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Toe-in adj.

9708 Views 29 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  Tomiboy
Anyone know how to adjust toe-in? My right front is WAY off and wearing the tire. Will almost certainly take it to the shop for adjustment but I'd still like to know how to do it.

All replies welcome.
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Its your camber, not toe and its normal.
well if you take it to the dealer don't count on it always being correct.. so other than taking it to a alignment shop .. I found several ways to get it very close.. one is using a string line on level ground at correct ride height tires aired the same-place 4 jack stands at each corner of the car about a foot away in the front and back. wrap a fence string line around each of the jack stands making a square around the car... run the back strings so they almost touch the back tires on the side move the front stands in till it almost touches the tires. start on drivers side turn steering wheel straight.. view tire left front and adjust until both front and back side of tire or rim is equal distance to string and the left rear the same with a parallel line and steering wheel straght.. do the same for the other side.. this is 0 deg.. I found setting it a 0 to 1/8" toe in is the best.. take it for a spin and make sure the steering wheel is straight.. the other quickie is clamp a 4' board to lower outside face of the front rim and use a tape measure.. have a buddy hold the tape measure on the same groove of the face of the tire you will get close enough.. but here is the spec
465
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Its your camber, not toe and its normal.
Sandman, I looked at the picture. If mine was that straight I wouldn't have even posted the question. I understand and agree with your camber comment.
thanks
well if you take it to the dealer don't count on it always being correct.. so other than taking it to a alignment shop .. I found several ways to get it very close.. one is using a string line on level ground at correct ride height tires aired the same-place 4 jack stands at each corner of the car about a foot away in the front and back. wrap a fence string line around each of the jack stands making a square around the car... run the back strings so they almost touch the back tires on the side move the front stands in till it almost touches the tires. start on drivers side turn steering wheel straight.. view tire left front and adjust until both front and back side of tire or rim is equal distance to string and the left rear the same with a parallel line and steering wheel straght.. do the same for the other side.. this is 0 deg.. I found setting it a 0 to 1/8" toe in is the best.. take it for a spin and make sure the steering wheel is straight.. the other quickie is clamp a 4' board to lower outside face of the front rim and use a tape measure.. have a buddy hold the tape measure on the same groove of the face of the tire you will get close enough.. but here is the spec
View attachment 465
AJB, Very good information. I did something similar with a string and jack stands. My right front is toed our probably 2". I got the ball joint apart but couldn't get the rod itself to adjust. Is there a trick to breaking it loose? I'll take some pics tonight. Thanks
Sandman, I looked at the picture. If mine was that straight I wouldn't have even posted the question. I understand and agree with your camber comment.
thanks
Post a pic so we can see what’s going on.
First two pics are the same shot. Notice how toed out it is. Passenger front is pointing right. It's hitting the front of the front tire so much that the string is not touching the front of the back tire. The Drivers side is also toed out but not as extreme. The last pic is just to show the wheel position is straight. The floor jack is not touching the machine. One thing I want to mention, when we first bought it, the steering wheel wasn't clocked straight, so I had the shop make the adjustment. Don't know if they messed with the front or re-clocked the steering wheel some way.. I never really stood at the front of it and took a hard look until recently. Seems badly out of adjustment to me and I have not hit anything to make it that way . Thought's?
Take the car off the jack/blocks when checking toe alignment. It needs to be down on the ground with suspension settled. Not jacked up.
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Take the car off the jack/blocks when checking toe alignment. It needs to be down on the ground with suspension settled. Not jacked up.
The jack is not touching the car in the pictures. I mentioned that above.
Sorry missed that. Yeah, you got some toe-out going on. How does it drive?
