Toe In Adjustment at Home

[rayjay]

This is a trammel bar I made for setting the toe in on my Durango. It was wearing the outer edge of the tires so I added about 1/2 degree of negative camber and then set to toe in. I will post pics of my camber measuring method soon. It's just a digital angle finder and a straight edge.

The trammel bar is made out of alum C channel I bought at a hdwe store. It's 3/4" x 9/16" iirc. If you have plenty of room in your shop you could just make it in one piece. I needed to make it shorter for ease of storage in the shed so I used some scrap alum as seen in the center. One pointer is fixed and also acts as the leg on that side. The other side has a fixed leg and the adjustable pointer is held on by one bolt in the center with a plastic piece for friction. Tighten the bolt enough that the pointer is fairly difficult to move so that it's unlikely to get knocked out of adj when swinging the trammel bar under the car. Normally I set the bar on the rear portion of the tires and then set it against the fronts and see how far the pointer is from the line you have scribed on the tread.

To scribe a line I take a piece of 1X2 wood or similar about 6 to 8" long and run a wood screw or sheet rock screw up through one end. Angle the screw away from the center of the block of wood. Then with the tire jacked barely off the ground spin the tire forward by hand and carefully feed the block of wood along the floor or driveway until the point of the screw barely touches and cuts a tiny groove in the tire. When I did the Durango I got a bit over zealous and the groove was a bit too deep and lasted about 5000 miles . I normally cut the groove towards the outer edge of the tire so it's easier to get your eyeballs in there to see the pointer and the groove.

It's much easier with a helper but you can do it by yourself, just lots of back and forth making sure the pointers are still on the line.

When you are done you can just unbolt the various bits and reorient them alongside the C channel sections and throw the thing in a corner. Or if you have lots of room just hang it on the wall somewhere in one piece. If a serious circuit racer you definitely want to take it to the track with you.

[rayjay]

Note that the factory tread groove I show in the pic is NOT the scribed line I mention. The factory tread groove is not accurate enough for our needs. You need a scribed line about 1/32" wide and deep. The factory tread grooves are too wide and their radial accuracy is probably not up to what you need.

[raygreenwood]

Nice!

You should also take a look at this system. Great reviews. Check out wome user videoa on YouTube.

https://www.quicktrickalignment.com/shop

The full on system for $600-800.....is not bad. I just had my Golf aligned last month. $129
If you have several cars and drive a lot or work on them alot....and its getting very hard to find shops that will align a classic VW.....a home system like this makes a lot of sense. Ray

[mark tucker]

you can use any tread as long as you check it to bee sure it runs true. most tires run true, many dont, then there is the rim&drum/rotor to contend with Ive see all out by too much but most are very close, curbs can be hell... never assume that a tire runs true untill you check it on the car witch is will be used on. also be sure the wheel bearings are tight.yes tight, never run vw wheel bearaning loose like american cars are sometimes done for racing....that shouldent but you cant fix stupid. ( vw front wheel bearings are so small(tiny) that they can and do move around when not adjusted properly( properly is not what biubba does,it's what vw said to do) a lot of death wooble can be traced back to improper wheel bearing preload...and a lot of parts get changed trying to fix bubbas ex~spurt Eff up) A indication of wheel bearings that have been run loose... the washer inbetween the nut and the bearing will be grooved from the bearing moving around. that should never happen!!! and is the only thing that will cause the washer wear unless the bearing locks up.

[jason]

I use toe plates, made some with levels.

[mark tucker]

I dont like the "toe plates" 1 I trip on rugs eazely... 2 the lettering and side walls of tires can be way off...way waay offff. if you make them so they seat on the rims evenly and are held firmly (tight bungies will do, with 3 contact points to square up with no rocking) that will work. but across the tire wont do.just tomany bumps, buldges,letters etc. and now days the side walls are just crap with bump, & vallys, humps. why in this age of technoligy?? I havent a clue execpt for cheep ass tires at preamum prices for the CEO's houses around the world that we pay for... personaly the best tires Ive seen in many years are the korean tires. summito,solar are just 1 company, summito is solars parrent company, solar is a wallmart brand,Ive never had any issue with them and have awesome tread&water sipeing, last long,I havent seen any that are dry roted( the wifes mitchlens 2 sets of 4 were dry roted in a bout 1.5 years....pure shit. the solars run true, great traction.& look good.I also havent managed to get them to hydro plane.i whis they had them in the size the wifes element needed. I just shit caned the 2nd set of expensive mitchlen crap on it.

[rayjay]

I want the pointers to be as high as possible so you are at or near the tires max dia. It does make a difference I believe.

[mark tucker]

[earthquake]

I used to use 4 oil cans and a couple aluminum yard sticks to set toe, you would set 2 oil cans at the front and rear of the tires sticken out enough to lay the yard sticks on top of the cans and measure your toe with two tape measures, When oil cans went the way of the Dodo I made a set of toe plates where I used to work to do it, I also cut 4 - 15" squares of 1/8" stainless plate to use a slider plates, you smear grease between 2 plates and set them under the tires with a jack so you don't have roll the car back and forth to get the tires to settle, you just bounce it up and down a couple of times. I did buy a fancy Magnetic Bubble type Caster and Camber gauge, I think I have used it twice.
THERE AIN'T NO SCHOOL LIKE OLD SCHOOL!

Casey
_________________
74 CLASS 11 LOOK-A-LIKE
69 DUNE BUGGY
79 INTERNATIONAL SCOUT II
05 SCION XB SERIES RELEASE 2[#437]
95 Chevy C3500 dually
98 Ford E150
Link to Kelly J. Nolte 3/20/53 - 11/6/08
https://time-zonelabs.blogspot.com/p/about-kelly.html
DEATH TO CHINGERS!
[From a military recruitment poster in the novel "The Stainless Steel Rat" By Harry Harrison]

[rayjay]

In the early 90s I saw an ad for a device that would cut a tiny groove across the width of a slick. You would then go out and turn a few laps and come back into the pits. You could then look at the groove and see the wear and know what was going on at the contact patch. If the center was worn away too much air pressure. If the inner or outer then it's the camber, and so on. The little tool didn't catch on so I don't know what the problem was. Checking tire temps after a cool down lap isn't much use.