Many thanks for the detailed reply Marc! I wish I lived close to you, so I could have a pro do this spot on! I am going for it today. It looks like the easiest way is to remove my gas tank so I have real easy access to the tie rods. It was done 3 yrs ago, but I think things may have siezed up since then. Take care, thanks again, Courtney
----- Original Message ----- From: marc vellat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Friday, April 20, 2007 11:08 pm Subject: Re: [vintagvw] Home done frontend alignment > First order of business is to check the condition of > the balljoints & tierod ends... make sure the wheel > bearings aren't sloppy and that the tires and rims > match (set the pressures too). A bent beam or one with > worn control arm bushings would also present a > problem. Assuming all is well, check the camber and > adjust it if needed. You'll need the car parked on a > LEVEL surface to do this....it's also assumed that the > REAR suspension has no problems that might be inducing > a tilt to the front of the car - measure the distance > from ground to rear torsion housing and from ground to > bottom of the front beam on both sides. Camber should > be 30' (��) positive - top of tire further out than > bottom - plus or minus 20' (1/3�) and the maximum > deviation betwen one side and the other should be kept > below 30'. This is the hardest thing to do under the > shadetree, you can use a $10 magnetic protractor (but > it's hard to see anything smaller than ~�� with one of > those) or a carpenter's square and bubble-level with > some trigonometric calculations. Note that the notch > in the camber eccentric should always be pointed > forward plus or minus 90� - if you point it aft the > caster will bew outside of design margins. > > Once the camber is in spec you can set the toe-in. > Spec is 30' � 20', or you can measure with a > tape...distance between the front of the tires should > be 1/16" to 7/32" less than the distance between them > at the rear. This is a little tricky to do because you > can't take a direct reading halfway up the tire (the > body/pan get in the way, and the reading must be made > with the car on the ground) but if you go for ~1/16" > as high up as you CAN measure it should be good. To > eliminate any error caused by tire/rim runout, first > jack up the front an spin each wheel while scribing a > mark down the center of the tread with chalk, pencil, > or a Sharpie and take your measurements off of that > line. > Caster isn't adjustable (other than as a side-effect > of setting the camber) without shimming the beam > (typically at the bottom) away from the frame > head...but the spec, in case you decide to let > Canadian Tire have another go at it, is 3�20' � 1�. > This equates to a difference in CAMBER between the > reading with wheels turned 20� left versus 20� right > of 2�15' �40'. > > You also need to assure that the steering box is at > its true center when the wheels are pointed straight > ahead. Since God only knows how many times the > steering wheel may have been off & on the column in > the last 37 years (and with no "master" spline, it > could easily have been reinstalled a spline or two > off) the pragmatic approach to this is to turn the > wheels to full lock in either direction, checking that > neither tire is contacting the beam/lower control arm > before the Pitman arm hits its stops. Count the > steering wheel turns from lock-to-lock (approximately > 2-3/4) and put the wheel at exactly the halfway point > - hopefully it'll be straight. If it is, when you > adjust the the toe-in you should make equal changes in > opposite directions on each tierod. If not, you may > need to adjust one side more than the other. This > assumes that nobody has changed the steering box or > adjusted the stops since the car left the factory, in > which case the stops need to be backed off until > they'e ineffective so you can find the true steering > box center and start over. Also, of course, that the > beam, control arms. spindles & tierods are dead-true > (never taken a shot that might've bent any of them a > little) and that the ball joints and tierod ends have > no excess slop in them. > Sound daunting? The good news is that you can probably > do just as good a job at home as you can expect from > any chain-store with a rack trying to get the job done > in the allotted time, and Standard Beetles aren't > really that particular anyway (if you're even close, > the worst that'll happen is the tires may wear > slightly faster) ...so you may as well go for it! > > > --- Courtney Hook <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I was just told that Canadian Tire couldn't do the > > alignment on my 70 bug because they didn't have the > > specs. I can't imagine an easier vehicle to do one > > on, so thought, what the heck, I'll do it myself. I > > seem to recall you could do one yourself with a tape > > measure. Has anyone done one lately and remembers > > the procedure? I posted it to the type 2 list as > > well, because the front ends are the same design. > > Thanks, > > Courtney > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > > _______________________________________________ > vintagvw site list > [email protected] > http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw > _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list [email protected] http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