Surprisingly well. It don't pull one way or the other and the steering wheel is reasonably straight when driving straight. It's my wife's and where we live can ride on the street. It's got about 300 miles on it. We went to the store the other day and when I came out it was facing me just right and wow...right front especially really pointed out. Started looking at the tire and can see unusual wear. For the adjustment itself, there is like a large lock nut that is probably an inch and a half long. It first looked to me like that was all one piece that was connected to the ball joint of the steering rod. Does that large nut break loose? Then you put a 17mm wrench on the rod to adjust in or out?
looks like your on the right track... do it with a string line takes some patience and you must keep the string taunt. sometimes I will run a tape measure between the strings behind the back wheels and the strings in front of the front wheels to make sure the strings are parallel .. but honestly your machine is so far out you could just eye ball it and get with in the tolerance that kawi allows.
seriously.. stand in front of your rig inline with the rt side and line the side walls of the tire up then step over to the rt side and you will obviously see how far out you are.. also you do not need to drop the tie rod to adjust.. just loosen the jam nut on the tie rod.. one end is left thread and one end is rt thread.. that way when you turn the center of the rod it will expand or contract to make the adjustment of each side... I'm sure you are aware of this but I put it out there for some info for all
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one more thing when ever you have jacked your rig up in the air you should roll it or drive it a few ft forward and back to settle the suspension .. It gets rid of the toe change from jounce to rebound position.. something that is almost None on this rig but you still get a little bit of a bind... get it as close to "0" to slightly toed in but no more than 1/8" that's where the front of the front wheels are closer together. do not run toe'd out it puts too much stress on your steering components in my opinion and heavy handling
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You might still get uneven tire wear by driving it on the pavement, with negative camber.
Great for dirt and getting rid of track width scrub. Not so great for pavement.
For some reason I thought you were trying to get rid of the neg camber and that's why I posted the vid.
I see now that it's definitely a tow issue. If anyone at the dealer messed with it, you'd likely see tool marks. My guess is it came from the factory like that and no one at the dealer noticed it or would even know how to adjust it. Sounds like you got it, but for stuff like that, if you need help, I would find a shop that specializes in UTV/ATV suspension (if you have one within reasonable distance) before I'd let a dealership adjust it.
My 2 cents.
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You might still get uneven tire wear by driving it on the pavement, with negative camber.
Great for dirt and getting rid of track width scrub. Not so great for pavement.
For some reason I thought you were trying to get rid of the neg camber and that's why I posted the vid.
I see now that it's definitely a tow issue. If anyone at the dealer messed with it, you'd likely see tool marks. My guess is it came from the factory like that and no one at the dealer noticed it or would even know how to adjust it. Sounds like you got it, but for stuff like that, if you need help, I would find a shop that specializes in UTV/ATV suspension (if you have one within reasonable distance) before I'd let a dealership adjust it.
My 2 cents.
agree you may get some from the neg camber but if the toe is set near 0 and the tires are aired where there is some pounce it would be minimal.. tires don't seem to last long on side by sides due to damage anyway.. but thanks for input
Thanks to all. I'll adjust and report back. Have a great day.
I did go ahead and bring the right front in and it drives fine and looks way straighter but still want to fine tune per the spec sheet provided by AJB9. On another note, we just had the Kaw 6 point installed at the dealer. I noticed another krx and the right front was toed way out similar to mine. (before my adj.) I ask a tech to look at it. He said "yeah, that's correct, they want them toed out about .25" to handle better" Oh, right side only ..right? I didn't bother to tell him the spec sheet says to toe them in 20MM or just over 3/4". Another reason to research and do stuff yourself.
Exactly. They will stand there and make shit up as they're talking.
A dealership is not intended to be a mechanic shop. Their only purpose and intention is to sell products.
As well as buying laws many years ago that give them a monopoly on selling vehicles, they have a monopoly repairing them too. Theses days, if they hire "mechanics", it's usually a kid right out of a trade HS.
They don't want to spend the money on real specialists or experienced mechanics. And they don't want to see money go to independent shops for warranty work.
When sales people tell you that they don't make a lot on new vehicles, they're talking about themselves as employees. They lie about the markup from the manufacturer. They owners of these dealerships make ridiculous money. Partly because they hire kids out of HS and pay their sales people on shit commission.
You had to get me started on dealerships.
Anyway, I try to avoid ever taking any vehicle to a dealership for any reason. Even under warranty. To many stories. I would be typing all day.
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