Toe adjustment 1987 V10

[Ricko1966]

I don't let my tapes slap back in.

 

[Edelbrock]

All good info. Let the reader take what they can from whats posted.

 

[Ricko1966]

One more thing to add,To use a board as a toe plate isnt as simple as just placing a board across the tires. Here is why and what you can do about it. A purpose built toe plate is not straight up and down it angles out at the bottom to clear the tire bulge at the bottom. If you use a board you will have to set your board on cans,bricks,something to get it above the tire bulge. You could cut a u shape cut out at the bottom where the tire bulge is.If you can figure out a way to lean the boards in and hold them leaned I suppose that would work. I use to use 4 cans,and pieces of angle iron the cans held the angle up,but I had to have a partner hold one side angle iron and tapes. The bungee cords and clothes pins eliminate all 3 problems. They hold the angle and tapes in place,above the tire bulge.

 

[Redfish]

All of that is good advice but if it is toed out so badly he can clearly see it and he is out of adjustment, something is WRONG. Getting a perfect measurement won't help him if he cannot adjust any further.

I confess I didn't measure mine. When I replaced the tie rod ends I adjusted it by eye. I literally eyeballed it sitting in the driveway. I knew I had less than a half mile to drive to the tire/alignment shop and the new tires were waiting for my arrival. I did explain this to the alignment tech. We shared a laugh when he told me I had nailed it, his instruments indicated it was perfect.

Regarding tape measure differences, I am guilty of letting them "slap back" on retraction. I recently struggled on a home construction project and could not understand why I could not get some of my measurements to work out. Pop helped me figure it out. He stopped me, took the 3 different tapes we were using and made me stretch them out to 20 feet. All 3 were different. Two were a result of the ends differing slightly. The third actually started "growing" at about 8 feet and was almost 3/4 inch longer at 12 feet. It was brand new and I threw it away.

 

[Ricko1966]

A lot of what I was posting was for others following the thread. So if they try this they will be successful.

 

[Redfish]

A lot of what I was posting was for others following the thread. So if they try this they will be successful.

And if/when I do this again I am most likely going to use your method.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Ya, if you can verify that two tape measures read 100% the same, you could use two different tapes. But any time the tape retracts and "slaps" back, you would need to re-verify the accuracy between the two. I have always used one and it worked well for me.

Don't ever let it slap back.