Rear tracking

[Matt Long]

So if I run a straight edge across the rear wheel and down the side of the car (240) at cill level I have roughly a 50mm gap between the straight edge and the rear part of the cill, BUT at the front of the cill just before the front wing I have a 15mm gap, so in effect it looks like a hugh amount of toe in on the rear.
Is this normal?
It's just been through an MoT so the rear bushes are all good and there's no damage to the chassis.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[MikeB]

Best thing to probably do is to take it to somewhere they do 4 wheel alignment and see what it shows, that will let you know if the car is symmetrical and if there is an issue where it is.

 

[Matt Long]

That's probably the best idea, i just wondered if the wealth of knowledge here would help put mind at rest before hand.

 

[uk66fastback]

Both sides Matt?

 

[Matt Long]

It's worse on the curb side

 

[jonbills]

Assuming the length of the cill you're measuring this over is about 1000mm, then thats about 4 deg of toe in. No idea what it's meant to be but that sounds like quite a lot!

 

[johnymd]

The first thing you need to know is wheather the cars were designed with the cill's parrallel or if the cars narrowed at the back. Sorry, I cant answer this. How do the rear wheels line up with the front?

The method I would use, if I just wanted to check at home, would be to prop up a straight edge against the rear wheels and mark a verticle line on the ground from the straightedge at a set distance forward and back from the wheel center. You can then measure the distances apart and get an idea of the toe in. Or with these measurement, do a bit of trig and work out the angle.

 

[jonbills]

The first thing you need to know is wheather the cars were designed with the cill's parrallel or if the cars narrowed at the back. Sorry, I cant answer this. How do the rear wheels line up with the front?

It didn't even occur to me that the cills might not be parallel! I'd go with MikeB's suggestion

 

[Rob Gaskin]

They do taper towards the rear and quite significantly behind the rear wheels. I noticed this when at Mallory Park a few years ago - I was up high on the steps that led to the control tower and looked down on a 240 and it was the most surprising thing about the car that I hadn't realised beforehand.

 

[Matt Long]

Well this was my thought, I ran a string line from the back wheels to the front in an effort to check the front toe in and it looked like the rears only had a couple of mm toe in over the length of the diameter of the wheel, but against the line of the cill it's massive, I think a trip to an alignment place is in order as Mike said.

 

[uk66fastback]

Yes, the line up with the cill doesn't matter a jot, only the line up with the front wheels ...