Philip Hubbard wrote:
>
>
> Tomorrow I'm going to start looking at my front end alignment. As those
> following my saga know, my car pulls to the left. I took a preliminary
> look at the front end today. Seems when the steering wheel is positioned
> to align the passenger's side wheel dead straight ahead, the driver's side
> wheel veers out to the left. No wonder it pulls that way. Maybe a diagram
> of the four wheels will illustrate the relative positions of the wheels
> though the driver's side wheel is not as far off as shown below.
>
> \\ ||
>
> || ||
>
> If I remember Haynes on the issue of setting toe-in, one normally adjust
> both front wheels the same amount at the same time. However, given the
> look as shown above, could I not just set the toe-in on the driver's side
> to get it back in line? Obviously my biggest concern is whether I am
> contemplating an unsafe move.
Philip - adjusting toe-in will not correct the problem that is causing your car
to pull
to one side, although it could disguise it. The castor angle of the kingpins
is what
gives the self-centreing action during forward motion i.e. both wheels will be
pointing the same amount off to one side or the other and you travel in a
straight
line, no matter what the toe out ot toe in. However, if some other suspension
component is worn or misaligned a pull to one side or the other will result if
the
misalignment affects the castor angle of one wheel.
Adjusting both sides by the same amount keeps the rack correctly centred -
important as
too much travel on one lock could cause the tyre to chafe or put undue stress
on the
brake hose.
PaulH.
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