4 replies to this topic

[YankWithAMini]

I recently got the car aligned, and the rear toe was very uneven. One side was at 1.8 mm (0.07 inches) toe in, the other was 5.8  mm (.22 inches) toe in. I thought I would fix it by ordering the adjustable toe/camber brackets from MS, but after fitting, the best I could get the toe settings to is 1 mm toe in and 5 mm toe in (I think the target value is around 1.5 mm on each side, toe in, correct?).

 

My next thought was to center the bracket adjustment and add shims, then use the brackets to fine tune. I started on the less-bad side and added a few shims, but the thickness of the shims caused the bracket holes to not align well. I ended up forcing it and stripping one of the captive nuts on the bottom of the subframe, so now have to fix that.

 

The advice I am looking for is: 1) do I continue on this path and file out the holes in the radius arm brackets to account for the shims? 2) Just slot the inner subframe? Given the number of shims I will probably need on the side that is >5mm toe in, it will probably require a decent amount of grinding on the bracket holes.

 

 

 

[68+86auto]

If you need much (any) adjustment, something is bent/worn or installed incorrectly.

[DeadSquare]

You are meant to have 1/8" toe in.

[Spider]

Let me guess here - the kerb side arm was the worst one ?

The arms bend from being knocked and also just mileage over time on bumpy / rough roads. The Kerb side arm cops it worse for obvious reasons and also that just tends to be the rougher part of the road.

The arms are made from a particular grade of cast iron, it is amazing flexible and elastic. They most certainly can be bent back (off car !), with safety to their correct alignment fairly easily in a press, the only issue being here knowing how much to bend them. I have made a precision jig for doing them, however if you are patient enough, you can bend a little, loosely (within reason) refit it to the car just by the pin and bracket and literately look from above to get them close. When I do them, I actually over bend them, giving lots of toe IN (about 5 - 6 mm on each side) and then they can be shimmed back. As they were from the factory, they were 'correct' and adding in shims would make them toe OUT so effectively, you had no adjustment.

I'd suggest 3/32" to 3/16"  (2 - 4 mm) total Toe IN on the rear is fine for the street. Factory figure is 1/8" (3.2 mm) total.

[Cooperman]

I am still 'old school'. I file the holes in the brackets forwards or backwards, (or up or down to get the camber to zero to 0.5 neg), then weld large washers on the brackets to maintain the settings. It always seems to work fine, is not expensive and relatively easy to measure when doing it.