|
Hi Phil,
The impetus to do my own alignment has come from replacing worn tie rods. The tie rods can be had for a third of the price of a professional alignment, and like many of our bricking friends have related, the experience at the shop doesn't always live up to the price in convenience and value. So, toe is the "driving force" and no, I don't know any way to set that with the car unloaded or "off the ground." I have to turn the wrench while the tires are resting on a combination of leveling wooden planks and asphalt floor tiles.
At first, 20 years ago, I discovered my cheap trammel gauge was useless on a 240, so I'd sight along the tire bulges toward the rear tires. I'd get lucky. Then when that method had caused wear I could see in 5 or 10K miles, I figured my vision was the culprit. So, I picked up a piece of EMT to lay across the tire bulges and a few calculations had me setting toe for a 1/2" deviation from parallel to the rocker trim. I know I posted that trick.
As someone familiar with machine tool measurements, you know just how unsatisfactory using the rubber tire as a reference for adjustments where the entire tolerance for the specified amount of toe is traversed in less than one third of a turn of the wrench.
So six years ago I cobbled up a way to measure from the hub instead of the tire, and since then uneven tire wear is not an issue. The laser just translates the toe angle to the arctangent of the difference in inches on the garage wall and door. The method is passing my test of time.
"A make-shift gadget it might be, but I use to work shifts, to make engineered things before!"
Funny! I wonder where the phrase make-shift originates... (no I'll let someone else google it)
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore
Girls always liked microwaves better than Barbecues.
|
