Hey guys,

I had a thread a couple weeks ago about learning to do a track alignment in the garage. After a few hours of experimenting and thinking, I found a way to check the toe of any of my cars reliably in less than a minute. The tool is very repeatable, to about 1/32".

Here are a couple pics. Made from 1" galvanized conduit, elbows, wooden dowell and drywayy screws. I cut the conduit about 78-80" so it has the ability to measure toe on my Vette, Land Rover and Jeep.

Let me know what you think, but I'm happy with it since I will be swapping from a track alignment to street several times a year (at least I think I will).











Everything was epoxied together to limit movement of joints, thus making for good repeatability. Also, I ground a flat in the screw set in the vertical dowell to make for easy measuring. Just set the horizontal screw on one rim, JUST barely touching it, then measure the opposite tire from rim to flat in the vertical screw. This is a bit easier than the David Farmer method and is a quick and dirty method to check where the toe actually is.

Sean

 

Pretty Clever!

 

wish I knew more about the alignment stuff so I'd have an idea what you are talking about

 

Gotta admit I am a bit lost too. But then I have little mechanical comprehension.

I suspect you are just checking to see if Toe has changed from a previous setting?

 

Sorry, I am adding some pics of the tool in use. I learned how to do alignments a couple weeks ago and didn't want to spend several hundred dollars on a toe measuring device. Took a look around home depot and came up with this.

I won't get too deep in alignment theory, but everytime you adjust camber, it affects toe. In addition, track toe and street toe are different. Track is slight toe out to allow for better cornering and street is slightly toe in for steering wheel stability and minimizing tire wear.

Since I will be swapping back and forth between street settings and track settings, I didn't want to pay $100+ everytime I changes something so I read up and learned it myself. Best way to save money for brakes and tires...


The horizontal screw side just barely touching the lip of the rim...



The other side...



On this side you may have to swing the tool slightly to find the true perpendicular distance. While doing this, watch for the screw and tape measurement to "maximize" - that's the number to record.

Then swap to the front of the wheel and do it again. The difference in measurements is total toe. The stock 18" rim has an outer diameter of about 19". To find toe angle take the difference in measured distance, X, divided by rim diameter, 19", then take inverse tangent of this number to get toe angle. For example, say you measured 1'16" toe IN.

Toe Angle = Tan-1 (0.0625/19)

Toe angle = 0.188 degrees

Does that help?

 

The flaw in your math is that you aren't measuring at the center of the rim. The distance between points of measurement is less than 19".

 

Actually we are both wrong. The diameter of a stock 18" front C6 rim is about 19.5" as I just confirmed the measurement. This tool was built to measure exactly at the center height of the rim, so it will be a bit biased on any other car.

To recap, 1/16" toe in on the front rim would be 0.184 degrees toe in.

Sean

 

Ah, from the photos it looked like it was measuring above center.

 

I like to measure toe in on the face of the tread of the tire, where the rubber actually meets the road. .


It does take more time because you either have to trust that the tread is close to true, or scribe a line around the circumference of the tread by spinning the wheel and tire.

 

pretty cool

 

That is very similar to a tool that LG uses at the track. Lou and one of his crew members used it to set the rear toe on my Z a couple of years ago. LG's was made from a rectangular tube with vertical pieces welded to it and a couple of tabs to make the measurements just like you have the screws.

Bill

 

Your tool will work just fine on trued wheels. Later! Frank

 

Yes, my wife reminds me frequently that I'm a crappy photographer - especially with an iPhone...

 

That's pretty awesome Sean. Thanks for taking the time to share the pics and the description

 

No prob. I have learned so
Much from other members I figured I could share something that I learned. A tool like this could helP people determine when it's time to pay for an alignment, not just every few months...

 

After checking out your alignment tool I decided to build one of my own. I added a second caliper so both the front and back could be checked at the same time. Pics attached.

Ron R.
Fombell, PA

 

How do you know if the front and rears are pointing in the same direction when the steering wheel is straight?
Anyone ever used string...........?

 

Wouldn't a centered reference point aid in your adjustment consistency?

Like a plumb bob pointing to the center mark of your your alignment jig.

DJ