alignment question

[Wayne Cox]

At 12:45 PM 1/3/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>Last week I finished replacing the front struts (bent shaft on left strut)
>and right axle. .... I now find that the car pulls hard to the left on a
>flat, even roadway.

Strut assemblies have enough manufacturing variations in them, as well as
excess play in the bolt holes, to throw your alignment way off.  You need
to have it realigned after a strut replacement.

As for the bolt play - you can use it to your advantage.  Loosening the
bolts then moving everything as far as it will go in one direction (use pry
bars, clamps, etc) then tightening, gives you some adjustment in the "non
adjustable" alignment settings, like camber.  As an extra plus - I've found
this usually lets you get away with R&R-ing suspension parts without the
alignment, since it lets you put things back to "pretty close" to where
they were.

  -Wayne Cox
     '92 SE-R  SERiously F**cked front end
        '91 NX2k quick beater  '93NX2k  Lisa's