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Wheel alignment who to use?


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Hi

I have just renewed my rear swinging arm bushes and would like the tracking/camber sorted. Last time I did this myself and had it checked by a garage until they got fed up with me! I live in Aylesbury Bucks. Can any one recommend some one who can sort this at the right price?

Many thanx

Smeggie

1970 TR6 every day car

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Hi

I have just renewed my rear swinging arm bushes and would like the tracking/camber sorted. Last time I did this myself and had it checked by a garage until they got fed up with me! I live in Aylesbury Bucks. Can any one recommend some one who can sort this at the right price?

Many thanx

Smeggie

1970 TR6 every day car

 

Just rebuilt all my suspension so now have the camber/tracking issue. When you did yourself what did you have to do, and yes be interested in alternatives, ie a garage. Spoke to TRGB an they wanted £200 for the rear camber which strikes me as somewhat expensive.

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Good Q not easily answered.

Using a plumb line measuring tape and lengths of wood you can check the camber fairly easily, sorry havnt got the figs. The rear toe needs a rectangle drawing on the floor and can be worked from there. The drama comes with the work involved in changing shims taking car on the road to get the suspension to settle and then rechecking.

Im sure other forum members have better work rounds than this but it worked for me

Most tyre depots can check 4 wheel alignment, some for free. And as there are only a few combinations of shims especially for the front you can get close quickly.

Sorry not to be more enlightening, at £200 I will take my TR to National tyres and get the wheel alignment checked

cheers

Smeggie

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Guest harry dent

I use Discount Tyres and Exhaust in Hemel Hempstead, Herts.They now have data based on my Leyland workshop manual on their computer for setting up TR5/6 four wheel tracking.Make sure that Daniel is working that day as he has now got very good at tracking our cars and just loves working on them.He has a real feel for our cars which is unusual being a lot younger than us.I recommend them highly and I will not let just anyone near my TR5.I have no connection with this company but give due when it is earnt.

Address

Discount Tyres and Exhaust

329 London Road

Hemel Hempstead

Herts

HP3 9AL

01442 240838

Nice people.

Regards Harry.

P.S. Cost's around £80

Edited by harry dent
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You can easily make up a camber gauge using a bit of mdf, a plumb bob and a protractor. The static camber doesn't need to be that accurate as the camber change between full bounce and rebound is a couple of degrees anyway. For the toe, stretch a piece of string down each side of the car and get them parallel and use as your datum. These methods will get you pretty close.

Jerry

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I use Discount Tyres and Exhaust in Hemel Hempstead, Herts.They now have data based on my Leyland workshop manual on their computer for setting up TR5/6 four wheel tracking.Make sure that Daniel is working that day as he has now got very good at tracking our cars and just loves working on them.He has a real feel for our cars which is unusual being a lot younger than us.I recommend them highly and I will not let just anyone near my TR5.I have no connection with this company but give due when it is earnt.

Address

Discount Tyres and Exhaust

329 London Road

Hemel Hempstead

Herts

HP3 9AL

01442 240838

Nice people.

Regards Harry.

P.S. Cost's around £80

 

Hello all, i just joined, im Daniel from above, thanks for the kind words Harry! i found the web site straight away so its nice and easy to find. can i just add a bit of infomation to the above? the machine i use is a 'Hunter dsp400' its a full geometry machine, basicly this means it checks a lot of angles including.

 

rear toe

rear camber

thrust line

front camber

front castor

front toe

king pin inclination (sai)

steer ahead.

 

a checkand printout of the results is £29.32 including vat and takes about 20 mins then depending on what needs adjusting the price and time will go up, typicaly the tr-5/tr-6 costs around £80 as harry says and can take between 1-2 hours, i loose track of time while im doing a geometry so im not too sure how long they take.

 

Thanks again Harry for the nice words. :)

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Hi

Had the day off to empty the attic, but took Harrys advice and visited Daniel at Hemel instead (much more important). He is a nice chap and certainly knows what hes talking about. One hour later my car is about as close as its ever going to be. With the all important thrust angle at -0.02 degrees ie almost perfectly straight. Including the check which cost £30 it came to a total of £82. I have a nice colour print out of the before and after and Daniel gave me good description of what it all meant. I havnt driven far but it all feels much better. So thanx Harry for the tip

Regards

Smeggie

Is this the last time I have the roof down this year?

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glad to hear it feels ok :) and don't forget about the free 'fine tune' after it has been driven a few miles just to ensure the steering wheel is straight and the front toe is still spot on, this was a nice example of a Tr-6, a pleasure to work on. needed to remove 1 shim from the rear toe and reset the front toe, all in all the job took just over an hour. if you have any queeries with the readings just drop me an email or give me a ring at work and i'll see if i can explain them a bit better.

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glad to hear it feels ok :) and don't forget about the free 'fine tune' after it has been driven a few miles just to ensure the steering wheel is straight and the front toe is still spot on, this was a nice example of a Tr-6, a pleasure to work on. needed to remove 1 shim from the rear toe and reset the front toe, all in all the job took just over an hour. if you have any queeries with the readings just drop me an email or give me a ring at work and i'll see if i can explain them a bit better.

 

 

well well, thank you all and guess what .I'm not far from hemel so a visit sound like a goer. I will have a go this weekend to get the basics in place then visit the experts for final adjiustments

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well well, thank you all and guess what .I'm not far from hemel so a visit sound like a goer. I will have a go this weekend to get the basics in place then visit the experts for final adjiustments

 

 

any time you're ready, just make sure you have a few smims (front and rear) because we dont keep them,

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I've just done the suspension as well, and one thing struck me as odd - one trailing arm has equal numbers of identical (same no. of notches) shims behind both brackets. Is there any point in this, i.e., is it any different from no shims at all?

 

I still have to get the alignment checked and adjusted, but sadly it won't be Daniel who does it. A £5k+, six month round trip is just a tad on the pricey side :)

 

Cheers

John

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hmm

 

seems a bit over kill, most of the tr-5/6 i have done have usualy none or 1 in the inner sections and between none and four in the outer, adding one in each adds a very small amount of possitive toe, but if there are few in each side then maybe removing 3 from the outer and one from the inner would give the same result, but it is pretty much trial and error until you like the readings, its not always possible to get perfect readings as you are using shims rather than off-set washers.

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  • 4 weeks later...

just wanted to add that we are now going to be keeping shims for the front camber and rear toe, i made a template using the last tr-6 that i aligned and im getting some made by a local engineering firm so theres no need to worry if you dont have the shims.

 

i have done 4 or 5 now, any feedback would be great.

 

i love working on these cars, i get a buzz from seeing the end result of the geomety and look forward to the next one!

 

cheers to all those that i have seen so far and hello to those that ar thinking of a wheel alignment check

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aww if i could i would! but the equipment is set in concrete to prevent it from moving as the gauges are wireless, and cosists of a four poster ramp, a pc, and a huge tower with four cameras to measure where each wheel is sitting. looks impresive when it's set up!

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I’ve been watching this thread with interest for a while & would like to add my bit. By an extreme stroke of luck I managed to find someone locally with the right kit, knew the geometry, understood what was involved & had the patience to do it right (he ran a 2.5PI!); sadly this was 3 years ago & is no more!

 

To find someone like this who understands & is prepared to pamper to an old crate of a TR6 is nearly akin to the fable of hen’s teeth! My advice to anyone who needs suspension geometry is to take advantage while you can! Daniel, I just hope your still at it next year when the suspension bushes are due to be upgraded & I’m looking to have it all done again.

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