Motor Works. It helps to have friends in the right places. I keep this up and next thing you know, I am running for President to be the first........no, not that. To the first Gear Head in the White House. Imagine me wrenching on the Presidential Beast People! My campaign slogan will be, "Let's get our hands dirty". You'll start hearing thing like, "Potus has the wrench"!
