alexandervdr

If I understand it correctly toe in should be 1/16" total for radials at the rear. Correct?

Protour63

I usually set to 1/16" toe in. Just remember to set your camber first. Zero degrees is optimal for a street car as it will not wear tires.
Hope this helps.

Powershift

For the REAR, you should NOT use TOTAL toe-in, since that could lead to issues. You want absolute toe-in on EACH SIDE (based on car centerline) of 1/32 inch (or less).

Total toe-in is okay to use for the front, where the wheels are free to move and center themselves (although this will affect the steering wheel centering inside the car).

Larry

63Corvette

Good info........follow it, cause you don't want your rear toe pointing either to the right nor to the left, thus each side = 1/32".

alexandervdr

Hi Larry, I did as you describe. I used 1/16 'total' meaning 1/32 each side.
I did use a laser on my toe plate to set tracking equal left and right against the front spindles. Cause this is a full new suspension I am sure I will need to fine-tune after some driving once the rubbers and springs have set. It's a 100% street car, just cruising so I bet it's all a bit less critical

alexandervdr

One thing I experienced was that it's a good idea to do camber first (some documents I read state the reverse). I noticed that changing the camber setting has more influence on the toe setting than the other way around. Because I didn't , it means my toe is off again, so I need to go back to that one

pop23235

Just for conversation, how does one establish the frame centerline within 1/32"?

Powershift

Very carefully and with a lot of luck.

PS: Very difficult without the commercial alignment equipment......and sometime I wonder even about that..........or my techs ability to interpret it correctly.

Larry

pop23235

Thanks! Never really bought into that "thrust angle" deal unless it was big enough to see it dog trot down the road. Frames aren't always built within that close tolerance, and the center line isn't marked for us! Measuring off the spindles isn't always exact with the frame.

alexandervdr

Some remarks about DIY alignement. This has been my first experience (excluding the front toe-only setting on my Cobra). I used this not too expensive set of tools http://www.tenhulzenautomotive.com/s...age%C2%A0.html. It does a 2 wheel alignement, so excluding tracking. I did the front wheels first (toe/camber/caster). Works very well. I just used an additional spirit level to guarantee the plates are perfectly vertical when measuring toe (for the rear wheels I used my Iphone with an inclination app, more precise than a bubble). For the rear wheels, as I experienced it's better to first do the camber. Lots of tweaking and lifting the car up and down from it's wheels. Then comes toe. I removed all the shims and 'eyeballed' the wheels in line with the chassis axis. Then I tweak using above mentioned tool to have the toe about as specced (still without the shims). Then I added a laser (as sold in a DIY store for home restoration work) to the vertical plate (along the rear wheel) so I could measure the distance from that laser beam to the tip of the front spindle.
Chances are nihil that left and right will show the same distance. Now adjust the wheels in equal steps till that distance is the same. Finally set both sides to the correct toe AND the correct distance. I was luck I guess, I came out at exactly 51mm each side (about 2").Now comes the hardest part: putting the shims in without altering the set-up. I filled up the gap on the outboard side only (away from the center line) with the wheels on the floor. A challenge in itself cause it's not very accessible. When that is done, I take off the wheels so it's easier to put shims in the inboard side (towards centreline, even less accessible ) of the gap. I did raise the wheel hub at normal height with a wheel stand cause in full free droop the rear arm takes an angle and would accept less shims than in ride position where there would then be clearance. The last shim was a thin one (1/32 or so) that I filed sharp at the ends to I could softly tap it in place with a small hammer. Finally locking everything with a long split pin.

Some observations ..It took me a big 2 days from start to finish. And on some moments it felt as if I was running around in circles. Then, this centreline thing is a difficult one, cause how to measure that up? At the end it's not the chassis that needs to be centred, its the wheels. I believe my laser set-up is not perfect but close (enough) to. Finally a word about precision: 1/32" is not a lot, and I don't claim I got it exactly at that. However, I got this 1/32" read-out constantly after jacking up the car up and down multiple times. I wonder if that level of accuracy is even possible given the quite basic mechanical tuning set-up of the wheels (rubbers, shims, far from perfect part fit etc). Note that I had put all wheels on thin plastified board and after having sprayed it and the floor with silicon (mould release). Wheels then settle fine with some pushes on the suspension. I don't doubt the capabilities of a professional alignement shop with all the right equipment. I just wonder how long it would take them to go through the whole '60ies style suspension mechanics' fiddling which is no different for them than for us. And how much that would cost. Unless they are an experience vintage corvette shop, none of that I have over here in Belgium. But I may go to such a shop just for measuring up my DIY settings. And see how much that confirms my DIY readings
So all in all it feels great to have done it myself, although I bet that some hundred miles of driving to settle all (new) parts wil need a retune. I don't look forward to it, but will be happy when I will have done it again...