Just got a #79622 Toe Bar from Longacre and totally bewildered by their instructions. Has anyone successfully set toe-in with it? If so, please help this dummy.
GOT PICS??? Does it locate off the wheels? HI-TECH for this reformed roundy-pounder! I'd give them a call. We had a homemade toe bar, locate off the sidewall, measure with a tape - rear first, then front of tires. Good Luck, Tim
I tried to follow their instructions on web just now. Seems like it measures toe from tire sidewalls or wheel. ? not sure Tire and wheels can have runout...most do. We are dealing with toe setting to 1/8" or 3/16", so if both tires or wheels have runout in opposite directions by chance, as you parked the car, you have ZERO accuracy. The old way was a tire tread scribing fixture to give a dead accurate line on each tire. then measure difference on those two accurate lines, gives a real measurement. I could have read it wrong, so I will bow out. .
OEM spec on maximum wheel runout (lateral) is generally .030" for alloy and .045" for steel so F & J has a point .The tread on a low quality tire may have some run out but the sidewalls are usually a good reference point (unless they have been "kerbed" and have bulges. Just about every pro race team measures toe off the wheel rim. I agree with Angledrive, this is a very quick and simple way to check the toe, especially on a car where the body/frame etc won't let you run a tape from one side to the other. For the OP--put the tool under the car, rotate it until it is vertical and aligned with the front or rear sidewall or rim, measure the distance from the bar to the tire/rim, repeat at the other end of the tire. The difference is the toe dimension. The closer to the hub that you measure the more critical the measurement is--the actual toe number is normally relative to the tread surface so 1/8" there is going to be quite a bit less at the rim (depending on the tire diameter) Or read this: http://www.longacreracing.com/technical-articles.aspx?item=8155&article=Toe Simplified ps They also sell a tire scriber if you want to follow F & J's method but you will still need some sort of toe bar unless you can get the tape measure across the car at spindle height. Roo
Yes, there is a really nice commercial bar that has feet, then adjusts to the approximate width of your two scribed lines. Then a"fine tune adjuster" up at the top of each pointer, so you can center the pointer right on the swcribe. Thse pointer pieces can be adjusted higher or lower, for different diameter tires. The nice thing is you just lay it 90 flat, then tip it back up behind the tire. This is too pricey for hobby use What I do with my ancient "Bear (brand)" scribed lines, I put equal height blocks in front and back of both tires. Then I have a 1" x 1" wood stick that I tuck against tread, then make a pencil mark, slide it behind the wheels to get the difference. So easy for me not to get confused with tape measure lines, or drooping tapes, etc and I just did my I-beam toe last week. Sure was noticeable runout on these bias tires, but scribes don't lie. .
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