On Thu, 15 Dec 2016 01:06:53 -0500, advised:

No, respectfully - you need to know WHAT you are doing and WHY before
the HOW makes any sense.

What I mean is that 99 out of 100 people will tell you why *they* would NOT
do their own tire changes, balance, and alignment.

There's *nothing* they can teach me since I already know everything they
could possibly say (almost).

There are TONS of reasons *not* to do anything:
- why not to go to the moon
- why not to go to North Korea
- why not to sail around the world
etc.

For anything that anyone wants to to, there will be 99 out of 100 people
telling them why *they* would not do it.

But that's not helpful when someone tries to do it.

If I was trying to go to the moon, it's not helpful to tell me that there's
no air on the moon. Or that the moon is far away.

Do you get my point?

a. If I want to change tires, what's helpful is advice on how to change
tires using whatever tools I have at hand

b. If I want to balance tires, what's helpful is advice on how to balance
them, using whatever is at hand and whatever can be bought easily

c. If I want to do my alignment at home, what's helpful is advice on how to
do it.

What's not helpful are jokes and statements that I'm cheap or a litany of
reasons why I should not do it (because I already know all those reasons
because those reasons are why 99 out of 100 people don't do it themselves
so any fool can come up with them).

You still have not said what Toyota SUV- 4runner, Higlander, FJ
Cruiser, older land cruiser, Rav4, Sequoia, or Venza???

I don't think anyone asked, or, if they did, I haven't seen it yet.
It's a 4Runner. Pretty simple. It has 4 cams for caster and camber in the
front (nothing in the rear).

It has tie rod ends for the toe.

That's it.


The formula is: Caster (deg) = (180 / 3.1415) * [(camber1 - camber2) /
(turnangle1 - turnangle2)]

I was going to get some turntables (I think) so that I can do the 20 degree
(10 to each side) turn angles. That was how I was gonna calculate caster.

Basically simplified to 57.3X(camber change/degrees of turn)

Turn the wheel in45 degrees. Measure camber. Turn out 45 degrees,
read camber.. Subtract camber 1 from camber 2 - say the difference is
5 degrees.. 5 devided by 90 = .055, times57.3= 3.18 degrees of caster.

This sounds like you know what you're doing because I'm on the Toyota
forums and they suggested something similar. Right now the alignment is
just in the planning stage, since the tires and balancing comes first.

Without slip plates side loading can affect the camber measurements
somewhat which also affects the caster calculation.

I think slip plates are in my future.

So yes, theoretically you CAN measure/calculate caster - but again
accuracy is going to be crucial. Good enough to see if you are close -
not accurate or repeatable enough, in most cases, to make an accurate
fine adjustment.

The spec on the 4Runner is pretty close to 0 camber anyway, and the toe is
really, effectively, 1/16th for each wheel to center line. I forget what
the caster is (I can look it up easily but I'm not near my books) but I'm
not worried about it just yet.

Right now I'm working on the wheels, and I'm reading all the catalogs for
wheel weights from the major manufacturers.

Here is the wheel weight catalog for Plombco, for example:
http://www.completelube.com/AppGuide...Guide_2015.pdf