Tracking adjustment

i know I've got a tracking problem wih the car, and I'll shortly be replacing the inner and outer track rod on the Near side because there's excessive play. While boning up on how to adjust the tracking afterwards, YouTube videos are saying as a first step the steering wheel needs to be centred. I understand why, but what I cnat quite understand is that the advice given is to count the visible threads on the inner rod and adjust so both sides have an equal number of visible breads. This sounds to me like they're saying that every single car is destined so that the ends of the steering rack are the exact same distance from the wheel, and that all outer track rods for a particular car are the same length and all inner rods are threaded the exact same amount

Surely not? If I'm doing the cantering wheel operation by counting threads, am I best off replacing all rods in pairs from the same manufacturer and hoping that the rack is dead central?

By all means replace the track rod ends......undo each nut 1/2 turn, and then unscrew the old end. Then pop the new one on, tightening the nut back up the 1/2 turn again.
Off to Kwik Fit or similar then, who should ensure that the steering wheel is central before adjusting anything.
(The mentioned firm now have the latest laser gear to sort tracking).
John

I appreciate your dilemma, all track rods are not the same length, it would be very nice if they were, but if you rely on replacing them with the same amount of thread showing you will likely find that there is a tracking error.

Before you centre the wheel its a good idea to turn it from end to end and make sure it goes the same distance each way to ensure its central.

Peter

Heard good things about the Gunsons Trakrite gauge, which you roll the car over to get the tracking reading. No pracatical experience of it myself though, and almost certainly easier to take the car in as already said unless you are doing a lot of tracking.

I remember seeing one of those in the '50s before MOT's came in, actually measures the wheel run in/out under driving conditions, brilliant idea.

I track my wheels using a length of threaded rod slid inside a metal tube, adjust it until its just touching the inside edge of the tyres at the front about level with the bottom of the wheel, then repeat at the rear of the wheel, it will either have a gap (towing in) or it will be tight (towing out), adjust accordingly. Been using that for about 40 years, never had a problem.

Peter

Peter.N. said:

I remember seeing one of those in the '50s before MOT's came in, actually measures the wheel run in/out under driving conditions, brilliant idea.

I track my wheels using a length of threaded rod slid inside a metal tube, adjust it until its just touching the inside edge of the tyres at the front about level with the bottom of the wheel, then repeat at the rear of the wheel, it will either have a gap (towing in) or it will be tight (towing out), adjust accordingly. Been using that for about 40 years, never had a problem.

Peter

Click to expand...

Yes, I used to have something similar, length of conduit bent into a shallow "U" to give a bit more room, nut brazed into each end. Lost somewhere in a move.

I bought a second hand laser tracker on eBay, haven't used it yet because it hadn't arrived by the time I had to do the tracking adjustment, post fitting new track rods . Used a bit of fishing line from the back wheels and tracked to 0degrees. It's a fwd so should probably be slightly toe out, but amazingly with the wheel dead central it drives in a straight line and continues to to so when let go. I'll be interested to see how far out the laser says it is..

The trackace laser tracker I have doesn't seem to be able to help with centring the wheels though (there's a mirror and a laser. You put the mirror on one wheel and adjust the laser so the mirror bounces the dot back to 0 on the scale, then leaving the laser alone, move the mirror to the other wheel and see where the dot now lands).. Only to calibrate them to each other. I suppose once calibrated, so long as each wheel is adjusted by turning the track rod the same amount, the forward motion will say whether they're central.. Just a bit more messing than I was hoping for (but so was my string method)

Its a good idea to make sure the steering wheel is central before you start by seeing if it turns the same distance to each lock, if it isn't you have to work out which track rod wants adjusting and in which direction, you have to think about this for a minute but you can usually get there.

Peter

Good call, as I suppose it's always possible he car will have had its steering centred in the past by moving the steering wheel round by a spline rather than adjusting the track rods.. Will look at that when I take the time out to change the other rod