Fiero Alignment Specifications

[Fierofool]

Most of us who've owned our Fieros for a while have discovered that they can be pretty persnickety about some things, especially alignment.  An often used description of the Fiero is "Corners like a go-kart on rails", but let it get a little out of alignment and it will travel down the road wig-wagging it's tail to rival any hooker on International Boulevard.

Almost all of today's alignment machines have the ability to print out the alignment settings before and after adjustment.  I suggest you call your favorite shop and ask if their printer is working before scheduling an appointment.  If they say their printer isn't working, you are at the mercy of the Automobile Chiropractor for the manipulation and adjustment of your baby.  You have no way of knowing if it's been done right until you drive it.  Most of the alignment techs weren't even around when these cars were produced.  They just follow some standard procedures. 

Now, you can compare the alignment shop's numbers with the numbers recommended by General Motors Pontiac Division.  I noticed something near the end that is unlikely to be known by an alignment tech, unless he's reading a book as he's doing the alignment.  It applies to the 88 model years and requires that the car be 'Jounced' 3 times before alignment to eliminate false geometry readings.  The small copy at the bottom can be opened in the attachment using MGI PhotoSuite.  I couldn't get it to download in a readable size as a jpg file. 

Print these specifications, take them with you and compare, or better still, hand them to the people at the alignment shop and tell them this is the settings you want them to achieve.




Typo Notation:  Service Setting for Rear Camber should be -1.0 +/- .5, NOT -10 +/- .5.  Helms Manual states -10 +/- .5 in it's 87 edition of the 88 manual.

[TopNotch]

The reason why 88 GT's and Formulas have different front specs from other 88's is because the GT's and Formulas were supposed to get electro-hydraulic power steering. The specs in the shop manual have a footnote to that effect.

[Fierofool]

The Formula and GT also had different offset front wheels than the base coupe, since the coupe got the standard wheels all the way around that were available from the inception in '84. 

[JohnWPB]

Reviving a pretty old thread here......

I can not seem to make sense of the chart above.  For my 86' GT, the chart shows the rear camber to have a range of "-1.5 ~ -0.5".  Right next to it, it says the desired setting is -0.1 degrees.  That puts it  -.04 degrees past the limit..... this makes no sense.  Bloozberry actually caught that in a thread that I started on PFF:  http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/134117.html

Was this re-typed, or a copy directly a GM TSB?

[Fierofool]

I don't remember where I got it but I didn't re-type it.  I've printed it and taken it to the last two shops that have aligned my cars.  The first shop did my 87GT without comment.  The last shop compared it and said that those numbers were what was in his machine.  That was when I was having the 86SE aligned, so the numbers should be good for your GT.  Have your alignment shop verify them with his machine.  I may have gotten the charts from Gary Wurtzenburgs book. 

Look at the alignment specification change.  Is that correct?  I don't understand any of the specs, so I don't know. 

[JohnWPB]

Thanks for the response.  I honestly do not understand it completely myself.  There definitely is a contradiction in there though.  I acquaint it to someone saying to price something between .50¢ and $1.50 and then go on to say that the ideal price is $.10¢ 

As I said, I do not understand it all, but that discrepancy is pretty clear when you look at it.

[f85gtron]

My 2 cents
I've found that only the old timey 100+$ alignments are worth a flip.
The "string" method works well on these cars, unless you have staggered wheels.....works much better than those discount tire warehouse alignments.
Use a level for caster and camber
Go get one of those laser tape measure things from lowes for a precision job and know it was done right, because you did it yourself
Ron

[Raydar]

After doing a bunch of suspension work, I got my alignment quite close using a bubble level, to set camber; and string, to set toe.

Afterwards, I took it to a shop to get it "dialed in", but couldn't tell much of a difference.

[GTRS Fiero]

Reviving a pretty old thread here......

I can not seem to make sense of the chart above.  For my 86' GT, the chart shows the rear camber to have a range of "-1.5 ~ -0.5".  Right next to it, it says the desired setting is -0.1 degrees.  That puts it  -.04 degrees past the limit..... this makes no sense.  Bloozberry actually caught that in a thread that I started on PFF:  http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/134117.html

Was this re-typed, or a copy directly a GM TSB?

Just to explain this.  The range is -1.5 to -0.5.  The chart is incorrect.  The desired value is -1.0 degrees.