Tracking on a 350

[darren350]

After spending several £s (please dont tell wifey how much these things cost) renewing the complete steering and all bushes and ball joints on the front of my 87 350 it is time to set the tracking. I am running Cerb wheels with 225/45/16 SO3s at 22 psi.I cant find a setting in the bible so I am thinking 1.5 degree toe in should do it. anyone got any other ideas ?????

[paul gotts]

darren350 said:

After spending several £s (please dont tell wifey how much these things cost) renewing the complete steering and all bushes and ball joints on the front of my 87 350 it is time to set the tracking. I am running Cerb wheels with 225/45/16 SO3s at 22 psi.I cant find a setting in the bible so I am thinking 1.5 degree toe in should do it. anyone got any other ideas ?????

The 350 handbook says toe in 3.2mm + / - 1.5mm. The factory gave me a figure of toe in 30 mins. for my 400, but I don't know how that equates to mm.

Paul

[SEvans]

Have to say that when I was trying to set mine up last year the question of converting the mm to deg did arise. I believe there is a conversion chart for this which takes in to account wheel size etc.

[FrenchTVR]

SEvans said:

I believe there is a conversion chart for this which takes in to account wheel size etc.

That would be a handy thing to have

[darren350]

Still no wiser my tracking irons are pre war and read in degrees and mins /???

[leorest]

SEvans said:

Have to say that when I was trying to set mine up last year the question of converting the mm to deg did arise. I believe there is a conversion chart for this which takes in to account wheel size etc.

mm to degrees should be easy to work out, just a bit of trig (Mrs Bunyan would be proud of me) I'm working on a spreadsheet to calculate all this sort of stuff.
Assuming that mm is the difference of the distances between the rims at the front edge and back edge then...

mm=tan(angle)*(rim diameter)
or
angle=arctan(mm/(rim diameter))

I would like to learn more about the mathematics behind suspension geometry's but haven't found a good reference book. Any ideas anyone? I posted on the suspension forum but got no help there.

Once I understand how it all works then I intend making my own laser alignment kit. I reckon the parts will cost about the same as having a full geometry setup done by a garage but I should be more accurate and will be using the chassis centreline as a datum whereas most of the garage stuff just work off of the four wheels.

Leo