Setting toe-in

[tooldude]

Have you ever seen the turntables that are on an alignment rack? They turn on bearings, so there is no drag on the tires which might affect alignment. Is there an effect? I don't know, but it seems likely to me. To attempt to get a more accurate measurement, I made turntables out of four heavy wall pizza pans I had, using a pair on each wheel. They're slightly tapered or "nesting" pans which stack inside each other. I just fill the bottom pan with BB's and the top pan rotates easily with the wheels sitting on it.

[WmWatt]

So you jack the car up, put a pan under each wheel, dump in some bearings, put the other pan on top, let the wheels down into the pans, and turn the steering wheel side to side with little resistance from the bottom of the tires?

[TominMO]

Have you ever seen the turntables that are on an alignment rack? They turn on bearings, so there is no drag on the tires which might affect alignment. Is there an effect? I don't know, but it seems likely to me. To attempt to get a more accurate measurement, I made turntables out of four heavy wall pizza pans I had, using a pair on each wheel. They're slightly tapered or "nesting" pans which stack inside each other. I just fill the bottom pan with BB's and the top pan rotates easily with the wheels sitting on it.

Very interesting idea, thanks.

[tooldude]

Exactly- I do as WmWatt wrote above, except that I use BB's. I first had thought of small ball bearings but they would not be cheap as BB's are. I covered the entire bottom of the pans with them. Though they are small, I believe there is much more surface area contacting the top pan than larger balls would have. A full pan may not actually be needed for support but it forces them to be spread all around and leave no large open area where the top pan can tilt. Obviously, the idea is to have some form of two steel plates with BB's contained between them. If you try this with a lighter pan, you may need to put wood or something in the pan to support the tire so it won't bend the pan out and contact the lower pan - or the top pan might be replaced with a round steel plate.

[Advancedynamix]

I always just roll the car back and forth a few times and give the bumpers a good squish down. It's always worked for me. For final check, I always take the car for a drive with bumps and corners, bring it back in the shop and have someone check it with my weight in the car.

[Movin]

I have the whole alignment rack, plates front and back. It uses gauges and projected light. There are no strings, no computers very few things to go wrong. The last several years I just did alignment work from body shops that failed the fast computer stuff for no apparent reason.

One of the things I would do is coast to a stop outside the shop on the street. I would use a tape measure just to check toe. I would tape string to the rear tire and up to the front. Why? Cross checking from a completely different approach. With 2 results for the same measurement algebraic reasoning can be used to find what is really wrong.The plates. They are necessary for some measurements but if the right things are wrong the results can be misleading. If all you are doing is just setting toe then it is hard to beat what is really happening on the street with you in the car. You will need a street that you can get away with this stunt safely!

[TominMO]

Another thing worth trying is to set toe with someone in the driver seat and get that measurement. Then get another measurement with no one in the car. Seems to me that you could then use the second measurement to set toe, and it would get you to the first one, with a driver in the seat.

[blake4591]

I've always used the string box around the vehicle for setting toe. For bearing plates I use the cheap 1/8" laminate floor tiles you can buy for 75 cents at homedepot or lowes. Just take two of them and put a couple of globs of bearing grease between them and put a set under each front tire. When I put them under the festiva you can turn lock to lock with no resistance. It almost feels like the front wheels aren't even touching the ground. I would also recommend picking up a few extra tiles to use as spacers under other wheels to help level the vehicle as much as possible. Once everything is set always take the car for a drive on smooth and rough roads and pay very close attention to exactly how the car behaves under all conditions

I've used this method for a while and only had one car that would pull slightly to the right no matter what I did. I ended up taking it to the alignment shop that I trust (there's only one and it's 40 miles away) and after they worked on it for an hour and tried about 5 or 6 different adjustments they gave it back to me. It still pulled exactly the same and the tech said he tried everything that he knows from 20 plus years of doing alignments and none of it made it any better than what I had brought it in with.

[ricko1966]

I prefer not to raise the car set it on tables lower the car bounce it check toe, I just don't feel the car settles as much as in actual use.I use a length of angle iron one on each wheel about 4 inches from the ground and level use a bungee from one angle to the other one in front of the tire one behind the tire center your angle , level your angle measure across the front of the angle measure across the rear of the angle.there you go real world toe as the car goes down the road, deflection and play accounted for you can stack plastic tiles and roll 14th car onto them for level but I don't usually drive on level roads so I am happy with my real world results. A faster method if you have a friend with you is coast to a stop pus a push pin into the center of the tread at the rear of the tire measure the distance between the pins roll the car forward measure between the pins 1 minute toe check.

[Movin]

I prefer not to raise the car set it on tables lower the car bounce it check toe, I just don't feel the car settles as much as in actual use.I use a length of angle iron one on each wheel about 4 inches from the ground and level use a bungee from one angle to the other one in front of the tire one behind the tire center your angle , level your angle measure across the front of the angle measure across the rear of the angle.there you go real world toe as the car goes down the road, deflection and play accounted for you can stack plastic tiles and roll 14th car onto them for level but I don't usually drive on level roads so I am happy with my real world results. A faster method if you have a friend with you is coast to a stop pus a push pin into the center of the tread at the rear of the tire measure the distance between the pins roll the car forward measure between the pins 1 minute toe check.

Must be a customers car mechanics are too broke to run anything but bald tires..lol another great idea with the peg or pin in the tire!! For bald 12's we could use a short thumbtack!

Some of mine I would have to use racing tape..

[WmWatt]

Blake: When my car starts pulling to one side I rotate the front tires side to side and that takes care of it.