I am looking for a good answer for the following question.

What are the proper procedures to setting up the rear lateral links and trailing arms prior to taking the car to the allignment shop.

While I am sure that some allignement shops know what to do, I think think that some sort of pre-set is required on the user's end to insure proper settings and allignment.

What do you guys think?

 

Wow! I'm surprised no one has answered this yet. Found this post while searching for lateral links. Anyways, to answer the question, what I do is string up the car using common reference points from each corner using jack stands as the corners. It's pretty simple to do. You need to square the rear to the car and make sure that the toe is consistent side to side.

 

Strings aren't really neccessary if you are going to get an alignment. As a rough estimate I would just eyeball the toe. Get down on your hands and knees behind the rear tire, close one eye and look accross the outside edge of the tire and line it up with the outer edge of the front tire. This will get you close to zero toe which will get you to the alignment shop without any issues.

The string method is great for a diy alignment though!