Long story, but I had a small lift kit installed on my SUV. The shop that installed it said they had an extremely hard time getting the front end aligned afterwards, but after 3 hours they got it just in spec. I called the manufacturer of the lift, and they said they have never heard of anyone else having a problem, so the 1st shop might have been doing something incorrectly, and to have another shop look at it. Without spending $50 or so to have the alignment checked again, is there a way I can check to see if the camber is close to correct at home? Out of curiousity I held a level up to the front tires and the bubble is not centered (I had the steering wheel as straight as possible), but it is centered when I hold it against the rear tires.

you don't want the level centered on the front tires. The front wheels shouldn't sit at 0 camber, caster, or toe. The rear wheels should sit at 0 everything if it is a solid axle... different for IRS.

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Get a carpenter's level. You want one which is slightly shorter than your wheel size (e.g. on my 13" rims a 12" level works okay). Rest the bottom of the level against some repeatable part of the wheel (like the bottom of the outside edge of the rim, but you'll need different techniques with some wheels). Now swing the level (without losing contact with the wheel) until it's exactly vertical. Using a caliper (you can use a ruler, but a caliper is much easier) measure the distance from the level to the wheel. Now you have your camber in inches. Some trigonometry can give you the camber in degrees, if that's what you want.

There are lots of variations on this. You can use a coarse-thread screw instead of a caliper, and count turns. You can use a dial indicator instead of a caliper. You can make a gizmo with sliding fingers that stick out from the level and contact the wheel at just the right points for your size wheel. You can just hold the level against the wheel and make calibration marks on the window where the bubble appears. You can use a vertical from the floor and measure from there to the bottom and top of the wheels, then subtract. Whatever seems easiest for you.

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[This message has been edited by TexasRebel (edited 7/8/2009 5:25p).]