Re: Scout work..

[tsm1@domain.elided (Tom Mandera)]

>> I did the home-alignment trick.. toe-in was actually toe-out, by 1.25"!  
>
>1.25" toe out??? Are you sure? Your tires should have been "squeeling" 
Sure.  I recall.. 60.5" and 61.75" as the figures when I first measured.

Now it's more like 61" and 61.25"... still toe-out... 

>like that on the highway to RMIHR and NWBR? 

Here's the answer how I could drive it like that, Tom... SOFT TREAD
COMPOUND... which is also why, the inside edges of my front tires (with..
less than 10k) are as badly worn as they are... d'oh.  I wanted to get the
alignment closer before I rotated... and siped.

It was a little squirrely..but until recently it was handleable... I think
either something *else* is getting loose, or the wear on the tires has made
the toe-out more noticeable.

> How could it get so far off?

*shrug*  No idea!  I think it must've been off before... I remember looking
at it shortly after I bought the truck, and thought it was toe-out some...
but the harder compound tires it came with never showed the wear... 

Going from 29" tires to 33s just makes the toe-out worse.

What was the end result of our thread a while back about Stegman's home
alignment... where do you measure the 1/16" toe-in.  1/16" at the edges of a
29" tire could be 1/4" at the ends of a 33" tire... which is correct then?
1/16" at 29", or 1/16" at 33"?  

I did think it was a bent spindle or something, too... since I recently
changed out a bent rear axle flange. 

I put the Scout up on 4 jack stands, locked the hubs, and stood back as it
idled along in gear... no discernable wobble on any wheel... front or back.

If I had bent the tie-rod, it would've gone to toe-in...

I took most of the adjustment out of one side (the only side I removed) of
the tie-rod..

ball-sockets appear in good shape.  Neglected to put my 2x4 under the front
tires to check for ball-joint slop.

>Clean off the timing marks and the harmonic balancer. Apply white chaulk to
>both, then wipe off excess. Whitening the "groove" on the harmonic balancer
>this way should really make a difference. BTDT.

Did that... but with yellow chalk. :)  It helps, but... 

>You usually can't use a standard dwell meter when you have mag pickup. The
>reading is not considered accurate. The dwell meter is designed to measure
>a 9 - 12 V signal for duration when the points are closed. Mag pickups are
>operating at much lower voltages. Does not compute.

As I read the instructions in afore mentioned "Tune up Kit"... you can't set
the dwell, or change it, or anything... but you can still *read* it with a
mag pickup... one of the tests it said to perform was to accelerate the
motor, and see to it the dwell angle doesn't change... and it didn't.

Just thought I'd look at a few things about the magnetic pickup before I
throw it in the junk-parts-pile next week.

-Tom