My 97 van is out of alignment again. These roads are wicked in winter (and spring). The tires are wearing on the outside (both sides). This happened quite often with my '88 full-sized van also. Is there a quick and dirty way to get them somewhat back in alignment - I'm tired of having to pay yearly alignment. It doesn't have to be perfect just better than it is. Any help would be appreciated.
I've owned 6 full sized vans, 3 Chevys and 3 Dodges. I bought 3 of them new and 3 of them slightly used. They've all done that. The last 2 have been Dodges. I own a 2002 Ram Wagon 3500 right now. I just accept the outside tire wear on the front and rotate tires, etc to compensate for it. I have even gone to a tire shop, had them remove the tires, flop them over, put them back on and swap sides L to R and R to L. That way, the worn part of the tire is on the inside and the tire is still turning the same way. But that's just me.
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"Lurker" wrote :
Your Van is likely not out of alignment. This wear is common when there is such a weight loading on the front. Sometime try to observe the front tires from the side of the road when your van is going around corners. You will notice the tire trying to roll out from under the wheel, which severly stresses the outer edge. The only relief you have is to go to an "E" rated 8 ply or more truck tire, if you have not already. These vans require extremely stiff sidewalls. Steve
I've checked and set the toe-in on my '70 Blazer for all the years I've owned it (27), with a tape measure and a sliding set of tubes (a couple of old tent poles). Something similar would work as long as you can accurately measure the distance between the same parts of the rim on the back side vs. the front side. Without knowing your specs, probably a 1/16" difference (larger on the rear) would give you all the toe-in you need. The toe-in is the spec that most frequently gets "out". Too much (1/4" for example) will cause excessive wear on the tires' outer edges, too little, or toe-out, will cause wear on the tire inner edges and could be dangerous causing the vehicle to "wander" or pull from one side to the other over any little bump in the road. LD
Thanks, I think I understand. In the past alignments on my '88 van they only adjusted toein/toeout with linkage adjustments. I should be able to check/adjust.
On my two pole system I put black marker on the inner in the area where the edge of the outer is. Then when I manually slide it into contact with the rear side of the rims on both sides, nice and straight, I scribe a line at the edge of the outer tube. Then repeat for the front. If you did an accurate measurement there will be two different marks, indicating the amount of toe-in you have. If you need any additional description (I know this might not be very clear) email me and I'll send a pic. LD
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