Thread: Alignment question

Ok my fellow sr buddies and geniouses, I'm going to be in the process of changing my wheel bearings and I just had an alignment done and I know by removing the wheel bearing hub piece(from the ball joint and tie rod) it will mess up my alignment. So my question is where can I mark so that when I put everything back together, my car won't be misaligned? And Yes I have searched and came up with nothing regarding this.

if you don't turn the actual tie rod, i dont think anything will change.

think about it. the two strut bolts have a fixed location. the ball joint has a fixed location. the tie rod would stay in the same position as long as it wasn't turned. you should have no problem as long as you put everything back together the same way it was taken out. someone please correct me if i'm wrong.

I dunno man you can mess up your alighment by taking the struts outs. when you do your suspension you have to line up the top hat with the metal plate that goes on top of the spring which also has a arrow on it everything is suppose to line up. when you put your struts on you can turn the strut left and right because the top hat spins because its on a bearing.. if you move the strut to much the top hat will not be lined up with the metal plate and your stearing wheel will be crooked...

i have no idea if im right or what not but this happen to me when i changed my struts

I always thought there was a little bit of play (couple mm) on the strut bolts that hold the hub assembly to the strut. I remember always being able to push in and out when they were loose. It may not be noticable but it may affect it a little bit. I would just do the work and get the alignment checked to make sure.

I've always thought that changing suspension parts (struts/reasonable drop springs) wouldn't change your alignment enough to matter. I've done a number of swaps without problems, on several different cars (B13, P10, S13, Honda, etc), so I'm basing this on that experience.

I cannot imagine managing to get the steering crooked after a strut swap. That's crazy.

That said, after wheel bearings, it can't hurt to spend the extra $75 and have the car aligned again; then you know it's right.

well the thing is when you take the strut off your hub just kind of falls to the side. when you put your strut back in the first thing people to is move the struth toward the hubwhich throws the arrows off.. but i dunno...

yeah man my stearing wheel was straight changed them and bam now its tilted to the left lol

This should be in the suspension section.


I've taken apart my front suspension more times than I can count without any significant changes in alignment. Keep the tie rods the same length and you should be fine.

If the wheel bearing was bad and possible ball joint than when you put the new ones on they could be shifted. I would get it checked, anytime you take apart the suspension things can shift but maybe not enough to make a difference but when you are talking about replacing bad parts you could put things back into spec when they might have been a little out.
At least get it checked

Ok but can anyone post up some pics of the arrows they're talking about that should be aligned? I think that would help us out a lot. (Well maybe I'm the only one who doesn't know) Hahahaha But yea......

You do not have to remove the upper mount of the shock to change wheel bearings. If you ever took out the entire shock and upper mount you would see two arrows on them telling you how to align them. Since you just need to take out the spindle you do not have to take out the mount thus not disturbing the alignment of said arrows.