5-lug swap = need an alignment?

[Rittmeister]

I will be finishing my 5-lug swap on my S13 tomorrow. Z32 rear hubs and Attain fronts, so no mucking about with any suspension arms or settings (I figured out how to remove the rears without even undoing the bottom shock mount).

Any reason I should need an alignment? I'm thinking not, since none of the arms or adjustment's been moved, but figured I'd ask.

Thanks!

[ej2civic]

nah man, you should be all set. well, unless you needed one before you shouldn't have any problems.

[Smurf_240SX]

I didn't need it when I did it to my S14....

Its fine.

[DreamN]

wouldn't need an alignment if you're just changing out hubs. You're not touching any suspension arms since you have the conversion hubs up front. why would even have to touch the rear bottom shock mount?

s13s using oem s14 parts would need an alignment.

s14s would never need one because it's just hubs, no arms.

[Rittmeister]

why would even have to touch the rear bottom shock mount?


In researching the swap I read numerous how-tos, and many of them said to take the bottom of the rear shocks loose to have more clearance to get to the 4 bolts holding the hub to the upright. I also saw some that said you have to take some or all of the arms off (total crap) and one or two that said to either remove the axles or use a big gear puller to push them through the hub to get more clearance.

After talking with a friend who's done the swap he advised me not to take anything off at all, but simply to rotate the axle as I went, so that the flat parts of the axle would line up with each respective bolt-head. Using a 3/8" drive ratchet/19mm socket and a cheater pipe, this worked perfectly and the whole rear only took me about two hours. The worst part was waiting for another friend's machine shop to drill my rear rotors to the new bolt pattern...

Thanks for the replies; I'll just keep a close eye on tire-wear for a few weeks and see what goes.