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**Guest** · 13 February 2004, 14:50

Originally posted by Mart

What do all these angles mean and where can they be mesured from?

93' UK 4Runner (from Toyota dealer)...............

(all in degrees, can't find the key for it)
Camber.....0.10 to 1.10
Caster......1.10 to 2.10
Toe..........0.03 to 0.15
Inc. angle...12.35
SAI............11.55

I appreciate that they are all required for the tracking but how do you measure them ? Is there no quick and dirty way of checking between wheels to see if the are parallel ? Help ?

Reason behind this I had mine tracked by a local Universal Tyre place and they laser tracked it ?!?! Anyway upon driving away the car pulls to the left as before. What could be causing this and how do I correct it apart from the Toyota stealers ?!!

cheers

Mart.

OK this is the first 3 don't know what the other two are.

Camber is the lean from top to bottom of the wheel, i.e. how far out of vertical it is. Negative camber is where the bottom of the wheel is further out than the top, i.e. the top leans in towards the car. This is generally good for performance cars as it helps the tyre to stay flatter on the road under heavy cornering. Positive camber is the oposite.

Caster is how far out of vertical the steering swivel point is. If the top is further forward or the bottom is further forward when looked at from the side of the car. The amount of caster either negative or positive affects the weight and self centering capability of the car.

Toe in or toe out is when you look at the front of the car and whether the wheel run completely parallell (0 degress tracking) or whether they point in at the front (Toe in) or point out at the front (toe out). Again this affects the steering feel and wear of the tyres. Tends to depend on the wheelbase, size of tyres and turning circle as to what is the best setting.

None of these can really be checked accurately at home as the tollerances are diffcult to measure accurately without optical measuring equipment. For instance a typical setting of 1 - 3 degrees toe in would be difficult to see or measure as the difference in distance between the front and rear of the tyres (thats basically how it is measured) will be only mm.

Pulling to the left could be a number of things not limited to the following.

1. Tyre differences (pressure or tread depth)
2. Brake binding (scored or warped discs or seized caliper)
3. Shock absorber
4. Most likely the steering idler arm bushes being worn. Mine pulls to the left and that is the reason. Check for free play in the steerin. There should be minimal. Get someone to turn the steering wheel with the engine running and look at the steeing idler as it moves (it's under the front passenger side at the front). You will see any abnormal movement quite easily.

Cheers

**Mart** · 13 February 2004, 16:27

thanks for the advise. I feared as much on the tracking front. I will have a look at the idler arm over the weekend. I assume if replaced the car will need tracking again.

Am I right in assuming that there is no adjustment for Caster ? I looked underneath and couldn't see any adjusters. There are the bolts top and bottom on the two struts but I am assuming they only adjust left / right changing the angle of the camber. ( i assume this by the fact that the bolts go through the chasis and neither that nor the two struts seem to be adjustable in any other way)

Cheers for the advice

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Tracking -- the angles (other posts didn't help)

Tracking -- the angles (other posts didn't help)

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