I am at a loss....when somebody says they have "1/8 inch toe-in", what are they measuring?

I know what toe-in is, but where or what are they measuring?

dave

They measure the distance between the wheel rim at the front and back of the wheel.

The difference between the front of the wheel rim and the back of the wheel rim is the measurement they refer to.

John

If you take a measurement from the rear most edge of your front rims (from one wheel to the other) and then again from the front edge, the front edge should be 1/8" shorter to give you toe in.
When you do this, your rack should be centralised and you should move each wheel equally. In other words, each wheel should toe in 1/16".
Once you have done all that, you can remove your steering wheel and put it back on so that it is straight ahead.

[Edited on 1/5/2006 by nitram38]

[Edited on 1/5/2006 by nitram38]

OK, I can see that, but - doesn't the size of the rim affect this measurement?

I mean, if you set it up with 13" rims, then replaced them with 17", the toe would change. caster and camber would be unchanged, but toe-in would be too much (in this instance).

Or am I stating the obvious, that you need to set toe when changing rims?

dave

Surely toe in/out should be measured as an angle from a line parallel with the cetre line of the cars chassis, therefore the measurment would be in degrees.
Or am i totally wrong?

Just for the hell of it I just worked out how much the dimension changed when I took off my old 13"s
and put my new 15"s on.

I know angles don't change but I haven't got anything to measure fractions of a degree, so mm's it is then.


By Pywhatsizname, I make it that if I had 3mm of toe in before, I have increased that by 0.08mm per wheel,
or to put it another way my 3mm is now 3.16mm.

Personally I'll be happy if I get it within a mil. I haven't got tenths, let alone hundredths on my Stanley tape.


Anyway, our almost solid suspension bushes, to some degree, take away the need for toe in as they don't flex
like your average rubber mounted tin top, plus low profile tyres give less as well.


Just my 2p


Paul G

I guess it gets back to the best advice I have gotten about this build:

it is NOT rocket science, it is Not even a F1 car. close enough is certainly close enough. get on with the build.


dave

Ah! but remember what the boss said, when he asked the worker if it was right, the guy said "it's close enough". The boss replied thats not good enough, it must be perfect. Next time he asked, the guy said "it's perfect", and the boss said "thats close enough" Moral there somewhere. Keep up the good work. atb Chippy