DS23 - Wheel Alignment

Boyracer

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Fellow Frogger
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Mar 22, 2004
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Location
Sydney South
Thought I'd share my little effort of yesterday. I aligned my front wheels! It needed doing. After new ball joints and steering arms were fitted recently the steering in my DS23, the car felt vague, particularly in corners.

20110710SteeringAlgnment07.jpg

*The above pic was not the result of the new parts. It's just me playing silly buggers!* :D

I originally had an appointment for a wheel alignment at a tyre shop that I have used several times in recent years and even recommended to others, but their appointment system is just hopeless these days. I waited forty five minutes the other day only to be told that they would have to re-book me for some other day...! So I decided to look at my options.

Fortunately, I recalled hearing that the CCC of NSW had an alignment kit and after a few chats with DS and the Club Treasurer, I collected it on Saturday. So Sunday's job was a wheel alignment which I did in my car port.

It's an interesting bit of kit (four blocks of timber, two planks, a couple of G clamps, one aluminium bar and a couple of brackets), designed and constructed by an ingenious club member. It doesn't look like much but there's no disputing that it did everything that was required of it.

20110710SteeringAlgnment01.jpg


As far as a wheel alignment for a DS is concerned there's only one adjustment that people seem to talk about. Basically you align one wheel against the other by winding an adjusting collar in or out. The car needs to be running so it maintains ride height and you just wind the collar in or out as required and compare the width between the planks at two points until you achieve what you need.

20110710SteeringAlgnment04.jpg


20110710SteeringAlgnment02.jpg


Typically, this job took a lot longer than I'd anticipated (like most jobs when it's me on the tools!). Basically I suffered two set backs and both took some time to sort out. I had been warned about one of them and the other was my mistake, so there weren't any surprises really. :rolleyes:

My first measurement showed 30mm toe out before I adjusted anything. I needed 2-4mm toe in.

I adjusted it in as far as it would go and then ran out of adjustment. The arm needed to be a few millimetres shorter and had to be cut (my parts supplier had mentioned this could happen). Fortunately XM Mechanic and XM Driver happened to pop by just as I made this discovery and it was quickly established that the arm wasn't going to be cut any time soon with any of the tools in my garage so we popped it off the car and ran it around to their place where Garth honed it down for me. Thanks Garth! :cheers:

I went home and got back to work. I completed all my adjustments and reinstated all the bits that I had removed for access when I realised one of the clamps that locks the collar in place was not where it was meant to be and there was no way to reinstate it without losing my adjustments and basically pulling every bloody thing out that I had just put back in. $#%@!!! :blackeye: :cry:

Anyway, I pulled it all down and reinstated everything as it should be and made my adjustments, then took the car for a quick run when I finished and then re-checked my work. All good! :approve:
 
Hi Michael

don't you just hate that!! :mad: having to undo everything..again!! I'm just curious, where do the two bolts attached to the wheel hub?

Matthew

PS Your duco is so shiny! Very lickable..:wink2:
 
I remember on my first tech day back in 1993 I used that bit of gear to try and do an alignment on the CX. A disaster as it is very hard to see what you are doing with the adjusters. However on a D you can stand within the contraption and wind the adjusters and see what is going on. One advantage of the D.


Greg
 
Bravo for the work Michael!

That wheel alignment set was made by a CCCNSW member, Keith Cornford, many years ago (I remember it back in the late 80s).

It doesn't attach to the wheel rim rather it "sits" against the wheel rim inner lips.

Its a very simple device that works remarkably well.
 
Hi Michael

don't you just hate that!! :mad: having to undo everything..again!! I'm just curious, where do the two bolts attached to the wheel hub?

Matthew

PS Your duco is so shiny! Very lickable..:wink2:

No licking Matthew!!! :eek: I've now got a mental image of the back windows in a friend's car. The friend has a dalmatian that likes to lick. The back windows must be particularly tasty as they've been slobbered all over. You can hardly see out of them.

Regarding the bolts, as Darren mentioned, they just sit against the wheel rim and the G clamp holds another bolt in position so that the plank stays parallel with the wheel. It is amazingly simple and it works! :headbang:
 
Perfect !! I'd get some RHS metal next time. I'm always stunned how "bent" every length of timber I've ever purchased is. Especially cheap framing pine .... it's unbelievable how bloody crooked/curved that stuff can be.

seeya,
Shane L.
 
These planks are actually very straight. I checked them on the garage floor. Gus mentioned that the planks are seasoned maple. Judging by the years Darren and Greg remember this equipment from, I'd say they're very well seasoned.
 
I asked Gus if wood or plastic was preferable. He wasn't sure. :D

So in the end I didn't use a clothes peg at all. I put masking tape on the aluminium bar and marked that.
 
