When you move on the road by car, the greatest load is received by chassis... Generally, car chassis consists of suspension and wheels. In order to partially reduce the load and make the movement of the machine straightforward, the wheels must be installed at certain angles. These angles affect not only the vehicle's position on the road, but also its stability and the condition of the tires. There are several angles at which the wheels should be. One of them is called collapse, and the other is called convergence. Let's pay attention to the convergence.
Toe is the angle between the plane of rotation of the wheel and the direction of travel. Convergence is necessary in order to compensate for the dynamic destabilization that occurs due to positive camber. Thanks to this, the tires wear out to a much lesser extent. The angles are interconnected with each other, therefore, they must be adjusted simultaneously.
How to identify negative convergence
A common and very first sign that your vehicle is not toe-in is a strong squeal when cornering while driving at low speeds. If the convergence is more than 5 mm (and this parameter can be measured not only in degrees, but also in mm), then the tire will need to be changed after 1000 km. If the dynamic change in toe-in of the front wheels can be slightly neglected, since it is compensated by the driver's control, then this cannot be allowed in the case of the rear wheels. Incorrect convergence rear wheels greatly affects the handling and stability of the vehicle.
Convergence can be positive and negative. In the case of the direction of the upper part of the wheel towards the center of the machine, the toe-in can be considered negative, and otherwise - positive. Let's consider the first option. If the front wheels of the car have negative toe-in, then the car reacts more sharply to your manipulations with the steering wheel, and wheel becomes lighter when cornering. If the speed of the car is higher than 80 km / h, then the front of the car begins to "scour" the road, and the higher the speed, the more noticeable this phenomenon will be. Even with negative toe, the outer part of the tire tread wears out much more and faster.
How to fix negative convergence
Often, it is adjusted at a special stand using computer software that calculates these angles. But you can perform this procedure yourself, in your own garage. To do this, you need to understand exactly how to make the wheel alignment so that the car's handling is the best. To adjust, you need the following tools:
- set of wrenches;
Special ruler for measuring;
Cord and weight;
Regular ruler.
Toe adjustment is necessary after the camber adjustment is completed. You need to do the following:
1) Park the machine and align the wheels.
2) On the inner plane of the wheel in front, apply two marks, apply them closer to the rim.
3)
Prepare telescopic ruler to measure the toe angle by creating a preload. Place the ends of the ruler against the marks. Mark the movable ruler scale so that the zero line coincides with the fixed pointer.
4) After you set the ruler, roll the car forward until the ruler is at the rear of the wheel. Make sure that nothing snags the ruler.
5) See what the deviations are on the scale. If the car is front-wheel drive, the toe-in should be "0 / + - 1". If there are other readings on the ruler, then you need to adjust.
6) The adjustment is made by changing the length of the steering rods. Loosen the lock nut on the link, shorten the link or screw in. Then tighten the lock nut.
7) At the end of the adjustment, re-measure.
What you need to know about negative convergence
Remember that the wrong wheel alignment can be very expensive. You can of course set negative wheel alignment to make the car more responsive. But all this will be to the detriment of rubber, which will need to be changed much more often than usual. Incorrect adjustment can result in the following:
1) The steering wheel when driving in a straight line deviates from the middle position.
The reason for this phenomenon may be increased steering play, which was missed during the toe adjustment due to the pressure difference in the wheels, as well as due to other hidden flaws in the suspension that you missed during the adjustment.
2) The car itself deviates in the direction where the car is moving.
The reasons for this defect are:
- tires of the front wheels are made in different ways, that is, the metal frame has non-uniform power characteristics... A similar phenomenon occurs quite often. In order to check, change the front wheels, after which the car's pulling should change direction. If so, then pick up such a pair of wheels so that the drift disappears altogether;
The rear axle is defective, and the defect was missed;
The suspension has hidden defects that were not discovered during adjustment;
The adjustment was performed poorly.
3) The car began to move to one side after the adjustment, before the work there was no withdrawal, the rubber wore out unevenly.
This can be due to different tire quality combined with incorrect toe. To solve this problem, you need to change the tires.
Camber adjustment - toe-in is a fairly important procedure, since the stability of the machine, as well as its handling, depends on it.
Subscribe to our feeds in
