DIY wheel alignment

[westy12]

gday guys,
its been a while since ive posted anything ive had the van off the road for a few years and only recently had it back on the road...
a while ago i got a wheel alignment done, took it straight home and took the wheels off and clamped two levels to the disks...
i measuresd the distance at the disks, and then 1m out from the disks. they were exactly 30mm toe in at 1m...
now after driving it for a while since ive had it back on the road ive noticed the tyres are wearing on the inside of both of them... when the wheels are on the ground and i put the levels across the tyres, (not as accurate but pretty close!) it says that they are toeing out by 15mm...
thinking that this is why my tyres are wearing on the inside i just adjusted it up so that it was running parrallel when on the ground...  i have also had the tyres spun on the rims to even out the wear..
 now it wanders over the road a bit and the wheel shakes a little which it never used to do..
i think the wandering could be coz i spun the tyres but not sure on the shaking... and yes ive had the wheels balanced...
now im thinking of just getting the wheels up in the air and going back to to 30mm toe in at 1m like it was? just about to go on a big trip up the coast so want to get it sorted before i go.
any help and thoughts would be appreciated im sure someone out there knows?!
thanks in advance... westy

[maicoletta]

dude, get another alignment done!

And if youve got bad camber, worn the tyres out, flipped them then its gonna ride like crap!

$50 will get you a front end alignment in most places- I run a Bridgestone in Cranbourne

[AndrewOC]

Haynes manual (1988 ed.), page 182:
"Toe-in measured on wheel rims at height of wheel centres 0.76 to 3.3 millimetres"
This would be wheels on ground, level, normal load, vehicle rolling straight ahead.

Are your wishbone inner bushes loose/ worn?  When mine were flogged out, touching the brakes caused unpleasant steering!
stay safe,
Andrew.

[IWander]

maicoletta is right. All youve managed to do by flipping the tyres around is put the crappy worn area on the road. If the tyre/s have a scalloping or regular lump, then divot & lump, treads worn unevenly, with bald spots or cupping usually means wheel imbalance, poor alignment, shock absorber or rubbers worn.

The tyres are already damaged from the first use. These are probably better suited to the rear if too badly damaged to give serviceable use on the front.
What price do you want to put on safety westy12?

[westy12]

gday so the reason i didnt want to go to a wheel alignment place is because i like to try to do things myself in the true bedford spirit! thats why we have the old beasts right?!
so i realised what i was doing wrong and i didnt have the van on flat ground when doing certain measurements...
so i looked at a few youtube clips of diy wheel alignments and got it sussed
so you run two string lines down the length of the van parrallel with the rear wheels and then adjust the fronts a couple of mm toe in from that when the van is on level ground...
pretty straight forward really...
i just did a 1600km round trip and it was all good. still a little jumpy over bumps etc probably coz i spun the tyres but its all good, makes it fun to drive!!
will get new front tyres soon tho theyre about done.
take it easy...

[westy12]

suppose i should log off now as i see ive been on all over the xmas period!!
maybe users should be automatically logged off after 24 hrs if they forget??

[Marishka]

I use the string method,
An old bloke taught me 30 years ago.
Quick and easy.

[SkippyThBushKangeroo]

i thought the springs set the camber which should be zero camber, ( had to do that few weeks ago by cutting springs down , yes was nervous but all panned out ok,.) phew.. and also had to do my own alighnment  which should also i believe be zero toe in or out.... all runs true for me now .. cheers skippy

[SkippyThBushKangeroo]

P.S. i used the method for alighnment that baz suggested to me last year 

[Dano]

Hi Yas, today I had the LWB done by pedders, $88.00 smakers and she's as sweet as a 350 Beddie could be, with the lowered springs from the shorty I noticed the camber was a little negative (in @ the top) and was concerned that the extra weight of the LWB was making the wheels pull in, but all rosey..... I needed a few diff bolts torquing up as well (100+lbs) so i got them to go right over it, happy pappy now........ will post the report below for the home bods to refer to in the future...

AND to confirm the Bedford steering column is classified NOT colapsable by Pedders Suspension....they refered to the "forums" and suggested the VN Steering column for a alternative.