Toe Settings

[vcavallaro]

If a recommended toe setting is said to be 0.5° toe-out, does that mean a total of 1° when left and right are combined? Or is that a total amount? I would take it as a single side measurement since other measurements are given on a single side basis.

 

I'm setting the toe on my '98 Cobra and have seen a recommended 0.5° toe-out for racing. I currently have 0.4° at each side, for a total of 0.8°. I recently ran at Gingerman and had a problem with the right front wearing excessively on the inside shoulder. At the time, I thought it was a camber problem and made an adjustment at the track that helped a lot. But upon further research, I am inclined to believe it was a toe problem.

 

I ran Road Atlanta with the same settings as my initial settings at Gingerman without any problem at all. I was running R3S03s and had a camber setting of -2.5° and a caster of 6.5°. Gingerman involves a whole lot of time in right hand turns, but Road Atlanta is a clockwise track also.

 

I hope I have given enough information, but let me know if anything else is needed to accurately diagnose. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[vcavallaro]

Bueller..... Bueller..... ?????

 

Come on guys.

[davidfarmer]

I usually would assume .5 deg means .5 deg total.

 

1/2 deg is nearly 3/16". That sounds like a lot of toe out to me. I usually run about 1/16 total toe out in the front. You create a lot of rolling resistance (bearing & tire wear) if you run very much.

 

Dave

[vcavallaro]

Thanks a lot for the response Dave. That's what I suspected.

 

But I have to take this a little further. Unless there is a standard for the distance between front and rear measurements, giving settings in terms of inches doesn't make a lot of sense. It would vary based on the size of the toe plates you use. There may be a standard that I'm not aware of though. I'm not using a professional set of plates and maybe they're all made so that the front and rear measurements are taken at a set distance apart.

 

Thanks again for the input and I enjoyed the hell out of watching you this weekend. Good luck with your racing.

Edited August 16, 2005 by Guest

[V8cobra99]

1/8th toe out is about max in most cases.

[davidfarmer]

I always work on the same car, and inches are the way I do it. I make my measurements at the rim, so the spread is 18".

 

If you want to give us your diameters (measured at the tire edge??), I'll be happy to re-analyze it. As a mechanical engineer, I live for doing Trig and Geometry

 

btw, here is a diy alignment sheet I did for the Corvette Forum a few years ago. It is very repeatable and uses only a tape measure and straight edge. Toe and Camber only, but I can explain diy castor if you need my method. For a track only Vette, castor isn't really a very usefull measurement. http://www.metricchemical.com/align.PDF

[vcavallaro]

Thanks for the great info guys.

 

I know I have waaaaay too much. I guess I'll reset it this weekend to be 1/16" @ 17". I believe that works out to be about 0.2° and should be conservative based on what's been posted here.

[davidfarmer]

yes, that works out to about 0.2 deg, and sounds perfect!