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In Total, and 2mm is fine.

Front wheel alignment on a rear wheel drive car is set at toe in as the drive up through the centre

line of the car splays the wheels outwards, hence the pointing inwards setting.

 

John.

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Not just that, John.  If the front wheels are set to toe out, the car will not follow a straight line - it will tend to veer to left or to right because although one wheel can be pointing straight ahead, the other will be pointing outwards (away from centre line) and will pull the car in that direction.  It's likely that the driver corrects this and then the car heads in the other direction, proceeding in a zig-zag along the road.

With the wheels set to the correct toe-in, the effects cancel one another and the car travels in a straight line.

Ian Cornish

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I think track width front/rear is different, so if a rope is used from front to rear you need to bear that in mind. Also, because toe-in is only 1.5 mm per side, and your wheels (front and rear) may be out of round (especially if you have steel ones), you cannot achieve a precise result. 

The rear wheel may have toe-in or our as well which further reduces accuracy.

But it will be ok to get it near where it should be.

I did mine after a body-off resto using a laser and measuring several times, and it was surprisingly close to factory settings on all angles when it was checked again with professional alignment equipment in the garage that did my MoT. But toe-in required correction....

Waldi

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1 hour ago, stuart said:

Get yourself one of these then you can do fronts and rears. Trakrite

Stuart.

I was sceptical of those due to the flimsy plastic construction but then I borrowed one. It is actually very robust and very sensitive/accurate around the straight ahead position. 
They are an excellent piece of kit and well worth putting together with a few other locals if you don’t want to spend out yourself for something which spends most of its time packed away in a cupboard. 

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I've got one of those as well. It seems to work well but there's a garage local to me that does the job for a tenner, so I use him rather than getting down and dirty!

I also have a Gunson's Laser Trakrite, but I've never used it as I don't have enough flat level space to set it up. 

 

Pete

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+1 for the Trackrite. Quick and simple to use and gives good repeatability. I cut a piece of 12mm ply to the same overall size as the Trackrite and bevelled the leading edge, I use this under the wheel not being checked so the car stays level side to side when I push it over the Trackrite

Tim 

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Hi guys. Thanks for the input. I have used the strung line before. It doesn't mater if the front or back is wider. The one thing that has to be determined is the rear wheel is running straight with no toe. As you all know, there are shims for correcting this. I can use basic geometry to check this prior to aligning the front. I will go for 3mm toe in. 1.5 on each wheel. Just have to get the front wheels on a very slippery surface. I have the car on ceramic tiles and engine oil. That lets the tire move nice and freely while adjusting. Thanks for giving me the toe in measurement. Appreciated. 

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25 minutes ago, murrayarnold said:

Hi guys. Thanks for the input. I have used the strung line before. It doesn't mater if the front or back is wider. The one thing that has to be determined is the rear wheel is running straight with no toe. As you all know, there are shims for correcting this. I can use basic geometry to check this prior to aligning the front. I will go for 3mm toe in. 1.5 on each wheel. Just have to get the front wheels on a very slippery surface. I have the car on ceramic tiles and engine oil. That lets the tire move nice and freely while adjusting. Thanks for giving me the toe in measurement. Appreciated. 

No reason you can't get it perfect with string.

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Worth noting that if you normally run with just one person in the car you can set it up empty but can find the drivers side rear wheel will show signs of being out of alignment if you do a lot of miles without rotating the tyres.

This happened when I first set up my TR6 about 30 years ago so I tried it again with bags of sand in the drivers seat and found I needed to add or remove one shim (can't remember which)

When I got my TR250 back in 1992 I set it up the same way, haven't needed to touch it since.

Neil

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