Rear wheel toe settings

[advinnie]

Hi all I have a swing axle beetle that I have just fitted a pair of extended dropped spring plates to and now it's time to set the rear wheel toe but can anyone tell me what this setting should be and how and where are people marking the measurements from?
Cheers

[slalombuggy]

To set toe you need to measure across the tire tread faces. In the old days we used a toe bar and scribe. You can use a tape measure but you will need to scribe a line on the tire faces to make a constant point to measure from.

You need to make a something that you can hold steady to scribe a line in the face of the tire You might make it out of a clock of wood and a finishing nail with the head cut off
Take a can of white or light coloured spray paint.
Jack up a wheel and spin it
While spinning it spray a line on the tire with the paint. While the paint is still wet scribe a constant line in the paint the entire way around the tire..
Repeat on the other wheel.
Fully settle the suspension so that it is in the normal place it will be when driving
Take a tape measure and measure across from one line to the other on the back of the tire
Now measure the same on the front side of the tire. Make sure the tape measure is about the same distance off the floor side to side and front to back. Use a couple blocks of wood cut he same length as spacers if you want.
Subtract the front measurement from the rear measurement. The difference between the 2 measurements front and back is your toe in or out. depending on what you are using for bushings You will want to either shoot for 1/16-1/8" toe out for stock rubber bushings or zero toe with urethane bushings.

brad

[advinnie]

Ok cheers for that mate I will have a go later today

[wcfvw69]

Back in the 80's when I was aligning tons of bugs a week, we set the toe to 0 to achieve no tire wear. We found setting to 1/8" out would create some inside tire wear, especially on IRS rear ends with negative camber..
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[Floating VW]

Mine is a standard Beetle with double-joint IRS, not swing-axle; I don't know if it makes a difference, but here is how I have mine set up:

I replaced my rubber bushings with Energy Suspension's black urethane (it seems to be a little softer compound than the red ones I used to have), but I tend to do more high-speed cruising down the highway than low-speed city cruising, so I like a little bit of toe-out at the back. With these specs, it tracks straight, does well on the curves, and I haven't noticed any unusual tire degradation after many years and several thousands of miles (and I'm one of those lazy people that never rotates their tires). The only complaint I have is occasionally the crown of the road wants to make the car pull ever-so-slightly to the right (unless I'm on the wrong side of the road, then it wants to pull to the left). I suppose this could be corrected by giving the front-left tire a little toe-out, or the right-front a little more toe-in, but it would be at the cost of slightly increased tire deg, so I think I'll just live with it.

I've always done my geometry with a string-line, a plumb-bob and an angle finder with a dial gauge. I use the plumb to find the exact center-line of the car, and mark it out on the floor. Then, I run two string-lines- one on each side of the car- perfectly parallel to the center-line, with the string stretched tight and level with the exact center of the wheel hubs. After that, it's just a matter of measuring the distances of the tires from the string, and using a little high-school math to calculate the angles. Tighten it all down, roll it forward 180 degrees and measure again to double check, and done! I usually measure from the front and rear edges of the rim, instead of making a line on the actual tire. I know this isn't the correct way to do it, but I try to compensate for any inaccuracies when I make my adjustments. It's kind of a slow way to do it, but it's a simple one and fairly accurate, and doesn't require any specialized tools.

Good luck, man.
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