Toe out actually tries pulling both tires apart, away from each other so you end up with a car that drives good but wears the inside the tires. So in short your trading one problem (drivability) for another (tire wear). I'm from the school of thought of get the best tire wear you can (because at that point you have the least rolling resistance and tires in a totally neutral stance) then find the real problem of the drivability and fix that. But that's just me.... .
Thank you. You said, “ …then find the real problem of drivability and fix it”…is it your thought that there is another reason for the death wobble? It seems that any positive toe in is the problem.
You think 10 degrees castor might be a bit out of range? It could be that the castor requires the toe out? I suggest you start a new thread and again describe your problem. Help/suggestions are needed on the cause. And how to get the castor within spec.
It's hard to diagnose without knowing the alignment settings, actually driving it once I know those settings and a thorough check of the front end, both parts and geometry. I've been working in a frame and alignment shop since 1980 and most problems we find and fix are thru driving and reading settings. Sometimes too much caster will make the car feel real lazy and unresponsive, it can also be tie rod angles including drag link. If the drag link has too much angle it will make the car dart around alot, especially at speed. We had a 10 second quarter mile 1941 willys that would change an entire lane of traffic just jumping in the middle of the throttle and many shops spent hours going over and thru the rear end, which they ended up screwing that too, because everyone was convinced it was in the rear. After checking it out, reading specs and 1 test drive I found out it was ALL in the drag link. Re-did the steering linkage and alignment you could drive it throttle to the floor with just the 2 fingers with your left hand while holding your girlfriend with your right hand. That's why I always tell people, talk to local car guys and racers in their area and see who the locals are having set up their cars. .
As far as setting toe this is the best and easiest way I found to do it. Buy some rail road chalk (big side walk kids chalk also works), jack up one side of front tire just off the ground, pick one tread on the tire and just spin the tire and chalk that tread, then I've used a small piece of board with a nail thru it or anything with a somewhat sharp edge proped against that tread and spin the tire, you should end up with a perfect line around the tire. If it doesn't line up when it comes back around do it again. If you do it right you'll end up with a perfect circle all the way around the tire, that's what you want. Also it doesn't matter if the rim is straight or bent an inch, if the line in the chalk matches up its a perfect circle. Once I do this I just measure the backside of the tires on the chalk scribe lines then go to the front and measure again. This tells me my true and accurate toe regardless of any tire or wheel runout. .
Did you leave out the part of chalking the other tire also and scribing it also and measureing the scribe lines front and rear between the two tires? If not, I'm confused.
Sorry about that, yes do both tires. Using this method your measuring toe on two perfect circles and your measuring toe off of the centerline of the spindle. .
Don’t laugh, but that’s how we still do it at work on trucks with solid front axles (almost everything we work on).
Yep, when I was doing big trucks, that’s the way we did it, except we used cheap white paint. Scribe the tires, manually roll it forward a half rev or so to load the kingpins and tie rod ends providing they’re not worn, check the distance on the rear then check the front. Adjust as needed. Positive (in) 1/8.
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