Easy alignment jig

[roadmonster]

Here's a very simple toe-in jig that really works. Just frame up a long U from center to center of your tires with short legs the height of your spindles. One side has a thin blade which rests against the tread block and the other has an adjustable steel ruler. That's it. Start at the rear and adjust the ruler to an even number. Now move to the front and tweak the tie rod for the desired toe-in. The rear will move a little as well, so re-center the ruler after adjusting. Now go back to the front for the true toe-in. This thing is very accurate!

 

[roadmonster]

I'm sure someone has thought of this before, but it really works. Last time, I used a carpenter's square with tape and pen marks on the floor. Lots of back-and-forth. This is much easier!

 

[Keeper]

Now that is pretty slick. I was trying to figure out a better way to do this.

 

[2old2fast]

O.K. ,this may work well for you but it is potentially very inaccurate. Taking precise measurements off of rubber tires is the problem , toe-in ,in most every alignment shop I've ever worked in or been in , is taken off the rim [generally' rims don't flex !! ] Still, w/this setup you can get close if you spin the tire & mark a centerline, then take a behind the tire measurement, mark the tire & roll the car until that mark is in front & check again, this way you negate possible tread irregularities. Ain't no substitute for accuracy!!!

dave

 

[roadmonster]

This is much more accurate than you might think. Certainly measures in finer increments than a chalk or pencil center line. And you should not roll the car with the tie rod locknuts loosened for adjustment. Tires are made from very finely machined molds and you are measuring the tread, not the sidewall, so no flex. Steel wheels are pretty low-tech and not necessarily better than tires for reference. Try it. You can easily measure to millimeters and watch the tire move as you do it. You will never get that accurate with roll-then-measure.

BTW, I work in the aerospace industry and work in ten-thousandths to millionths every day, so I know good measurement technique. F-18 and F-22 hydraulic pumps wouldn't work if I couldn't measure and build the clearances correctly.

 

[Francis Blake]

Looks good to me.

 

[Johnny]

Love that grille!!

 

[old round fart]

I have a question. Will different tire diameters make a difference in toe measurements? It seems to me the farther away from the center line you get, the more distance you have with the same setting. Just wondering.

 

[putz]

I have a question. Will different tire diameters make a difference in toe measurements? It seems to me the farther away from the center line you get, the more distance you have with the same setting. Just wondering.

Yes bigger tires will change toe . Measuring toe is difference in measurement between front and rear of center of tread on tires measuring one side of car to other.This is for newbies that have never done alignments.

 

[roadmonster]

Yes bigger tires will change toe . Measuring toe is difference in measurement between front and rear of center of tread on tires measuring one side of car to other.This is for newbies that have never done alignments.

Tire size does affect toe to some extent, but you just have to find what setup your car likes by trial and error. 1/8" toe-in is a good place to start. I tried running parallel just to get a baseline and the car wants to float and wander and torque steer when you gas it. 1/8" toe-in gives it just enough push to tighten things up and allow it to track true. The main advantage of this method is it lets you see with absolute confidence how much your tires toe in as you adjust them. Going back and forth with tape and hatch marks you never know for sure.

 

[T-Test]

Pro toe sticks have adj. bars that slide in and out and have two up right pointers with an upside down V close to the top. One slide , lt/rt has a ruler that you set the toe by.

First jack up the front end and scribe the tire as close to the center as possible. I made a chicken foot design with an upright peg that had a flat bar attached to the top and a nail driven into a hole on one end. I put a screw in the side of the flat bar and the upright and added a spring so it would flex up and down with the tire as you rotated it.You also have to make an upper stop for the flat bar at the upright post. Then measure in front of tires and then behind the tires by moving the whole adjuster and keeping the side that you read on the same side of the car. With the stationary pointer on the mark on the passenger side tire,.you slide the adj. to the mark on the front of the drivers side mark. Adj. accordingly. You should see the difference between the front measurement and the rear measurement.

