DEAR John,
Before you adjust your rear axle toe in, you should make sure that the
semi
trailing arm bushings have no play in them. If there is any noticable lateral
play in the bushings, your toe adjustment labor will be wasted. Also, if you
are going to take the car to an alignment specialist, make sure the wheels are
checked for trueness, no bent or out of round wheels. Since the alignment tools
clamp onto the wheel, a bent wheel throws things out. A good alignment
technician will check wheel trueness first, and skip the alignment if he finds a
bent or out of round wheel.
Next in order to properly answer your question, I need to know if you
are
planning to do it yourself in your garage/driveway, or if you are going to have
it done professionally. Basically, to do it correctly requires an alignment
rack and a set of chassis shim of various thicknesses that fit between the
inner/outer trailing arm bracket and subframe. The idea here is that the shims
added will push the trailing arm toward the rear, increasing toe out, removing
shims brings the trailing are forward, increasing toe in. The reason it
requires an alignment rack is because the car MUST be sitting on its normal load
position, level on the ground when the toe adjustment is made, and the wheel
must be able to pivot during the adjustment. In fact, it is even recommended to
place weight in the driver and passenger position while doing the adjustment
(although most don't go to the trouble).
Now, there is going to be someone out there who will swear you can
adjust it in
your driveway, just jack up the car and place or remove shims, and indeed, you
can adjust toe this way, but it will be hit or miss, and unless you carry out
the alignment geometry in the Repair Manual to properly measure the angles, you
will be jacking and shimming all day long. Any "Bear" Alignment shop can do 4
wheel alignments, and will most likely do it for $100. Also, the alignment shop
will check alignment relative to the chassis to keep your car from driving down
the road looking like a crab walking askew (called crabbing, oddly enough). I
recommend the alignment racks that incorporate light/lasers and mirrors as
opposed to the electronic racks. My reason is because the light/laser mirror
units can be easily calibrated by the mechanic on the rack before your car is
loaded, where the electronic ones require a specialist to do the calibration,
and like electronic wheel balancers, the shop rarely gets the unit calibrated
until after several customers have distroyed tires. The shop will most likely
have shims too! Newer machines are being isstalled that have an automatic
calibration that must be done when the rack is cleared to make sure it is
accurate.
So, there you have the "How" with some "why" that I hope answers your question
and is helpful.
Regards,
Glenn Merrell
Triumph Stag Register USA VP
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jworthy2@csc.com wrote:
>
> Listers
>
> Can anyone tell me how you adjust rear wheel toe in?
>
> John
> '72 TR6
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