Rear Wheel Alignment

[Guest dave brown]

Hi there,

 

we are building our 2b and like all you other builders we to have come accross a problem. We have got the rear axle, diff and suspention mounted. Unfortunatly it doesnt piont stright ! The wheels are pointing to the left also the gaps were the arms meet the frame are different side to side. I am a bit concernd as the handling round bends will be affected Dave.

[Guest salty_monk]

You have to "tickle" it with a big hammer

 

No seriously, adjust it yourself to get it straight, you can't just bolt it straight up.

[Guest Petemate]

Good thing you've spotted it this early in the build, others have not been so lucky. A good case for all builders to be warned to do diagonal measurements during this stage.

Pete

[Guest Stevieshood]

Rule No. 1 - Throw away the videos (although its worth watching the antics between Richard and the dog)

 

Rule No. 2 - If RH made it, don't expect it to be right, because 9/10 times it won't be!

 

Most people go wrong by bolting the diff up where it lies after mounting the subframe. That will put all your driveshafts, wishbones etc on the skew. If you're lucky, you should be able to remove the additional bolts in the floor pan and the rear diff housing, and slacken off the subframe bush bolts. Then wack, sorry tap, the side of the diff (not with a sledgehammer preferably) to where you want it.

[Grizzly]

Guess where I'll be off to with the tape measure tonight?

[Grizzly]

OK, This is what I have:

I used a plumb line down to the floor at four points and then took the measurements. Can anyone make sense of these?

Apart from the fact that everything seems to be out! :gdit: :gdit: :gdit:

[Guest Lotus Eater]

Most 2B's seem to finish up with the offside wheel projecting further out than the nearside. It's not a real problem, but looks a bit odd as the wheels on each side do not sit the same into the muds. A common cure is to pack out the nearside wheel with a spacer. BEWARE you will need to fit longer (Transit ) wheel studs. See My Webpagefor full details and an AutoCad drawing of the spacer required.

[Grizzly]

Yes, I'm aware of that (the wheel has already been spaced out appropriately).

Sorry, my diagram isn't very clear. The measurements are taken from the sub-frame assembly and not the wheel.

 

mmm.... thinking about it though, should I be measuring from the wheels?

[Grizzly]

mmmm - No more replies.

Still bothered about this though

[Guest salty_monk]

I would think you should be taking measurements from the wheels.

 

After all they are the bits you need to go in a straight line!

 

[Grizzly]

OK, here we go:

 

I spent some time this evening trying to measure up as best as I could.

- First off, I set the tracking using taught string along each side parallel to and just touching the rear tyre wall. I didn't worry about any toe-in.

- I then measured in from the string to the front tyre wall - 6.25 cm (both sides).

- I then measured from the front rim along the centre line to the rear rim - 112 inches (both sides). Maybe a 1/16th of an inch out, but jeepers, I'm not worried about that.

 

I think that this means it's all square.

Have I missed anything?

[Guest TerryBarry]

I don't think so

I've also measured diagonals and the wheelbase front to rear axle centres - within 1mm.

Well I'm happy

Still trying to sort out camber; castor and toe-in

[Guest Tim Norman]

To be right all dimensions should be taken from the centre of the wheel. I realy need to do mine but a chassis that might not be square has no effect on handling.......................if the bloody engine still aint going. :boohoo: :boohoo: :boohoo:

[Guest salty_monk]

 

I reckon that modern tyre manufacturing is probably accurate enough to allow your measurements to be as close as you're going to get them...