Inner & Outer Tie Rods 70 Javlein

One thing I would do is look at the original parts if still available. You can guess how far to adjust the inner and outer with the threads. The threads should be cleaner where the adjuster sleave was covering them. I know one side may be a wee different, but it will get you in a good start point.

With the wheels on the ground would be best as full travel down will cause toe out when weight is on the suspension.

It is safer to have a wee toe in, but toe out can force you to over steer. If your alignment shop is within a 10 mile area, taking a road instead of freeway will be safe enough as long as 40 MPH is not exceeded. Wear will be at a minimum by not going too far too fast.

You can drive around the block to see how the car tracks going forward and reversing. In an clear area like a parking lot.

As long as you don't have to fight the wheel from turning left or right, you are ok for eyeball.

If you want to set alignment toe you can easily do it with string. Clean the back of the rear tire tread around the vertical center, tape a piece of non-stretchy string to the rear of the tire vertical centered, then pull the string forward across the center of the rear wheel all the way across the center of the front wheel and look at where the string touches the front tire, if the string touches the rear of the tire first you have toe in, if the string touches the front first you have toe out. Be sure your vehicle is parked on a level surface, the tires are properly inflated and the steering wheel is centered. It is easiest to string both sides and just go from side to side. I do this to all my cars after replacing tie rods and have never had abnormal tire wear.

Tony

Edited by fasttony - Jun/23/2017 at 9:01am

That should be easy to correct for, if the vehicle front wheel spacing is narrower then measure the distance from the string in to the front wheel, if the front spacing is wider tape correction shims to both areas of the rear wheel where the string is pulled over.

Tony

 I learned the string alignment method from stock car racing also I have friends that raced local short tracks, if a racing incident happened during practice or heat race where the toe was out they would string it, if an incident happened during the race they had to live with it, any method that gets the toe set enough so the car could be driven to a shop would work.

Seems there is two of us dealing with the same basic issues. I am also in the process of setting up my alignment on a 70 today.

I have the tie rod thing sorted out, but my steering wheel is 180 out. How do I turn that around? The rag joint only works one way, but the wheel does not seem to be able to be flipped around because of the horn assembly.

What am I missing here?

Thanks!

Chris