Rear alignment, was: <VV> Chevy related, but not Corvair

[airvair]

The worst rear alignment problem I personally encountered was on my '84
Fiero. It was one of the first 10,000 built (I found out that the first
40,000 cars were affected) and had been incorrectly "aligned" by
defective factory equipment. It was so bad that in a driving rainstorm,
all I could manage was 40mph with a white-knuckle deathgrip on the
wheel. It wore out the otherwise 40,000-mile-capable tires in just 7,000
miles. Dealer claimed that I'd been doing hole-shots with it. How do you
do a burnout with a 2800# car that has an automatic, 95hp, and 64% of
its weight over the rear axle? Anyway, his mouth hit the floor after I
INSISTED that he put it up on the alignment rack. It was a quarter inch
out of alignment, yet the tires were worn straight across. Go figure.
Anyway, the car was just fine, AFTER it had been properly aligned.

-Mark

Charles Lee at Proper Pro Per wrote:
> 
> The real problem was, of course, in the 60s, when Corvairs would get "fixed"
> by mechanics who would work on the Corvair's rear suspension, and just slap
> it together without checking the alignment.
> 
> These mechanics also "fixed" the front tires by putting the "correct" 28 lbs
> in them.
> 
> Many lawsuits later, GM was blamed, and the rest is history.
> 
> So the worst that happens now is they check the rear axle alignment which
> probably won't even be noticable, even to a discerning driver ?
>