Alignment adjustments.

[GuzziMoto]

You answered the question for yourself. The only way to adjust, or change toe in or out is by adjusting the length of the tie rod! Tilting the axle back or forward, while the axle and tie rod are set and tightened, will not move the toe adjustment. The tire contact patch on the ground will be the same. In an extreme example the only effect on the wheel would be the angle at which it is set in the relationship with the flat surface, that’s in effect changing the caster, wether the wheel is leaning in or out of the wheel well. Not toe. On a solid axle.

Toe is not a measurement of how short or long your tie rod is. It is a measurement of how much the contact patches of the tires are pointing inward towards each other or outward away from each other.

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[antihero23]

Few things you need to know about alignments and pulls, if you don't know it already....

1) Tire pressure and wear patterns matter. Sometimes just flipping tires around "fixes" things. There are some pulls that no alignment can fix because the fault is in one or more tires.

2) Thrust angle matters a lot, and there's not a lot you can do about it without a lot of adjustable pieces. If you "set" front alignment without knowing thrust angle, you're wasting time. All you driveway aligners that can't measure thrust angle are just entertaining yourselves.

3) Pulls go towards less (more negative) caster and/or more (positive) camber. Caster is the imaginary line connecting the upper and lower ball joints, camber is the inward or outward lean of the top of the wheel. Positive caster leans that imaginary line towards the driver, and that's a good thing. Positive camber has the top of the wheel leaning outward. Anything more than about 1-1.5 degrees difference from side to side will cause a pull with both camber and caster. Caster numbers matter for drivability, straight line tracking, and steering, but they're not that crucial. Get them even-ish in the positive and rock on.

4) Toe adjustment errors can and will definitely cause a pull and crooked steering wheels. Also savage tire wear.

5) Slight pulls to the right on roads with crowning are normal.

 

[Sandman 4x4]

Toe is not a measurement of how short or long your tie rod is. It is a measurement of how much the contact patches of the tires are pointing inward towards each other or outward away from each other.

I would love to see you or anyone else actually adjust toe in or out without touching the tie rod, in a Jeep with straight front axle. A vehicle with rack & pinion steering will be different, that is when you need to adjust the ends either in or out.

 

[GuzziMoto]

I would love to see you or anyone else actually adjust toe in or out without touching the tie rod, in a Jeep with straight front axle. A vehicle with rack & pinion steering will be different, that is when you need to adjust the ends either in or out.

Sorry, no one is suggesting you adjust toe by changing caster. No one is that stupid, right? The question was, does toe change if caster is changed. The answer is, technically, yes. It is a small difference, but it is a difference.

 

[Sandman 4x4]

Sorry, no one is suggesting you adjust toe by changing caster. No one is that stupid, right? The question was, does toe change if caster is changed. The answer is, technically, yes. It is a small difference, but it is a difference.

You will never make a bit of difference in a straight axle Jeep design by only changing caster. However you can but only on Fords Twin Traction Beam axles of the past. That once set actually changes toe on every uneven bump, that’s what bump steer is called. But once all the front end is tightened up on a Jeep like ours? It’s set period.

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