Stupid question time

With the term "toe in" I see it measured in inches , as in 1/8" negative toe in. Were is this measurement taken? I know what toe in is But at what point is the measurement taken from.Got any good links??

'toe' is the front tires' position in relation to 'straight ahead' I think. 'Toe in' would mean that the tires are pointed slightly inwards rather than striaght ahead. 'toe out' means they're pointed slightly out.

I think they usually use Toe adjustments to add stability at high speed and help keep the front tires from 'hunting' so bad on rough pavement, especially if you have alot of caster and negative camber, which exaggerates the effect.

Toe is the difference from the front of the tires to the rear. The low tech, "shade tree" way is to scribe a line on the front tires, I use a piece of 2x4 with a nail driven through the end at a 45* angle. Then measure in front of the tires and then the rear. The difference is toe. For example, say you got 60" in front and 60.5" in the rear, you'd have 1/2 inch of toe so you'd lengthen(on a Chevelle) the tie rods until you got the 1/8" you were looking for. Between each measurement, I usually turn the wheel back and forth a couple of times, then "bounce" the suspension to get everything settled again. Don't know if it's necessary, but that's how I was shown.

It makes it easier to adjust the toe if you roll both of the front wheels on 2 sheet metal plates with grease between them under each wheel. This will allow the front to float when making changes. Usualy the squares are about 12".

I have been wondering this as well.

I have heard that you measure the distance between wheels at the forward edge and rearward edge and take the difference.

The only problem is if you switched to a larger diameter tire, you would gain more toe, but the contact patch where the tire touches the pavement would not know the difference. The angle between the wheels would also not change, and a lot of times the toe-in is given in degrees.

There must be some "standard" wheel diameter which is used .

No standard diameter that I have ever heard of. When deciding on a change make sure the steering wheel is centered so you do not adjust one side to achieve the 1/8" toe in and move the steering wheel out of center. Using the above 1/2" toe in setting. You would need to toe out each side 3/16" to maintain the current steering wheel location.