Recently I did some work on the steering on my 1968 S Type Jaguar and replaced one of the ball joints. Although I took care in replacing the ball joint I still wanted the tracking checked so contact a couple of local tyre garages to do the work. Booked the car in for today and when I turned up they stated they could not do the tracking as the computer would not acknowledge the make and model of car. When I made the booking they were told what the make model and age of the car was. The earliest Jaguar they had on the computer was a 1986 XJ6 so I said just use the reading for that one then but no. Not being the correct car, it might have the same settings but if it was wrong and I had tyre wear then they could be liable for it as the car was not set up properly. I asked them just to set the car up then with the front wheels parallel but apparently this was too difficult for them to do again because it was computerised and they had to put the readings in that the computer would give them.
The world has officially gone too far with computers in garages. No longer are they mechanics but now they are fitters. They do not repair cars they fit new parts. They have a policy of if it is broken replace it rather than repair it even down to a nut or bolt.

Anyway I have found a Dunlop AGO/40 optical alignment gauge on Facebook Market place being sold for £100 about half a mile from my house which I have bought and am collecting tonight. I have gone halves with my mate who has a 1956 Bentley and a 1952 Alvis TA21. Steve is just changing a front Kingpin on the Bentley so will need his tracking checked. Tomorrow we will check all three cars and have change out of what the garage would have charged us if the computer had let them do the work on our cars.

In the blue book it says that I should have 1/8 of an inch toe in measured at the rims. Anyone know how much this is in degrees please?

 

((1/8)/15)*180/3.14 = 0.48 Deg. ... Sounds reasonable, but probably better for you to check my arithmetic.

 

Rob ~ are you trying to check toe or back to front alignment. My shops Hunter has the S Type in it but a 4 wheel alignment is impossible due to the S type rear arch. You can't attach the rear wheel alignment apparatus.

The toe alignment spec is 3 degrees max achieved equally on the OUTSIDE track rods with Varamatic steering. With 1st & 2nd Burman boxes the outer track rods are fixed length & you align toe on the centre rod.

I know that you know how to centre the drop arm with Varamatic steering.

 

The old car specialists that I know go to places that have Hunter equipment, so I presume they either have values stored or can they can be typed in.

For values, my Mk2 manual states parallel to 1/16 (zero to a quarter of a degree). It's the same for my Daimler.

Glyn - 3 deg sounds a lot to me. Should it be 0.3 deg?

 

Sorry Peter ~ Good catch. My metric upbringing showing. s/b mm.

 

The values are a range, generally zero to whatever. As the camber and toe-in tend to balance in terms of forces on the wheel (and if you can measure camber), there's something to be said, if you want to be a perfectionist, for setting them both towards the same end of the range. Thus, if camber is close to zero, make the toe-in close to zero as well.

 

I would like to dial in some negative camber up front. Not racing like 3 deg (this time correct) but some nevertheless. I would also like some caster at a rate that would require substantial modification at approx 9 deg. Both from racing experience. They would provide a good starting point.

 

Thanks guys. I will set it up as near to zero as I can edging on a fraction of a degree to toe in. I should be doing it tomorrow as I have just collected the equipment tonight so will let you know how I get on.

 

An angled skim of the mating faces of the upper fulcrum. Shave one side of the upper ball joint. And invert the upper fulcrum to maintain camber better under roll. The last idea might require a slight lowering of the front suspension to avoid scrubbing the tyres. Could tilt the subframe at the same time ... There's lots of scope for increasing caster.

The easy one -it doesn't need a milling machine- is to use a different number of spacers on each side of the upper fulcrum, though it will probably not get you to 9 degrees. I think Jeff or Jagboi mentioned it a while back as the 'Buick method.'

 

From what the club guys say it wont get you anyway near 9 degrees. I want to play in the 9 to 9,6 zone. They all say impossible so I don't know who to believe. They have tried it and talk of numbers half yours suggested. I'm not even vaguely interested in the 4.5 degree caster zone & I want min 2 deg negative camber. I don't want to drop the rear to look right with coilovers. I'd rather just leave it alone & tolerate what I have. All or nothing to I know what works on most cars. Most members just end up going back close to stock as a fruitless exercise. Nobody I know seems to have achieved my goal. I must inquire more deeply as to where they bump their heads. If I could get there I would fit the rear anti roll bar that is already catered for. All mounting points present with plugs in them. Narrower version only fitted to the E Type but the kit is available. Norman is doing his S Type now. (can't remember his handle here but we all know him on the Register).