Tire size makes no difference except you must have the same size on both front wheels. 195/14--lt and rt---205/15--lt and rt.

 

[roadmonster]

Why all the jacking and marking when your tires already have a molded groove marking the center? Even if the center rib is solid, you just use the next groove for reference. Any 2 grooves will be the same distance apart as your toe-in. The whole point is to keep it simple and accurate.

 

[2old2fast]

Mainly because most ,if not all tires are not that accurate. This is the reason why FE alignment machines measure from either the rims or the spindles ...
dave

 

[roadmonster]

N

Mainly because most ,if not all tires are not that accurate. This is the reason why FE alignment machines measure from either the rims or the spindles ...
dave

Not everyone has an alignment machine. And you can't measure toe-in from the spindles. And what kind of tires are you using that are so poorly molded that the tread doesn't match from one side to the other?

 

[2old2fast]

Sorry , should have said hubs not spindles . FYI ,tire industry standard is .060 runout , that's pretty close to 1/16" , potentially throwing your measurements off by 1/8".

dave

 

[roadmonster]

Posts about alignment shops, jacking, spinning, marking, rolling, re-measuring, etc. seem to completely miss the point of "easy alignment jig". Sure, you can spend $150 getting your wheels argon-laser aligned (it's your car). Just remember to allow for gravity and the curvature of the earth between the front and rear of the tires. This is traditional hot rodding where you solve problems with your own mechanical ingenuity and share it with others. I am NOT putting my car in a shop to do something this simple. When I roll my tie rod and see the tire move precisely 1/8", I KNOW it is right and the proof is in the driving. How do you "mark the center line" for example? Measure from sidewall to sidewall (the only part of the tire that flexes) and divide by 2? Do you have a .005 white pen or is it chalk 1/16" wide? I miked my treads with dial calipers, just for the hell of it, and guess what? Side to side and front to rear, they are all identical, so the tread is a perfectly accurate reference. If the title of this thread was "stick beats alignment machine", I might expect these arguments. "Easy alignment jig" says it all.

 

[meangreen]

Here's another simple way to do it. Take two pieces of cabinet-grade or furniture-grade plywood (because it's very flat, unlike CDX plywood) 12" x 22". Clamp or screw them together so they will be identical. Mark and cut a 8.5" radius out of the center for wheel/hubcap clearance. Next, use a hole saw to cut the two identically located holes near the bottom corners. Take the two pieces apart, prop or tape one firmly against each front wheel, and use two measuring tapes to set the toe by reading the difference in the two measurements. These work on virtually any car or truck. In the picture here I am using them to set the toe on one of my Electrathon race cars, but I have also used them on my coupe, roadster, and several friends cars.

 

[Dirt-T]

Thank you for the information. Great stuff and simple!
Terry

 

[roadmonster]

meangreen has the right idea, but even that is a little more complicated than necessary. No need to cut a radius, just keep the boards low. And saw cuts work even better than holes to locate your tapes. And with 90 degree braces, they will stand true against the tires. The thing I tried to avoid was a moving tool. Solid tool, moving tire. I think you will get pretty good accuracy that way, but it is still one step removed from a direct measurement.

 

[meangreen]

"The thing I tried to avoid was a moving tool. Solid tool, moving tire."

??? I don't understand that statement. I have a "track stick" similar to your toe-in jig left over from my stock car days. It has to be moved from the rear of the wheel to the front of the wheel, sometimes more than once to compare measurements. These plates are put in place and not moved until the job is finished. Yes, saw cuts can be used instead of a holesaw; just a matter of preference. The radius is cut out of the top to clear hubcaps, spokes, wheel weights, etc.and also reduces overall weight. If you put braces or props on these, they need to be adjustable; not all wheels are 90 degrees from the ground. Some street driven cars (especially those with beam or tube axles) have positive camber and many race cars have negative camber.