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When my tires are straight the steering wheel is turned about a 1/3 to the right. Until I get my next paycheck and can get back to Sears: Which tie rod do I need to adjust? And do I need to move the nut away from car or towards the car?
This is one of the reasons why I will never buy a car again because I will have to jack it up, make the adjustment, lower it, test, and so on. If I had something that was taller obviously I would not have to jack it over and over.
Thanks!
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Did you get the car like this, or did you do something that messed things up? If it was the tie rods then you would need to move one it and the other out to line it up.
It is possible to do an kinda okay (not great) alinement job with a tape measure. But that’s just to adjust the toe. Your steering wheel may be off, or the steering box may be off… Something is not right in a big way if you’re that far off.The last alignment was in Jan. 2012 and I guess I have hit some pot holes.
So does the driver side tie rode come in or the passenger side?
Well pulling a tie rod in will make for greater (or lesser depending) toe. If you’re toe is off that is a good thing. If your toe is proper and something else is amiss you’ll end up with crazy toe in (or out) and eat up your tires really fast.
With a tape measure and a trusty assistant measure from the front side point the tire hits the ground to the other tire. Then do the same on the back side of the same tires. Hard to explain… lets try that again. Measure between the front two tires a stop on the tire in front of where it touches the ground and then again behind. With some math you can figure out your approximate toe by doing this. I’m a little rusty on my Trig, so I can’t give you the formulas.
But the important thing is to see if you have about the right toe. If you see otherwise, and only if you see otherwise should you think about adjusting the tie rods. The steering wheel is not the thing you should base your adjustments on.With the car sitting on a level hard surface, place a concrete block on the outside of each front wheel. Place a straight edge (2×4 etc.) on top of each block pushed up against the tires. Measure from one straight edge to the other in front of the tire then in back and compare measurements. For proper toe-in the distance should be slightly shorter in front, perhaps 1/16 inch. This keeps the car from “hunting” when driving down the road. As for the steering wheel, align the steering wheel in the proper position for straight ahead and use a piece of string to check the alignment from the rear tire to the front tire on each side. You can tell which side is most out of true with the steering wheel.
This does not affect driveability and from your description and with no information on what type of car we are dealing with, I suspect the steering sector or steering wheel has been disconnected from the rest of the steering linkage and reinstalled improperly.
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