I know you have to put the string at the center of the wheel on each side. But i was reading you have to take the cars track into account. I know my cars track but what does that have to do anything with the alignment. Someone please explain


Thanks

 

If your car's track is wider at the back/front, then your string will be angled. Measure the track first. If its different, you finna do some trigonometry, player. Or just keep a mental note and adjust accordingly.

For instance...If the rear track is wider, the string will always be telling you "it's toed in". So account for that or do some trig.

 

No clue how to do trig! But tell me if i have this right, this topic so hard to type.
And does the car have to be perfectly even or is that more for camber?

My track width for car is FRONT: 1480mm REAR: 1475mm

Tell me if i am understanding this correctly, so there is a difference of 5 from Front to Rear. So the front on both left and right is 2.5 mm wider than the rear?

And do you have to make the adjustments with a driver in the car?

Also when doing the adjustments you want the rim to be perfectly flat on the string right? or im i understanding it wrong?

 

bump

 

If you're wrapping the string to make the tracks parallel (regardless of track widths), you're aligning for TOE....not camber. Imagine drawing a rectangle. You're viewing your car from the top (birds eye). The long sides of the rectangle are the string. Put a tire in each corner of the rectangle. With me so far?

Now if you take the bottom of the rectangle and lenghten it by 2.5mm on each side, you see how the sides now have to be at an angle to meet the top line? That's what you got going on.

2.5mm (.098") is about nothing....but!!! If you're measuring your rear track width at the back of the tires, you're not taking into account the rear toe. This might be why your rear track seems wider than the front.

Same goes for the front.

Things you should know:
-parrallel doesn't mean straight. A parrallelogram wont track straight. -Also, the tires on either side of the car can be pointed in/out with parallelism to each other...not the centerline of the car or the tires on the other side. You need to form boxes inside your triangle. Parrallel rears. Parrallel fronts. With respect to the car's centerline.

I realize this is confusing. String alignments need some conceptualization, usually need trig, and need knowhow. They also usually fail.

An alignment costs $40-80. If money is tight...selling blood or semen is easier than trig.

You

 

The 2.5mm per side track width change (if we're talking 2.5mm from centerline for each side) means that your string will be pointed inwards to the narrower front track. SSoif you're aligning the tires on each side to each other, the car will be toed in by the amount of degrees it takes to travel 2.5mm over the course of the length of your wheelbase (derived using trig). 2.5mm is nothing. So for this example, you're off the hook on that.

However....string alignments ONLY work if we're assuming that only 1 axle is not aligned and set square (unless you set up strings that are straight with respect to the center of the car....in which case, forget about trig, forget the 2.5mm per side of track diff).

Go to a shop. Don't be a hero. I'm good at trig and have done/understand string alignment. ....but I would only use a string alignment to get me to a shop to do a real alignment.