agent marlon

any pics or diagrams to show me how to adjust my toe settings on my 88 civic? has anyone did their own "wheel alignment"? im getting a camber kit soon and i cant afford to get a wheel alignment..any help would be good..thanks

NikoZai

Mang. Get the freakin alignment its like 60$ for the alignment/camber job.
If anyone has instructions on how to judge the toe in/out degree's i'd love to hear it...
good luck.. but just spend the money on the alignment, its worth it.

TDRacing

Just spend your money on and alignment. I've been told that unless you're doing something crazy, you dont need a camber kit and an alignment will be good enough. There was an issue of Super Sreet that had a guide to setting up an FWD car, maybe you can find that. It had a type R in it. good lick

johnzm

u need special plates to measure toe without a machine, and even then its near impossible. for teh machine (the ones u see big shops use)
to be correct in measureing front toe the rear has to be set first.

Driven

.as the "incorrect info given" alarm goes off.

Toe is the EASIEST thing to adjust, in terms of alignment settings. Camber is nearly impossible without some sort of tool.

Here's how the budget racers set toe:

- Grab some yarn... find about 15' of it.
- tape the edge of the yarn to the passenger side tyre on the REAR. Make sure it's at 270" from a clockwise position (or, if you were looking directly at the wheel, it's got to be half the height of the tyre, towards the rear).
- tape the OTHER edge to the driver's side tyre at 90" (or, rear edge, half way the height). Make sure the string is snug.
Note: if the string is not shooting directly across (ie, hitting parts of the car), you will not get an accurate measurement. In this case, measure as high as you can where the string is free from obstruction between each tyre.

-Measure the string. Record it

-do the same for the front side of the tyres (or, the side towards the front end of the car).

-Measure the distance. Record it and compare. that determines how much your car is toe-in or toe-out. if the front measure is taking more string (or the larger distance)... you have more toe-out. and vice versa.

this is the cheapest way of doing it. Setting toe requires adjusting the tie rods. Granted, this is not the most accurate way, but it does help out and proves it's not "impossible" or "highly improbable" without the proper machines.

NikoZai

i never even thought of matching it to the back tires.. sweet...
But on camber hes screwed anyway, they do a whole alignment with camber adjustment so um, hes gota do it anyway. right driven?

Driven

I personally would have a shop do it anyways. doing it yourself without the right tools is good if you've done it a lot...but, it's best just to spend the $70 to take it somewhere to have it done.

My previous post was just saying, it CAN be done at home, just not the best or most advisable thing to do.

johnzm

that cannot really do a god job if one wheel is toed out bad (hit a curb/ big pothole) and the other one is a the right toe. then u ave ot rmemeber, that the machines u see in shops measure toe out to 1/10 of a degree. and that when they set the wheel straight, they are adjusting the toe so that the wheel stays in that place when the car is on a level surface and a straight road. due to the fact that the back tires could also be badly out, u canot trust it without putting it on a machine to make sure they are right as well
*edit* that DOES sound like a good way t adjust general toe in/out WHEN the car has already been properly aligned on a machine!


[Modified by johnzm, 7:59 PM 9/27/2002]