Stan---There is a way to do this job accurately yourself. The long way
(most accurate) requires picking up the centerline of the car's frame,
front and rear, and dropping down a plumb bob. Snap a chalked string
down, and measure equally to an outside line. From these (outside) lines
you can then measure back in to the wheels, and shim them to the toe you
want.
Quicker, which can still get you very close, is to point the front tires
dead ahead. (A short run to your work area can establish this) Then run
a taut string from the front of the car to the rear of the car, on both
sides. Use four jack stands to hold string positions. The strings should
be parallel lines, about a foot off the floor..
Taking the two different tracks (front and rear) into consideration,
measure in from the string to the front and back of each tire. The
difference between the string and the wheel is the amount of toe you
have.
This is a lot of words to describe what can be shown more simply in a
sketch, but I hope you get the gist of this.
I got this out of a Grassroots Motor Sport issue about 15 years ago, and
have been usig it ever since. It is called the "10 cent string
alignment".
Dick
From:
stan.foster@hp.com(Foster, Stan)
Getting rear wheels in the right orientation prior to setting toe-in
I've been working on my rear end (goodparts adjustable brackets, poly
bushes, new springs etc) and I have it all back together but I'm puzzled
about how to proceed with alignment. I understand the concept of toe-in
and how to adjust it with shims but the traditional descriptions of how
to set it don't discuss how to get the rear wheels in the correct
position to start with. For example if one wheel is cockeyed to start
with I can still set the correct toe since it is a measurement relative
to the other wheel and not relative to some known fixed point on say the
frame.
So I feel like I'm missing a step somewhere that gets the rear wheels
facing the right way to start with before I begin to shim to set the
toe-in.
I did re-insert the original shims but the new brackets, bushes, springs
and inserts have left things quite out of whack so I think the shims
were compensating for a lot of wear and other issues like poorly placed
inserts.
Is there some baseline config that I should apply before setting the toe
and then the camber ?
Stan
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