Is there such thing? I heard of a tool that you can use but forgot where I read it. Can you adjust toe and camber (with a camber kit) ? Reason why I ask is because all the shops around the bay area either won't do it (because it would take too much work to adjust my camber kit) or they charge a grip ($100 including camber adjustment). TIA

 

YEAH, there is a small tool that can be put on one wheel at a time. it measures camber with a guage and bubble. toe is a bit harder to do. usually most people who do it themselves use a line across to measure. the tool can be found through most racings co's. try looking at http://www.pegasusautoracing.com

 

Can you by chance get a picture or link of this tool?

 

Posted up by Ausmith: (Had it saved in my Notepad)


Okay - it actually cost me $17.94 becuase I already had the jack stands, tape measure, and one set of clamps.

What you need:
1) 2 pieces of 10' (that's feet) of 3/4" or 1" metal or PVC conduit
2) Nylon string - at least 50 feet
3) 4 medium size spring clamps
4) 4 jack stands
5) A drill and a selection of bits
6) Tape measure
7) A small metal ruler that goes down to at least 1/16th" and that is at least 6" long
8) Pipe cutter or hack saw

The concept - you are going to make a perfect box around the car using the conduit (up on jack stands) and the string.

Cut each of the conduit to a length of 100" (that's inches). You need to be acurate here. I used a hack saw but I think I pipe cutter would be a better tool.

Measure 12" from each end of the conduit and mark it with a small dot.

Drill a small hole where you made the marks and let the hole continue to through the opposite side of the conduit so you end up with 2 holes - or a total of 8 holes (2 pieces of conduit with 2 holes on each side).

Place the jack stands near all four corners of the car. Put the conduit across the jack stands. At this point you should have a piece of conduit resting on top of the jack stands spanning the width of the car both front and rear. Use the clamps to secure the conduit to the jack stands.

Take the string and feed it through both holes on either side of the front conduit. Tie it in a knot - make sure the string has some abiltity to move around the conduit. take the other end of the stringand pull it down towards the rear piece of conduit. Feed it through both holes, pull it tight, and tie it into a knot. Repeat for the other side.

You should now have a "box" aorund the car... Should look something like this:


Now you need to "square the box" and make sure that the box is even on each wheel. Basically you use a tape measure, or a ruler as described above, and mesaure from the center cap of each wheel out to the string. You will need to slide the conduit around to acheive a perfect box... it needs to be an equal box unless the rear of the car has a different track than the front... if that is the case then the two front measurements should be equal and so should the rears.

Now you are going to measure the tow by measuring from the front side of the rim out to the string and from the rear side. The difference will be the actual toe measurement in inches (or mm depending on what type of ruler you have). By the way your steering wheel should be straight before you start this process!

You can reach under and adjust the front tie rod ends or the rear compensator arm to change the toe.... Here are a couple more pictures.







With this method you can get your toe set to within 1/32" very accurately. The other advantage is that you can take the stuff with you to the track. Oh yeah and it cost me less than $20.

I set my front toe in 45minutes tonight <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emsmile.gif" BORDER="0">

Ausmith - who is ready to race the new EF this weekend <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/embeer.gif" BORDER="0">

 

that is ghetto fabulous! ! ! ! !

derek

 

Good stuff. Fishing line works even better...if you have good eyes- that is

 

Does anyone know of a way to check caster?

 

 

I thought caster and toe were the same thing???

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Stew Pidasso &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I thought caster and toe were the same thing???</TD></TR></TABLE>

caster is where the wheel is positioned in the wheel well. sometimes it can be towards the front of the car, the rear of the car or the center.

i hope that makes sense.

 

Another way I learned is:

1. Measure up from a level floor a few inches on the fronts and backs of the tires (either front pair or back pair). Mark the level with masking tape.

2. Pick a reference point on each tire face, such as a groove that runs the circumference of the tire. Mark this reference point at the elevation you marked earlier.

3. Measure between those two points on the front and backs of the tire underneath the car. Write 'em down, then adjust accordingly to wherever you want your toe.

4. To recheck your adjustment, move the car forward and back a few feet (when you raise the car, the suspension may not settle fully when you put it back down).

Another method that is based on the above is to hand a pair of plum bobs around the tire (in one of those grooves) and mark a point on the floor (masking tape) where they point. Then measure the marks on the floor.


You can probably build a gauge that'll mount to the wheel and drop down low enough so you can measure from one point to another. I see a nice looking one in the June '03 Grassroots Motorsports page 186 that also measures castor. I haven't checked the $ on this yet, polepositionrp.com is the website.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PupaScoopa &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Another way I learned is:

1. Measure up from a level floor a few inches on the fronts and backs of the tires (either front pair or back pair). Mark the level with masking tape.

2. Pick a reference point on each tire face, such as a groove that runs the circumference of the tire. Mark this reference point at the elevation you marked earlier.

3. Measure between those two points on the front and backs of the tire underneath the car. Write 'em down, then adjust accordingly to wherever you want your toe.

4. To recheck your adjustment, move the car forward and back a few feet (when you raise the car, the suspension may not settle fully when you put it back down).

Another method that is based on the above is to hand a pair of plum bobs around the tire (in one of those grooves) and mark a point on the floor (masking tape) where they point. Then measure the marks on the floor.


You can probably build a gauge that'll mount to the wheel and drop down low enough so you can measure from one point to another. I see a nice looking one in the June '03 Grassroots Motorsports page 186 that also measures castor. I haven't checked the $ on this yet, polepositionrp.com is the website.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I saw a similar method in some option video, sounds good to me!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Stew Pidasso &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I thought caster and toe were the same thing???</TD></TR></TABLE>
No they're not. Caster is part of the angle of the steering axis. If you bend the LCA or the subframe, then the wheel sits too far forwards or too far back; this also throws off the caster, but caster isn't just the position of the wheel.

If everything was transparent, & you could see this stuff, here's the concept...
Draw an imaginary line from the centerpoint of the upper ball joint to the center of the lower ball joint. This line isn't going to be perfectly vertical. The angle (w.r.t. vertical) has a longitudinal component and a lateral component. The longitudinal part is caster. Somebody help me remember what the lateral part is called. Steering axis inclination? Setback?

You can't just measure it with the car sitting. You have to steer the wheels back & forth, with the tire sitting on some kind of platform that can twist & slide freely. Then you measure exactly how it twists.

 

Yoy can find it at http://WWW.LONGACRERACING&gt;COM