With suggestions from a friend (Sherwood Parker) here is how I set the Toe-In on my TC.

First here is a picture of the tools necessary.

1. A carpenters Square

2. A smaller square

3. A roll of masking tape

4. A tape measure (minimum of six foot capacity.)

5. A pen

6. A smooth work surface (I used a paved garage floor)

7. A jack (not pictured here)

The first step in this process is to raise the front of the car. To do this I used a floor jack.

Any type of jack will work so long as you raise both front wheels high enough to clear the floor.

Set the steering wheel to the center so the tires are both straight ahead.

The next step is to put a piece of masking tape on the outside of each front wheel. Then draw two intersecting lines to identify a point on the tire. I put a horizontal line in the middle of the tape and a vertical line on the edge of a feature on the tire. This reference point needs to be the same distance from the center of the wheel on both sides of the car. The important thing is to identify a point on the outside edge of the tire for reference. Just one piece of tape and one point of reference on each front tire.

Now with the reference point about 16 inches above the floor of the garage. Directly below the reference point on the tire place a piece of masking tape on the floor of the garage. Then place the carpenters square as shown in the following pictures. The smaller square is used to keep the carpenters square straight up and down as shown in the following picture.

Move the carpenters square to the left or right and in or out as necessary for the end to be on the reference spot on the tire as show in the following picture.

Make sure to keep the carpenters square straight up and down by using the smaller square. Once you have the top of the carpenters square on your reference spot on the tire you can transfer that point to the piece of masking tape you put on the floor. This is where you must be very precise. The idea is to transfer the reference point to the floor. You now have a reference point on the floor which represents the reference point on the tire.

You are now ONE FOURTH of the way done locating points on the floor. Rotate the wheel 180 degrees and use the same reference point on that tire to locate a second reference point on the floor of the garage. You should now have two reference points on the floor. One at the rear of one tire and one at the front of the same tire. You are now ONE HALF of the way done locating points on the floor.

The purpose of using the same reference point is that it represents the plane that the tire runs in. There can be some wobble in the wheel and or in the tire. By using the same reference point you eliminate any wobble that there might be from your toe-in measurement.

Move to the other side of the car and do the same thing on the other front wheel. Locate a reference point on the floor for the front and for the rear of that tire. You are now DONE locating reference points on the floor.

The next step is to measure. Place one end of your tape measure at one of the reference points.

Now read the distance between the reference points at the other end of the tape measure.

Do this at both the front of the tire and at the rear of the tire.

I started with One Quarter of an inch of toe-in. To get this the rear measurement should be One Quarter of an inch LONGER than the front measurement. If your toe-in measures more or less than what you want, you will need to adjust the Tie Rod ends and repeat the process until you have what your desired toe-in is.

I found this method to be fast, and very easy to do. I utilized tools that most anyone would have in your garage. If not then they are relatively inexpensive to buy. This entire process took me less than one hour and now I know my toe-in is close to where I want it to be. I am planning on marking my Tie Rod then making road tests and adjustments to get the car to track its best. After I get the car to track its best I will again check the toe-in and see what works best for my car.

I should also mention that I found one of my front wheels had over One Quarter of an inch wobble. The other one was pretty straight so I switched the wobbly tire/wheel with my spare and it seems to be pretty straight.

SOME ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:

To be absolutely accurate when doing the forgoing process one would need to make the reference point on the tire at some point on the outside diameter of the tire. One would also need to make the reference point at the same height above the floor as the center point of the wheel. In my process the reference point on the side of the tire is about an inch and a half inside of the outside diameter of the tire and about an inch and a half above the center of the wheel. These discrepancies would make a slight difference in the outcome of your measurements, however I have used this method for a starting point.

A greater level of accuracy could also be achieved by placing a jack under each side of the car directly under the spring/axel intersection, thus eliminating any error caused by the axel bending from the weight of the car. I used a floor jack in the middle of the axel.

I have driven the car since this process and the steering is improved. I did not make any toe-in changes since I found that it was already set to one quarter of an inch. Switching out the wobbly wheel did make a difference. As I stated earlier I plan to make a mark on my Tie-Rod and test drive and adjust until I get it to go as straight as possible.

When I finished this project I came in the house and my wife pointed out this guy on our back porch:

LIFE IS GOOD!

Bud Silvers