RE: [ihc] Factory Toe-In Spec, Anyone?

[Steven Stegmann <steve.stegmann@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom,

I just sent in the URL for the alignment article I
wrote for the Binder Bulletin a few years ago.  It
explains all.

Here it is again, still on my clipboard.

http://www.binderbulletin.org/forums/faq.php?faq=ihcfaq_steering_category#faq_ihcfaq_diy_alignment

Steve

--- Tom Harais <THarais@domain.elided> wrote:

> So Steve:
> 
> Tell us your toe setting technique?  Are you using
> stick pins into the tire
> tread and measuring the distance change when rolled
> back?  Did you create a
> measuring device of some sort?
> 
> Has anyone ever tried those relatively cheap
> alignment platters from JC
> Whitney that you can use to set toe and camber but
> not caster?  
> 
> I've always found that I couldn't get a tape between
> the rear edge of the
> wheels because of interference from the frame,
> exhaust, etc.  And, by the
> time I made up a measuring device like the ones I've
> seen in a couple of
> suspension books I have, I may as well go pay an
> alignment shop the $50 and
> have it set by laser.  
> 
> Well, at least that's what I thought until I watch
> and unqualified youngster
> setting the alignment on an expensive new car at a
> tire shop I happened to
> be at one day.  The manager, right in front of me
> told the kid he wasn't
> qualified to do that when the kid told him he
> couldn't get anything to work.
> But the kid told the manager that the mechanic had
> taken off without
> finishing the car and the customer wanted it right
> then (it was closing
> time).  So the manager let the kid go ahead and
> "align" it.
> 
> And, I've never heard it said that when you set toe
> by measurement, do you
> use the outer edge of the rim, the tread surface of
> the tire, etc.
> Obviously, where you measure that 1/16th of an inch
> differnece is going to
> make a difference based on the distance from the
> center of the wheel.
> Alignment shops go by degrees, which avoids the
> radius from the center
> varaiable.
> 
> Tom H., '76 Traveler