Wheel alignment

[phillpot]

In this day and age of laser technology I thought I'd be able to pick up a set of Dunlop "track Sticks" for a good price but they are still fetching a lot of money on Ebay!

So, anyone got or tried these Gunson drive over type?

[BP-TVR]

Hi Mike, yes I've got one and find it very useful. Mine seems to be quite close to tracking values from the garage. In any rate it's good for getting close, especially when you are working on the car on various steering/ suspension issues over a period of several weekends. I also use four axle stands, two lengths of string and a steel tape for four wheel alignment; and also, a home made tracking gauge made from a length of wood (longer than the track length) which fits across tight up under the tyres with a piece of plywood screwed to each end to make uprights to get to mid wheel height, just like the old Dunlop jobs, and then use a steel rule to measure the gap from wheel rim to plywood on one side when on the other wheel the plywood is touching the wheel rim. The plywood needs to be a wierd shape to miss the tyre bulge and also have a "return" at mid wheel height to measure from but it's remarkable how close you can get with patience and averaging values from switching the gauge around.

[phillpot]

Thanks for that Brian, I've "played around" with bits of string and wood but thought it would be nice to have the "real thing" but not at the prices they're fetching !

The Gunson's seem to be "buy it now" but as luck would have it there is one for auction at the moment so we'll see how it goes

[jagracer]

phillpot said:

Thanks for that Brian, I've "played around" with bits of string and wood but thought it would be nice to have the "real thing" but not at the prices they're fetching !

The Gunson's seem to be "buy it now" but as luck would have it there is one for auction at the moment so we'll see how it goes

That buy it now price seems quite good as I remember seeing them for £60+ five years ago. They are a very good and easy way to check the scrub angle on a car.

[Adrian@]

I have one, and the beauty is that it relates to only the one wheel that you are working on, it is hyper critical to being on a flat level surface and the internal rollers being kept clean. I was at Ti Curchills training school 30 plus years ago when they totally believed that every garage would have this design of wheel tracking setup installed into the floor and the kit at that time was 7-8000 UKP.
Adrian@