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anyone use moss wheel alignment tool p/n 387-085?

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jlaird said:
Also keep in mind that the rear wheel car width is greater than the front.
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Maybe I'm not reading you right, but just in case, on Spridgets the front track is wider than the rear, so that difference has to ba taken into consideration when stringing a car.

Most racer string align their cars, I even inherited a Dunlop site aligner, and sold it, because I have string alignment set up down to a science. What stringing a car does that simple toe setting devices don't is make sure the car car tracks straight.

You also need some turn table for the fornt wheels, so they move freely as you make adjustment, now when you check the price of turntables you be in for a shock, they are not cheap, but not to worry, you can make yourself some tuntables on the cheap that will do the job just fine, I have four square of .125" aluminum palte, I use a mixture of wheel bearing grease and WD40, then sandwixh two of the plate together, repeat for the other side, then roll the front tire on them before you set up your string rig, you can do this even simplier, go get 4 commercial vinyl tiles, they will owrk as well as the aluminum plate.

This is a simple basic deal, but it works excatly like the expensive computer aliginment machine, same exact principal.

As for the floor needing to be exactly flat, not really, yeah you don't need any drain dip in the floor, r one tire sitting in a pot hole, but its not like scaling a car, reasonably flat will work fine. I align my race cars at the track before sitting in the grass.
 
Hap can you do it with the tires off the ground?
 
Hap is saying leave the tires on the ground. When you take weight off of the front end you can't get accurate measurements. The turntable plate, i.e. two pieces ot tile / aluminum plate suitably greased allow you to adjust toe wit hweight on the front end.
 
good to know - thanks
 
Regarding the question of having a shop do the alignment: I took my bugeye to the local place, which has done good work on my other cars. I had to bring them the specs, and they were a little surprised to learn that only the toe-in is adjustable. Anyway, the bugeye was just barely wide enough to fit on their equipment, but in the end, it was so close to the minimum that they were afraid they might put a wheel off the rack. So, they did a "tape measure" alignment--pretty much what we've been talking about--and didn't charge me anything. (Probably helps that I've bought several sets of tires there.) They got it absolutely right on, though--so this can be done, if you're careful.
 
Hap as always is correct, I misspoke, however even with the front track wider you can use the string methoid, It just takes a bit more messing about.
 
JP and anyone wanting to use yardsticks. I seem to remember Moss showed how to do this in their Midget/Sprite catalog but I can't find it now?
Anyway this is almost like Bill's gizmo he cobbled up. Clamp a small carpenters square or a piece of scrap lumber cut square and about 10-12 inches long to the ends of two wooden yardsticks. These need to stick out like the arms on Bill's gauge-perpendicular to the yardsticks.
Put the edges of the squares or wood blocks against the rear outside wall of the front tires and clamp the yardsticks with the third clamp where they overlap underneath the car.
Take the whole assembly out from beneath the car and check the measurement on either side where the yardsticks end ie, at the overlap point. All you want is a starting point as you will want the tires to measure 1/16 to 1/8 less distance across the front of the tires when you adjust the tie rods in to give toe in as needed.
Proceed with the whole assembly to the front of the car but adjust your setup 1/16-1/8 less as measured from the starting point you found above. Try to slip the inside of the blocks over the outer walls at the front of the front tires.
If the "gauge" will slip loosely over the outside tire walls at the front of the tires or there is a gap you have too much toe in. If the "gauge" won't go across the tire walls you need to add toe in. Adjust the tie rod ends as needed to get a firm but not too tight fit across the outside tire walls. This should give you the reqiured toe in. Be sure to recheck after tightening up the locknuts on the tie rods.
 
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