But in hindsight I was told I could not fit an Alfa 1750 Berlina front suspension to a Alfa Romeo Giulia TI for the big discs & the dual servos & I achieved that. ~ so?!

Maybe I should fit my beautiful bespoke Nardi woodrim steering wheel first to boost the enthusiasm (one of 4 made). The car is just sitting in the garage at present under it's matching BRG cover while I renovate my house. What a PIA.

 

I did not write down my settings but I believe what I have that works pretty well is:
- Front around 1/16th" to 3/32" toe, about 1.5 degrees negative camber, caster somewhere between 4 to 6 positive (what is more important is that both sides are the same), Rears about the same toe and 1 degree negative camber in rear.

I would just experiment and drive it and adjust the negative camber to what feels good for your driving. These are old cars so it is often hard to find good alignment shops familiar with how to deal with them but there are shops out there you just have to look around enough. I recommend to purchase a bunch of the different size Jaguar shims so that you have enough to play around and try different settings then driving and repeat to find you desired sweet spot. Anything under about 1.75 negative camber should be fine for a street car and that will only mildly have the tire wear a little more on the inside but not reduce how many miles you can get out of a tire. For me when the car was set at zero it did not feel very good but after trying a few different settings I am pretty happy with the improved handling and I am getting good life out of the tires.

 

Thanks Primaz. My major objective is 9deg> caster. We tend to find 1 deg (max 2) more caster passenger side stops cars from pulling with the camber of the road. Recommended by Benz, BMW & many others. Also stops tram-lining. Keeps more contact patch on the road in hard cornering.

 

Yesterday I used my new Dunlop AGO/40 optical alignment gauge to align my tracking. Worked great and it is set up on the gauge to dial in anything from "0" to "2" degrees. I have set mine to between "0" and ".3" toe in. Fairly easy to do once you have worked out which way to turn the adjusting bar to give you toe in or toe out. On my RHD S Type the right side stays level with the steering wheel and all the adjustment is done on the left side which can be reached whilst the car is sat on the floor. I will give it a day or two of driving to settle in and then check it again to be certain.
No computers were harmed during this use of this equipment.

 

Great News! I don't know why your car only adjusts on the LHS (it's in conflict with all written on the subject of Varamatics) but who cares you have it in spec which is all that matters as long as it's at the centre of the Varamatic curve. That's a neat bit of kit.

EDIT: The best test is to run your hand in both directions over the tread of both front tyres from time to time & see if any feathering is taking place. If it is swap both front tyres from side to side to even it out i.e. change rolling direction.

 

I have two adjustors basically. One which I used is the tie rod between the steering ball joint and steering idler on the left hand side held tight with two locknuts. The right hand side is not adjustable but is a solid tie rod.
The second is in the centre of the two steering idlers which is a hollow tube with two threaded steering arms, one either end held in place with a clamp.
According to the parts book this is as it should be and you use the adjustable tie rod to adjust the tracking. Possibly as this is reachable under the car from the side when the car is down on the ground where as the centre section is out of reach and you would have to lift the car up each time you wanted to make a small adjustment and then have to roll the car back and forth as well each time.

 

I have read very different things on the Varamatic intention. Maybe they never got there with the BL cost cutting. The intention was that the centre rod/tube become fixed length with Varamatic. i.e. the exact opposite of the Burman cars with the side rods fixed length & toe set on the centre rod only. My car is lucky to have reverse thread side tie rods that allow individual ball joint replacement with no length change. If you buy that part now it's fixed both ends & if one ball joint fails you throw the whole rod away.

I've read all the way back to Australian Arthur Bishop who designed the system for an aircraft nose wheel to match slip angles. Bendix Corp commercialised it for cars. Jaguar was their first customer (MkX). American car manufacturers were not interested in complexity & innovation. The centre rod was supposed to be fixed with equal adjustment of side rods to achieve desired toe in alignment with the centrered alignment of the drop rod on the steering box.

 

Glyn's description is how the centre and end rods are supposed to be. My guess is that Cass's car has suffered a compromise repair at some time due to availablity or cost of parts or a mechanic who didn't know any better.

 

That is more than possible. Easier to replace the left tie rod with an adjustable one with two ball joints than a solid one which is not adjustable. Unlike Glyn I am not after absolute concours condition so happy to have something fitted that works. Just another point to be deducted when I eventually get my invitation to Pebble Beach. lol.