Help me grasp a concept regarding tie rod ends and Toe

Anything automotive in nature, be it Nissan or one of those "other" manufacturers.

Moderator: volvite

User avatar
blink32
Sponsored Member
Posts: 898
Joined: Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:38 am
Location: World Traveler

Help me grasp a concept regarding tie rod ends and Toe

Postby blink32 » Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:26 pm

So this past week I needed to replace the tie rod ends in our 01 Sentra. One of the boots recently cracked and the other was well on its way to busting through after 45,000 miles. This is where I am just grasping a concept for some reason.

Apparently tie rod adjustments are translated through the whole Rack and pinion assembly? IE: I can't set the drivers to 2mm toe in and the pax to 2mm toe out individually, all adjustments are added together.

I need to find a working diagram or something. I understand how toe, camber, caster and all that work. I just envision Toe as being set at a fixed point so if I set the pax side to 10deg toe-out it would stay, then I could set the drivers to 15 deg toe-in if I so desired.

Yes yes, i could just take this all to an alignment shop but then where would the fun be in that? I plan on messing with this and getting it to a point where I am happy with the steering feel and alignment that I can measure, then have it checked by a shop to see how close I am. Before they had lasers all anyone had were straight edge's and strings.


User avatar
RacerZX
Site Admin
Posts: 869
Joined: Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:00 am
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
Contact:

Postby RacerZX » Thu Oct 18, 2007 8:57 am

Toe assumes that you are driving straight. If you only toe out one tire, then in effect what you've done is slightly tow out both tires and made the steering wheel off-center :wink:

User avatar
blink32
Sponsored Member
Posts: 898
Joined: Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:38 am
Location: World Traveler

Postby blink32 » Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:54 am

So then its not setting the toe on a fix point in space. The toe setting on either side will affect the other.

Ehh, it just clicked. Because the rack rotates on the pinion the wheels will self-center on the toe adjustments turning the pinion and steering wheel. If you have the settings wrong your steering wheel will be off-center.

On a side note using the factory instructions on how to set and measure the toe I got it spot on, but the wheel was off. Now I've got the wheel center but Toe is off by .5mm . I'll be correcting that tonight or tomorrow.


Return to “General Automotive”