Motorsport Wheel Alignment: 6. Spanner Check
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6. Spanner Check
02.05
| 00:00 | - It should go without saying the motorsport is a dangerous occupation at the best of times but a very quick way of making it even more dangerous, is to leave a suspension component or a wheel loose. |
| 00:10 | Since making wheel alignment changes inevitably requires us to loosen off bolts, adjusters, or locking nuts, we need to be absolutely certain that we check that everything is correctly tightened before hitting the track again. |
| 00:23 | It's really easy to have the best of intentions when it comes to spanner checking your work, however all it takes is a moment of distraction and it's easy to forget one critical nut or bolt. |
| 00:33 | This is even easier to do if you happen to be talking to someone while you're doing your final checks, or you get distracted by a phone call or something similar. |
| 00:43 | For this reason, it's really important to be methodical about this step and make sure you've checked every part of the car you've worked on. |
| 00:49 | My personal method is to move around the car in a clockwise direction, starting from the left front wheel. |
| 00:55 | This way, I'm always doing my spanner check in the same order, and it becomes a routine process. |
| 01:01 | Obviously, we want to concentrate on the nuts or the bolts that we've needed to loosen in order to make our adjustments, but it's a good habit to get into to check all of your suspension components at the same time. |
| 01:13 | There's a lot of vibration associated with motorsport and it's possible for fasteners to work loose over time. |
| 01:20 | An optional step that you can take to give you a visual cue that the fastener is where it's supposed to be, is to mark the head of each bolt using a paint pen. |
| 01:29 | By marking each bolt as you check it, you can then easily visually confirm which bolts have been tightened and which haven't. |
| 01:36 | Over time you can also see if any of your paint marks have moved, indicating that the bolts has loosened off. |
| 01:43 | The pain pen isn't restricted to just marking bolt heads though and you can also mark spring platforms for coil over suspension to make sure that they haven't become loose and started to move. |
| 01:53 | Lastly, it's a good idea to make one final check of your alignment after you've completed your spanner check, just to ensure that nothing has moved. |
