It sucks paying people for a simple task that you can do yourself; but due to lack of specific tools, you’re stuck dishing out the cash. We found ourselves in this exact situation last year as we raced Project Orange Crush. We would adjust the suspension a little differently between events and next thing you know we had to take it back to the alignment shop. We don’t even want to calculate the total cost of alignment services we had last year. This year we are going to save some time and cash with Reilly Motorsports’ new Toe Gauge and Digital Angle Gauge that will allow us to perform a basic alignment in our garage.

You might have seen some fancy alignment gauges and tools that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. For the average enthusiasts, even if you are doing some racing, aligning your car to spec is not rocket science and high end equipment is not necessary. You probably know with improper alignment your tires can wear incorrectly, create a lot of noise and be down right dangerous to drive on the road. Reilly Motorsports Toe Gauge and Digital Angle Gauge will allow simple adjustments at home in your garage and not break the bank.

The RMS Toe Gauge is fairly simple to use and might have some of us wondering why I didn’t think of that. The RMS Toe Gauge can easily measure the difference of the front and back of your wheels to make sure they are in spec. You will need a stick of steel conduit to mount each toe gauge to, slide one side until just touches the wheel and lock it down and take the measurement. You will do the same thing for the front and compare your readings. Subtract the reading at the front from the rear, the difference is your toe. If the number is negative the tires are pointed inward and if its positive the tires are pointed outward. For majority of vehicles you want the numbers to be 0 to -1/16”.

For camber the Digital Angle Gauge is even easier to use. To measure camber simply place the gauge on the face of the rotor vertically and check the reading. If it’s a negative number the wheels tilted in and if it is a positive number then it’s tilted out. Depending on what the car is used for, type of tires and what suspension you have, the camber specs can very.

Caster is just as easy to read as camber but finding the proper spot on different suspensions to place the Digital Angle Finder can be tricky. On the RMS AlterKtion there is a flat machined surface on the spindle that you can place the gauge and take a reading. Since caster is measuring the tilt of the spindle front or back it wont affect your tire wear but will affect steering difficulty.

If you have questions or looking for specs for the RMS AlterKation give Bill at Reilly Motorsports a call. He has helped setup the AlterKation suspension for drag racers to road racers and everything in between. Your alignment specs will be dependent on what the car is used for. As we said before if you don’t have an AlterKation suspension and still have a stock setup both the Digital Angle Gauge and Toe Gauge will still work for you. Remember whatever the car, whatever the use, Reilly Motorsports can handle it.