Thread: P38 DIY wheel alignment.

Toe in/out has no effect on a car pulling. This is caused by caster which in your case is not adjustable.

I would suggest that your pulling might be caused by tyres. Try swapping left to right.

Have you also tested it on a very flat road as a lot of roads have a camber on them, which will cause a car to want to veer left.

Thanks Dave, interesting, didn't know pulling was not toe in/out.
I had the same thought about the angle of the road surface, but it does seem to do it on most roads. I'll try driving on a flat surface tomorrow and see what that does.
I'll try swapping the wheels over, does changing the direction of the tyre rotation have any ill effect on the tyres?

Some tyres are directional. They usually have an arrow or something to determine direction.

I have never seen these on a 4x4 though.

The reason toe in/out won't cause pulling is that the toe is always equal on both wheels.

You can adjust just one side only but when you drive they will both point straight ahead, just your steering wheel will be off centre.

Whereas on a car that has adjustable caster, each side can be individually adjusted to different settings.

In the old days on Falcons sometimes after an alignment it might still pull a tad. I would take a spanner on the test drive and it was easy to adjust caster on the side of the road.

Could be worn ball joints. Mine is doing the same and has also become a little vague in the steering dept. A good poke around revealed worn ball joints.

The upper ball joints were replaced a couple of years ago, the lower ones were fine, but I'll check them on the weekend, thanks for the suggestion poleonpom.

Mate

You can pretty easily check your toe in/out with the chalk and string method there are plenty of videos on how to do it.

But it won't stop drifting or pulling to one side as has been said

Steve

Hi Pete it's caster issue. Normally if you drive in the rh lane on a freeway which drains to the median strip the road camber will normally cause the vehicle to slightly veer to the right..

Re. Laser measuring devices for toe-in.... i have used a TrackAce. It's very good
Cheers

Have you checked the tyre pressures? As mentioned, there are so many things which can cause the steering to pull. It could even be a flexi brake hose starting to collapse and hold the brake on slightly. If your tyres are wearing even then your alignment is probably ok. I haven't been on the tools for years now, but have done many alignments, with lots of different methods, including setting up race cars, now a days I just do mine by eye, I know it is not accurate, but I haven't had a set of tyres wear for quiet a few years. I would be checking over every thing, no matter how silly it may seem if you are concerned about it. Try to see if it pulls on certain roads, under acceleration, if it drifts the other way when you ease off. You may be able to narrow down your search.