Recently somebody pointed out the wear pattern on my front tires that suggested an alignment problem so this evening I got the Ford manual and checked it out. It's is old stuff to some of you, but I thought some who haven't done this would like to see. The book says the front wheels should be 3/16" to 1/4" closer together in front than they are in back. This is called gather. So I did some measuring.
I marked the distance between felloes in front.
It's a little out of focus, but I think you can see that the felloes are over an inch and a half farther apart in back!
Adjustment is pretty simple. Just disconnect everything here...
...and turn here.
Mission accomplished. 1/4" achieved.
Great photos Steve.
AS LONG AS YOUR AT IT WHY DONT YOU CHECK THE CASTER AND CAMBER ALSO. YOU DIDNT MENTION IF YOU HAD ANY SHIMMY WITH THAT MUCH TOE IN IF YOU DO
JUST RELEASE YOUR GRIP ON THE STEERING WHEEL FOR A MOMENT AND IT WILL GO AWAY. LEE
Steve,
Your method should work well as long as your wheels run true. Another method is to use two yard stick sized sticks and a small clamp. Clamp the two sticks together so they just touch the tire or wheel/fellow in the front. Then hold up the clamped sticks to the same point in the back and you can very easily see the required 3/16" to 1/4" space.
If they are warped at all then the measurement will be off. To eliminate any effect of a warped wheel you will get a better result by spinning the wheel and drawing a line on the road surface of the tire with a fixed pencil/marker/chalk. Then measure the gather/toe in using the lines on the tire surface.
Jim
That was a good way of measuring with the tube.
Recently I helped a friend on here straighten out his front end on his new speedster.. His was out more than 2 inches closer to 3 1/2" actually. We had to heat and bend to make things right.
Jim is correct abou the bent wheel thing. My 26' has a wheel that wobbles and I had to make several measurements to get mine good.
Jim is right, if your wheels are not exactly true, this could be a crap shoot. The best way to do this measurement is to jack the front axle up and mark the wheels where you measure in the front, and then rotate them so that you measure in the same place on the wheel in the back. The chalk and line method works well too, but requires you have both ends on the measuring device on the mark.
Best
Gus
Steve
I think the "gather" is supposed to be measured at the tread of the tire not at the rim. (If I'm wrong on this someone chime in !) It does make a little difference.
An easy method for me is to put a piece of masking tape on the middle of the tread of the tires with an inked line on it. Put it at the 90 deg position straight forward. Measure the difference.
Push the car so the tape is at the 90 position but facing straight back and measure again.
The difference is the toe in where the wheel meets the road.
Easy to get an accurate measurement this way.
Cheers
schuh
Bud:
The Ford Service manual says to measure at the felloe, not at the tread.
If you only look at the diagrams in the manual, you would think it was a toss-up between taking the reading at the tread, edge of the tire or rim. However, if you read the text, it says felloe.
How about just plain TOE IN! I've always put a chalk line in the center of the tire, and used a measuring tape. Works for me.
Thanks Erik, I learn something new every day! Felloes it is!
Cheers
schuh
Yeah, gotta call it "Toe in". No one will ever be able to find it in a search if you call it "Gather". Or "Tow in".
Gather is the Ford term for toe-in. In the Ford manual, caster is called pitch. Camber is called camber. Gather is the only part of Model T alignment that is easily adjusted. Pitch is built into the perches and can only be changed by bending (or by installing the perches backwards). Caster also is built in. It's wrong only if the axle or spindle is bent, and is fixed by bending.
Steve, you are right about pitch [caster] being built into the perches, but it is adjusted by bending the radius rod, not the perches. Camber is adjusted by bending the axle in the vertical plane. I used to get confused between caster and camber until they brought out that ridiculous Volkswagen Beetle with its reversed camber rear wheels. That is my cue to get it right, I think!
Allan from down under.
Allan, we used to love to pickup the back of those VWs to get the tires to tuck in like that.