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Front end Alignment - Total Toe vs. Individual Toe

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gonzo

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Purchased 2 x 40in. angle iron (aluminum) and set about measuring total toe on my BJ 7. The 90 degree angle and some weights (two lead hammers) allow for a fairly solid mount flush to tire and floor. From the # of threads exposed on the center rod, the left and right tie rod ends appear to be turned in equally. Measurements taken from the front and back of the front tires showed a repeatable 1/8 in. total toe-in. This was encouraging. With the "string method" results were different: 3/16 in. toe-out on right and 0 toe on left. I wasn't confident determining toe in by string method, but wanted to measure individual toe.

Some Tenhulzen toe plates were ordered from Summit Racing (pic below) and are likely to reproduce the total toe-in determined with the inexpensive aluminum angle iron...we'll see. But the question still remains...how to measure individual toe? Any thoughts? GONZO


tnh-2200_mh_s.jpg
 
Toe-in is the relationship of the right wheel to the left wheel - not sure what you would be relating a wheel to if not the other wheel?
Maybe in modern cars where they do 4 wheel alignment you could have a theoretical one-wheel toe as it relates to the vehicle centerline?
As far as the center rod, if you screwed one side in and the other side out, all you would do is change the steering wheel orientation, but when driving it would automatically split the difference from side to side and be equal - ie if you have an individual of 1/16", then you would have a total of 1/8".
I could be all wet on this though....
Dave
 
This has always been my understanding of car alignment. A true or comprehensive front end alignment is aligning the wheels in relation to the center line of the car. If your frame or suspension has never been wrecked then adjusting the toe in or out of the front wheels relative to each other is an acceptable method to get toe adjustment. But it will be noted that at some point in different series of racing the cars have been aligned with a different toe-in relative to the center line to achieve different toe of each wheel to achieve different handling characteristic. Such things as a quicker entry into a turn as example. If you want to check comprehensive wheel tracking and alignment without a machine, then it is possible yet laborious, to do it with a set of strings. You want parallel strings down each side of the car. The car must be on a level surface and the strings are gauged off of the center point of the rear axles and the front spindles. With these parallel strings established then, for toe adjustment, measure the back rim bead of the front wheel to the string and the front rim bead of the front wheel to the string and you have your toe setting. At least this is the way I have understood it for many years. I have only had a need to check total alignment and tracking once in my life and that was on an MGA that was wrecked.
 
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