[TR] Rear Toe - Spitfire

[Bob Berger]

Ok,

One more stupid question.    The alignment shop has a range or .14deg to
.28deg for the front toe-in and a range of -.07deg to -.21deg for toe-out
for the rear.  Haynes has these as 1/16 to 1/8 inch toe-in at the front and
1/32 to 3/32 toe-out at the rear.
Do the degree numbers relate to/match the inches?
How do I convert Degrees of toe-in/out to Inches?
The shop can change their machine to read tenths of inches.  I could tell
them I want the front to be .0625" to .125" and the rear to be -.03125" to
-.09375" toe-out.

All help appreciated.

Thanks

Bob Berger
78 Spitfire - trying not to destroy new tires
 

> From: Bob Berger <bberger720 at sbcglobal.net>
> Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:57:50 -0500
> To: Doug Braun <doug at dougbraun.com>, Bob Berger <bberger720 at sbcglobal.net>,
> <spitfires at autox.team.net>
> Conversation: [Spits] [Spit] Rear Toe - Spitfire
> Subject: Re: [Spits] [Spit] Rear Toe - Spitfire
> 
> The alignment shop did not want to install the shim because my car has a
> rust hole in the lower outside corner of the vertical panel behind the seats
> that the radius rod is connected to.  They felt this was too rusty for them
> to risk adding a shim.  I should have just asked them for the tools and done
> this myself while I was there but they did say that they would check it and
> readjust the front toe when I brought it back.  I'll make sure that they
> bounce or roll the car before they check it this time.
> 
> Bob Berger
> 78 Spitfire
> 
> 
>> From: Doug Braun <doug at dougbraun.com>
>> Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:10:19 -0700 (PDT)
>> To: Bob Berger <bberger720 at sbcglobal.net>, "triumphs at autox.team.net"
>> <triumphs at autox.team.net>, <spitfires at autox.team.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Spits] [Spit] Rear Toe - Spitfire
>> 
>> Removing a shim makes the radius rod shorter, which
>> moves the wheel forward, which will make it toe in.
>> 
>> I cannot see how an alignment shop could measure the
>> error but not know how to fix it!  The swing-axle
>> setup is pretty straightforward.
>> 
>> Besides, couldn't they try (for example) adding a shim
>> and seeing if the alignment gets better or worse?
>> Assuming nothing is frozen, rusted out, etc., adding
>> or removing shims takes just a few minutes.  They
>> should have dealt with it while the car was on the
>> machine.
>> 
>> Doug Braun
>> '72 Spit
>> 
>> 
>> --- Bob Berger <bberger720 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi all,
>>> 
>>> I just had the alignment checked on my spitfire and
>>> the shop told me that
>>> one of my rear wheels is toed in and the other is
>>> toed out.  The wheel that
>>> is toed out is is specs and the other one will be in
>>> spec by moving the
>>> radius arm with 1 shim.
>>> 
>>> The only problem is that they/I do not know enough
>>> about the spitfire rear
>>> end geometry to tell me if I need to add the shim or
>>> remove the shim.
>>> 
>>> Can anyone tell me which I need?