Wheel alignment products

[elbon50]

If you use it on the rear you will have to read the scale backwards ie negative becomes positive and just use it the same as doing the front but pretending the back of the car is the front.

You're thinking of the laser gauge when you say that Dave, not the runover one

Yes it probably could be used like that

I'll try & get round to contacting Trackace to see why they don't suggest that themselves

[kaiowas]

If you use it on the rear you will have to read the scale backwards ie negative becomes positive and just use it the same as doing the front but pretending the back of the car is the front.

You're thinking of the laser gauge when you say that Dave, not the runover one

Yes it probably could be used like that

I'll try & get round to contacting Trackace to see why they don't suggest that themselves

Trackace is only useful for setting the total toe across a pair of wheels as it uses the opposing wheel as a reference point. This is fine at the front as in reality total toe is all that matters - any imbalance in toe from one side to the other is negated by the fact that the steering wheel moves to compensate for it, having your wheel slightly off center can annoy some people but isn't actually a problem.

At the rear you don't have steering. Once you've set the toe angle of a wheel it's fixed. As such the wheels need to be set relative to the centerline of the car rather than the opposing wheel otherwise you'll have a car that crabs.

[elbon50]

At the rear you don't have steering. Once you've set the toe angle of a wheel it's fixed. As such the wheels need to be set relative to the centerline of the car rather than the opposing wheel otherwise you'll have a car that crabs.

Good thinking , that's why Trackace are trying to develop a new system for the rear

I never used our Dunlop gauge on the rear of any car

Very few cars had IRS in those days

[IanClements]

I think it could still be useful if replacing parts and you know which corner the alignment is out. Even so you could combine with the run over pads and get a pretty good idea of what's what. I'm going to contact Track Ace to ask about rear alignment.

[tottacrolla]

I find the drive over gauge is excellent and the results are surprisingly repeatable.

[IanClements]

Just ordered the wheel alignement kit with camber gauge off ebay, will hopefully be able to have a play at the weekend.

[elbon50]

Just ordered the wheel alignement kit with camber gauge off ebay, will hopefully be able to have a play at the weekend.

Do let us know how you get on with that Ian

[IanClements]

No problem. I changed a ball joint last weekend so I have a fair idea of what's out at the moment so should be able to use this stuff to confirm it.

[IanClements]

Had some fun and games today with my new toys.

The camber gauge is useful but you need a known vertical surface to calibrate it which I haven't managed to find yet so I just used it as it is. I took the wheel centres out and placed it up against the wheel; the readings were obviously out but I was able to compare one side against the other reasonably well.

The Trackace works, it takes some faffing about to get it calibrated, pain in the ar$e until you know how it works but it's dead useful and matched exactly the settings from my last proper wheel alignment.

Anyway, I was able to deduce that after replacing a bent ball joint last weekend, the front camber needed adjusting; this is right as the car does drift a bit. I jacked up the car and took the wheel off and loosened the two strut bolts so that I could adjust the camber setting; I had the camber gauge attached to the break disc at this point. I knocked the adjuster downwards for more negative camber and expected to see the reading on the gauge change but it didn't which was weird. I put the wheel back on, drove the car around the block and then checked the camber and toe.

Strangely the camber hadn't changed but the toe was another 20 minutes in. No idea why this has happened but maybe someone can explain because it seems strange to me.

I've left it at that for now but will need to make another adjustment tomorrow to fix it.