Setting Toe-in/out at home

[Ta22boy]

Hey johnny, did you know on some cars, you can change camber on some FWD cars, by dropping out the strut and turning it around one bolt? only on some but thats how you change commodores without camber adjustments...also if your really keen take a dremel to the strut tube mounting bolts, and take them out a lil bit, then put the bolts back in and push it back in it will also change it about half a degree, I have only done this on mates cars that have really bad camber from hitting a gutter or something, cause im not sure its legal....also i wasnt sure if this car runs a K-frame or similar, never done one, thats another way to change caster on a vehicle....

[Ben Wilson]

Oh and one big question, can I do this wih the car on jack stands? I've been doing it with it on the ground as the manual said...

You need to have the car on the ground to allow for bump steer.

I park the car on 4 old magazines, they act as cheap slip plates and let the wheels turn more easily.

[Talasas]

Okay that's good help thanks guys. And no the caster/camber aren't directly adjustable. The front caster is also an issue I'm having currently as again the car was bought as an auction wreck and the front left caster is further back than it should be. At least I've been told it's the caster, if one wheel was hit and it moved back then that would be called set-back wouldn't it, thus the caster angle wouldn't change as much?

Now, the reason I measure from the bolts on the rear control arms is that they are a pivot point, which are supposed to be the best place to take referenece points (as opposed to the car body somewhere). If I only measure the difference between the front and rear of the wheel then I can still have a problem arise:
I'm trying to set toe to zero, so the wheels are parallel. It is possible for the wheels to be parallel (thus zero toe) without them facing the front of the car (like the front wheels when they steer, disregarding Ackerman).

What can I do to overcome this?

[Ben Wilson]

Strings and axle stands.

• Set up two axle stands next to the front and back of the car
• Stretch a string between them
• Allign the string to the side of the car so it's almost touching the tyres
• Carefully measure the distance from a datum on the car (chassis rail?) to the string and make sure it's the same front and rear
• Measure the distance from the string to the tires (front and back)

[Ta22boy]

[QUOTE=Talasas] The front caster is also an issue I'm having currently as again the car was bought as an auction wreck and the front left caster is further back than it should be. At least I've been told it's the caster, if one wheel was hit and it moved back then that would be called set-back wouldn't it, thus the caster angle wouldn't change as much?

Hey man,
Well that is called caster because its on the front, any forwards or backwards movement from the hub on the front will affect caster, and seeing that it is the front left that was pushed back, then it turn it should pull to the left in theory. Set back is the same measurement but only on the rear. you should try replacing the bent parts and then see what happens from there, also as i said earlier if the strut top (bearing plate) if slightly offset one way, try turning it around one bolt and see if that changes anything, but this is prolly should be done on an alignment machine because slight changes will make a difference. Let me know how you go mate

[Talasas]

Not quite sure what you mean by adjusting the strut top. I know of which part you mean but turning it around one bolt, you mean the mounting bolts? i.e the three (?) bolts holding the top to the chassis?

Also as an update, the rear toe has now been set to zero. It's fantastic! Makes the car very neutral indeed, if I throttle off mid corner, the rear will oversteer very gradually and simple small poke of the throttle settles it. Very happy with that. Now I want to do something about the fornt because the car pulls to the right now quite a bit more.

I went to adjust the tie rod bolts but they wont budge, do I remove the tie rod from the steering knuckle? I just couldn't make it budge...

[RobertoX]

You shouldn't have to remove the tie rod from the steering knuckle... often they are very stiff just from all the dust and crap that gets into the thread. Spray the thread with a penetrant oil like rp7 or wd40 and leave overnight that worked for me, the tie rod might have a hex section on it to get a spanner on it.

Does the tie rod have each end threaded or only 1 end? you may need to turn the steering rack end (if so it should rotate freely) rather than the tie rod itself.

[Talasas]

I'm pretty sure both ends are threaded. The tie rod end that joins to the stering knuckle has a small flat section for a wrench. A mate and I tried and couldn't make the nut on that end move. I'll try again tomorrow after work. Cheers fellas.