Vehicle wheel toe-in alignment apparatus and method

摘要

A vehicle includes a pair of wheel-mounting spindles respectively mounted to a pair of vertically swingable wheel support arms for being steered about respective king pin axes. During assembly of the vehicle on an assembly line, right- and left-hand laser toe gauges are mounted to the spindle shafts in a defined orientation wherein target surfaces of the gauges lie along a respective king pin axis. Length-adjustable tie-rods are coupled to the spindles and adjustable in order that a laser beam emitted from one toe gauge impinges on the target of the other toe gauge when the toe-in is within a prescribed range for resulting in steering and tire wear characteristics. The toe gauges are constructed such that the laser beam direction may be adjusted to calibrate the toe gauge for the particular vehicle being assembled.