aligment of your steering
Steering alignment check should be done once a year or when
excessive tyre wear is noticed. The front wheels should ‘toe in’
between zero and 1/16” (0-2mm). That is, the measurement
across the front of the wheels should be between 0 and 1/16’
less than the measurement across the back of the wheels, at axle
height.
A check can be made with a tape measure, and adjustment
made by undoing one of the steering connections (eg steering
arm on kingpin) and screwing one of the rod ends (ball joints)
in or out half a turn at a time. Note you will notice that the rod
ends have a jam nut (lock nut) to prevent them unscrewing
and to eliminate movement on the thread. This will have to be
loosened first before the rod end will turn and locked up again
before each measurement is made.
A more accurate way is to use a trammel (Fig 20).
A trammel has two pointers on a bar, which sits at the back of
the tyres at axle height. A mark is made on the back of the tyre
with a pen, the trike rolled forward half a wheel revolution, and
the marks compared against the trammel pointers at the front
of the wheels. This
method eliminates any
inaccuracies due to
wheel run out etc.
trammel
toe in
toe out
fig 20
14
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