No licking Matthew!!! :eek: I've now got a mental image of the back windows in a friend's car. The friend has a dalmatian that likes to lick. The back windows must be particularly tasty as they've been slobbered all over. You can hardly see out of them.


Oh right! So I'm being compared to a dog am I??:disappr: Well in that case would you settle for a look of appreciation? :)

Matthew:)
 
This brings back happy memories. Based on watching Gus using this system of Keith's in my garage, I created a version for aligning my Panhard taking advantage of some new technology.
I took two short planks (thickness unimportant) about the length of the tyre diameter. and into a long edge of each I screwed two long wood screws so that their heads were parallel with the edge. They were spaced to just touch the outer rim of the wheel and projecting enough so that the plank did not touch the tyre.
I parked the car in front of the garage and left the garage door open. Then the planks were stood on bricks such that the screw heads contacted the rims at the centre line.
Here comes the technical bit. I stood two cheapie spirit levels with laser pointers on the planks and lined them up with the edge of the plank and with the laser slightly in front of the tyres. Now I had two red spots on the far wall of the garage. I contacted my friend Euclid and I measured the distance from the rear screws to the wall. Then I put a sheet of ply in front of the car and marked and measured the distance between the two laser spots. I returned the ply to the shelf Then I realigned the wheels such that the distance between the laser spots was the same on the wall as on the ply. This gives more or less the dead centre position, if you want to be difficult repeat the exercise with the ply. Then as Euclid and I share similar triangles, we multiplied the book alignment by the ratio of the distance to the wall and the diameter of the rim. That gave the spacing needed on the wall relative to the toe out of zero. A realignment to that dimension and it was done.
Much less of a strorage and warpage problem than the long planks and less well adapted to piracy.
 
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Good job Michael, similar pieces of wood are burnt on days like this in Tassie. Congratulations on completing the mission.
Seasoned maple ( from that time ) would be as straight as the day it were dressed. Probably came in from Canada to the old timber terminal at Glebe Island back in the day.

The D is a simple car for these jobs and a job worth doing well when you have todays expensive Michelin tyres.
 
Oh right! So I'm being compared to a dog am I??:disappr: Well in that case would you settle for a look of appreciation? :)

Matthew:)

A look of appreciation is fine. And maybe one lick would be permissible. :tongue:
 
Thought I'd share my little effort of yesterday. I aligned my front wheels! It needed doing. After new ball joints and steering arms were fitted recently the steering in my DS23, the car felt vague, particularly in corners.

Fortunately, I recalled hearing that the CCC of NSW had an alignment kit and after a few chats with DS and the Club Treasurer, I collected it on Saturday. So Sunday's job was a wheel alignment which I did in my car port.

It's an interesting bit of kit (four blocks of timber, two planks, a couple of G clamps, one aluminium bar and a couple of brackets), designed and constructed by an ingenious club member. It doesn't look like much but there's no disputing that it did everything that was required of it.

20110710SteeringAlgnment01.jpg


As far as a wheel alignment for a DS is concerned there's only one adjustment that people seem to talk about. Basically you align one wheel against the other by winding an adjusting collar in or out. The car needs to be running so it maintains ride height and you just wind the collar in or out as required and compare the width between the planks at two points until you achieve what you need.

20110710SteeringAlgnment04.jpg


Anyway, I pulled it all down and reinstated everything as it should be and made my adjustments, then took the car for a quick run when I finished and then re-checked my work. All good! :approve:

You see, what would you do WITHOUT the support of the CCCNSW?:wink2:
Aren't you glad your a payed up member!?!
I first used this equip (with a wooden cloths peg!) in 1990 at a CCCNSW winter Technical day.:)
 
Oh right! So I'm being compared to a dog am I??:disappr: Well in that case would you settle for a look of appreciation? :)

Matthew:)


Matthew,

Mine is the same colour, and you can lick it a much a you like :rolleyes:
 
Michael, as the rig I have was also made by Keith perhaps I can drag it out soon and we can compare notes. However the one I have is square metal tube with some other bits. I'm puzzled.
 
You see, what would you do WITHOUT the support of the CCCNSW?:wink2:
Aren't you glad your a payed up member!?!
I first used this equip (with a wooden cloths peg!) in 1990 at a CCCNSW winter Technical day.:)

I wonder if I will be saying the same thing in the year 2032? By that time they'll probably just look at me and say, 'What's a clothes peg???" :clown:

Up till now, I've borrowed books from the Club's library and bought parts like oil filters, spark plugs and LHM but come to think of it, this is the first time I've borrowed club tools, unless you count sphere regassing on Tech Days, but as I didn't operate the rig, I can't say I borrowed it can I. :wink2:
 
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