Hot Rods Alignment-Toe In Question

I had the front end aligned on my 55 Nomad. Someone asked my what the toe in was set to. I answered 1/8 inch. The person who asked the question said to me…”was that 1/8 inch per side?”.

Is that how it is referred to, as per side…?

Or is the 1/8 inch number really 1/16 per side for a total of 1/8 inch overall…?

 

1/8" total.

 

So, it would be a 1/16 per side…?

 

yes

 

Legit question.

 

Thank you

 

I did front end work for several years and you never think of it per side. You usually do adust the side that is off the most when you center the steering wheel and check the toe in the first time.

On the other hand your friend wasn't totally wrong, read out from the new high zoot front end alignment machines do show left and right toe in/out on the reading, It is just that older mechanics don't think of it as being separate sides toe in wise, Remember that straight axle cars and even most 4x4 solid axle trucks only have one tie rod with two ends and you only have one adjustment.

Caster and camber are per side get the car to drive good on the roads it gets driven on without wearing the tires, Usually 1/4 degree more positive camber in the driver's side wheel to compensate for road crown. On and independent front end caster is usually set to factory specs or what the front end mechanic decides works best for that model from past experience. Sometimes you may not put more than factory spec in a toddle around town never does road trips car but will put different settings in a car like your Nomad that is probably going to see a decent amount of highway driving.

 

Some people even think about it as degrees.....weird.....

 

There needs to be a slight change in toe in specs if you are running radial tires. They give more outward toe at speed than bias tires. Your alignment specialist usually will mention or ask if you have radials. Or at least they should. The tri-five Chevys normally don't have a sway bar on the front suspension. I hate that because without one the steering feels too wishy-washy to me. Aftermarket parts are available for these.

 

and minutes!!

 

and seconds!! How accurate do you want your toe to be?

 

The Nomad does get a lot of highway miles. Thank you for your thoughts.

 

Expressing toe in degrees makes it independent of tyre diameter, and therefore easier to compare from one car to another.

 

Very. The guy who broke me in on a Bear machine had been doing alignments for 15 years. He had customers coming back with complaints like the steering wheel being off-center. He gave them some BS and they left.

I had learned in auto school, the right way. This guy was setting one tire IN and the other OUT, he had no clue what he was doing. Well, he gets fired for theft and they hire a new guy who knew his stuff. I was his back-up for years.

Toe-in used to be 1/16" to 1/8" for bias ply, they straighten out once rolling. Radials were tighter, 1/16" and zero.

I was a bug about getting the steering wheel centered. On cars that were wayyyy off, I'd do a rough-toe then re-set the steering wheel, re-center the steering box and give it another shot.

 

Getting that steering wheel centered is important. It's the only thing the customer can see and understand.

 

When I got my first Model T the thing had 1 & 1/2" of toe in. I thought those front wheels looked funny.

 

And a pull to one side. Cars that had the alignment shims on the upper arm hidden, like Falcons and Mustangs before 1967, we drove first. If it had no pull, we left the caster-spread alone. Just work the camber and of course do the toe.

On GM cars with the cams on the lower arms, I would break protocol and put some shims up on the upper control arm and take a wrench with me on the road test after. I could jockey shims back and forth if it had a pull.

 

Used to teach my students that the first and the last step of an alignment was a road test.