[Mgs] Alignment tool

[Max Heim]

Usually you can't measure directly from 3 o’clock to 3 o’clock, or 9 to 9, anyway — there is all sorts of hardware in the way. So you are dropping a vertical to the ground from these positions, and measuring the distance between that pair of points. And because of flex in the sidewalls, you really should lift the car off the ground and set it back down after every adjustment, or have the tires on a frictionless surface (which of course needs to be absolutely flat and level, in any case). All of which adds so many potential inaccuracies of angle and measurement that I would expect the errors would overwhelm the data.

I have done it, but merely as a sanity check after front end work. Then I have it professionally aligned before I wreck a pair of tires.

--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Menlo Park, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
And now 67 MGB GHN3U137949G
Old English White, off-premises for restoration

> On Jul 28, 2015, at 12:29 PM, John Di Fede via Mgs <mgs at autox.team.net> wrote:
> 
> The alignment tool is rather primitive.  Paul, the instructions do not say to roll the car back and forth so as to measure at the same point on the tire.   I never considered that the tire could be fatter or narrower at certain points on the sidewalls.   I suppose that could happen if you have raised letters or some type of raised portion of the sidewalls.   For that matter a slightly bent wheel could through off the measurement.  
>  
> The tool is just slightly better than measuring toe in using a tape measure.    Measure distance across the front of the tires and the back of the tires at the same clock position on the tire ( 9  and 3  o’clock).  Front measurement should be 1/16” shorter than the rear measurement.   I have set my own toe in on the MG and other hobby cars I own.  It is a pain in the A$$ especially when it involves centering the steering wheel.    It is all trial and error.  At times I have so much time invested that it would have been advantageous to spend $75 at the tire shop. 
>  
> John DiFede
> 
> 
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