Thread: Wheel/Steering Alignment

Check out the string method described in this thread.

And in this article, the Brits replace the string with a bit of wood.

The workshop manual says "1.2mm to 2.4mm of toe-in and is measured at the horizontal centre line of the road wheels".

In Drifter's link there is room for error and seems a rather complicated way of doing it. The Rover method uses a "tracking stick", or what is known here as a trammel bar. You could make one yourself using a light piece of rigid tube with and adjustable bolt on one end screwing through a nut welded onto the tube. The measuring end of the bolt needs to be pointed so that precise measurements can be taken. At the other end the pointy bit should be permanently fixed.

The measurement should be taken from wheel rim to wheel rim, with wheels pointing straight ahead. Measurements should be taken on the front and rear of the rims and the distances are then recorded. The manual then says to roll the car backward and turn the steering wheel from side-to-side to settle the ball joints and then with the wheels straight ahead the measurements checked again. This is assuming that you had to adjust the ball-joints on the track rod ends.

Getting both wheels pointing straight ahead and parallel to each other, would be a good place to start before setting the toe-in,

Cheers Charlie

jack up the front axle.

place a chalk mark on a tread block on each tyre, rotate the tyres till the marks are at the 3+9 oclock positions and measure from the left side of a point of one block to the left side of a point on the other

rotate the tyres 180 degrees and measure again.

if the distance measured behind the axle is longer than the distance in front of the axle you are toed in, if its shorter behind than in front its toed out and if they are the same you have 0 toe.

As Dave advises - but note that you have no hope of getting the alignment correct if there is any free play on the swivel bearings or wheel bearings, so check these before starting!

John