Alignment question

Shocks, Springs, Brakes, Frame, Body Work, etc

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ZIGGY
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Re: Alignment question

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I'll try to answer indirectly. Talking shade tree race car alignment with a steering box, you first need to "square
the box", meaning making sure that the pitman and idler arms are parallel to each other. Move them until they appear
straight ahead, then confirm by measuring. With a tape, measure diagonally from point where idler connects to center link,
to center point of steering box output shaft, then diagonally from point where pitman arm connects to center link,
to base of idler arm shaft on frame. If all is good, the measurements should be equal. Then set your toe using the tie-rods.
Typical dirt circle track method: toe is set by positioning lf tire straight ahead(adjusting tie-rod as necessary), then adjusting rf
tie-rod to desired spec. If your steering wheel is off-center, something is bent or loose. (This is one of the reasons you see circle track cars
with a tape ring on the top of the steering wheel.)
ZIGGY
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Re: Alignment question

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P.S. to my previous post. The short answer to your question without the racing & steering context assumptions I made is yes.
Olefud
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Re: Alignment question

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exhaustgases wrote:The reason for the question is both tires show outside feathering wear and mostly the right one, camber is good and a bit negative and toe on the right side front was about 5 mm measuring front of rim to back of rim from string line, track or tread width is suppose to be same per specs, rear alignment is spot on per strings so !!!
The car is full independent front and rear suspension. Yeah it would me nice to have a fancy hunter system.
Talking street? If the right wheel is excessively toe in with the steering wheel straight the car will want to turn left. The drive will correct to equalize the toe. However, the driver’s weight will make the left tire the controlling one such that the car tends to travel where it’s pointed. Thus the right tire will tend “slip”, i.e. walk, rather than drag. But will show a bit more wear and a bit of edge fray.
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MadBill
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Re: Alignment question

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exhaustgases wrote:The reason for the question is both tires show outside feathering wear and mostly the right one, camber is good and a bit negative and toe on the right side front was about 5 mm measuring front of rim to back of rim from string line, track or tread width is suppose to be same per specs, rear alignment is spot on per strings so !!!
The car is full independent front and rear suspension. Yeah it would me nice to have a fancy hunter system.
5 mm at rim diameter would be about double at tire diameter, which is likely ~ 10X the factory setting spec.
And just to be clear, driving straight down the road the toe will always be split equally, thus causing similar wear pattern even if just one tie rod is misadjusted..
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Geoff2
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Re: Alignment question

Post by Geoff2 »

Agree with Bill. If toe in [ or toe out ] the car is excessive, it will split the difference & you will notice it as the steering wheel being off centre when travelling on a straight road.
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Re: Alignment question

Post by Olefud »

Geoff2 wrote:Agree with Bill. If toe in [ or toe out ] the car is excessive, it will split the difference & you will notice it as the steering wheel being off centre when travelling on a straight road.
Toe out is unstable. When weight causes one tire to dominate the car turns towards that tire thereby shifting the weight to the other tire -etc. This is most obvious under hard braking where the car "hunts" from side to side. Also fairly common in competition when toe out is used to aid turn-in.
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