DIY Alignment & Balancing?

Are wheel alignment and wheel balancing the same thing?
Is it at all possible to do these on your own? I know you need all
this crazy equipment, but there's gotta be a way to do it on the
cheap?
I don't like giving my car to mechanics (I've managed to keep this car
from a mechanic for its entire life (5 years) and I don't wanna break
my record)
I have issues with trust when it comes to my car (and issues with
money)
-mr speck
'95 civic DX (that pulls to the left)

 

You could do them on your own but it would be hard to beat the $39
usually charged.

Alignment is getting the wheels to pointing straight ahead. If the
front wheels are aimed inwards, the car jumps side to side and
over-reacts. If they're aimed outwards, the car feals unresponsive and
it drifts. The manual way to do this is to mark two points on the back
of the tire, measure the distance, roll the car so the points are in
front, and measure the distance again. It can be done by driving feel
too. Often other angles are tested to see if there is suspension damage.

Balancing the wheels is getting the center of gravity exactly on axis.
Doing it manually requires an expensive contraption having a clamp and
ball bearing spindle that you don't want to buy. Tire shop balance
machines spin the tire while sensing the amplitude and phase of its
wobble.

Some tire shops sell lifetime alignment and balancing. If they screw it
up, you just keep bringing it back until it's right.

 

If you can't tell the difference between alignment and balancing, then
probably not.

DIY alignment:
http://www.valvoline.com/carcare/articleviewer.asp?pg=ccr20021201ay Step by
step link at upper right.

As for balancing you could always remove the wheels and tires and bring them
in.

 

Alignment - don't ask me.

Balancing - An untried idea I had awhile ago involved something called a
bull's-eye level. I picked one up at a hardware store shortly after thinking of
it but haven't tried it out. It's a spirit level which has a disk shape with
the bubble in the center of the top so you level (in any horizontal direction)
something by centering the bubble in the center ring. Whether it's sensitive
enough I don't know.
An apparatus of some sort (tripod?) would be needed to suspend the tire in
the air with a wire and that wire would have to come up from the Very center of
the wheel. Then somehow get the spirit level positioned in there and lay
weights on the rim where appropriate until the bubble is centered. And note
that if the level is not positioned on the center of the wheel a counterbalance
to it will be needed.

I know this sounds like a lot of work and it probably is but I just like
thinking up alternative ways of doing things. Does this sound like it would
work?

John M.

 

thanks for the replies!-- that valvoline site was helpful too!
i think i understand about balancing and alignment now, but what
exactly do they do when they find the tire is unbalanced-- how do they
balance it?
and why would a tire be unbalanced in the first place? i mean the rim
and wheel are all symmetrical right? (except for the valve stem-- is
that what they have to balance out?)

John's idea of a homemade balancer's interesting-- seems like it'd be
tough to get it to balance at the exact center of the tire, and if you
were even slightly off it seems like it would give a significantly
false read.
what would you do once you got the weights on it so it was balanced?
do duck tape them to the side of the tire? where do the weights go?

 

Only if you have the proper equipment and tools.

Yes, pay someone with the equipment and experience to do it right. That is
the cheapest way to do it.

find a reputable shop to do the work for you.

 

Irregularities in the tire itself.

If the level were off center place something of equal weight (another level?)
opposite it.

Using the same weights any shop would use. Just tap them on with a hammer.

Wherever you place them when balancing the tire.