G'day,
Would like some advice please on my plan to adjust (correct) a fairly significant toe in issue on the driver's side radius arm. When I got Minnie, I noticed that the driver's side wheel had a fair bit of toe in compared to the passenger side and thought most of the problem was a result of a well worn shaft and bush. I did check as best I could for a bent arm and as far as I can tell, it's pretty close to the passenger side.
I've since replaced everything and re-assembled the rear subframe back in the car. Still have a toe in issue. Quite noticeable just looking at it.

To give you an idea of how much toe in, I measured the distance between the subframe and the outer surface of the brake drums. On the passenger side, it's 147mm. On the driver's side it's 156mm. Given everything looks good where the radius arms bolt onto the subframe, I'm guessing my arm might be out of whack.

I know you can get shims that go between the subframe and the bracket that holds the radius arm in place and I've read on here that others have slotted the bracket where the shaft goes through and then welded another plate with a hole in it over that to give a new position of the shaft relative to the bracket.

My idea is to simply add a spacer between the subframe and the bracket where the 2 horizontal bolts go through the bracket into the subframe. This bracket has 4 bolts - 2 horizontal and 2 from underneath with the underneath holes slotted to allow for some shims etc.

I've played around today and with a piece of 3mm aluminium flat as a spacer, my toe in issue is gone and the measurements from the subframe to brake drum is now the same on both sides - 147mm. With the spacer in place, one of the slotted holes in the bottom of the bracket still allows for a bolt to go through while the other one will need a file.

To allow for the spacer, I was thinking of using slightly longer bolts for the 2 horizontal ones.

I've attached a pic to help explain things.

You blokes reckon this will be ok?

Thanks Rocky

It sounds like you've made your own version of what the shims do, I can't see a problem with it, I don't remember the bolts being so short you'd need longer bolts but OK, you might be able to see or feel how much protrudes out the back of the captive bolts on the subframe to see if they are required.

Edit: just because they are now the same each side doesn't necessarily mean they are pointing in the right direction I'd be tempted to get a wheel alignment or do it yourself before is go too far, any reason you don't want to use the adjustable toe and camber brackets that are available?

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

Hi Rocky, get a wheel alignment first. Getting the toe even is not much use if both are wrong.

Once you know where each wheel should pointing, you can make up appropriate spacers for each side to get them where you want.

Toe in is good because it is cured by spacers; toe out makes things more difficult.

Cheers, Ian

PS Bent arms tend to result in toe out.

PPS If I read it right, your proposal mirrors the factory solution....

You may not need longer bolts at the top as they are already quite long.


This is the thickest shim I have have ever used.



The bottom holes may need to be elongated depending on how thick the shim is.




Shims are easy to knockup.

Thanks Fuzzy, Ian and gtogreen.
I'm going to get a wheel alignment once I get the motor running and it's driveable. I've done a complete resto and just trying to get things roughly right front and rear before I take it out on the road for the first time. After I rebuilt the front end, using the same settings on the steering rack as it had, I had miles of toe in. Mind you, I did find out that the old front subframe was bent and I've fitted another one so everything changed of course.

Fuzzy - I didn't know you could get adjustable brackets. I just started playing around in the shed this arvo and thought of a possible workaround.

As for the wheel alignment, do you blokes use the joints with all the fancy computerised stuff or the old school joints? I had the Cruiser done awhile ago and they used laser guidance of some sort. I'll ask my local tyre joints here about doing a wheel alignment now before I go any further. I can trailer it to them now that I've got the wheels back on and steering in place.

gtogreen - Looks like your thick shim is about the same as I'm looking at. I'll make up a few shims of different thicknesses and take them with me when it gets aligned.

Job for tomorrow
Cheers, Rocky

The book says 1mm gives you 1.58mm of Toe movement and not to exceed 3mm of shims. I think the ratio was a bit more on the last car I did so you might get 5mm of toe movement but if you need 10mm then you may need to look elsewhere.

I check my toe by using string lines. Set them up so they are parallel to the body and measure the gap between the string and wheel.


The book gives you measurements of where to measure it from on the front wheels but they are measuring the inside of the wheel using a measuring bar.

Thanks for the extra info gtogreen. I'll have a go with the string lines tomorrow and see how things look.
When setting up the strings, do you just get the 2 sides the same as far as the distances of the string from the body? That is, measure say from the same spots on the sills on each side and get the strings the same?
I tried to do the inside tyre measurements as in the info you have but it's hard with the car on the ground. I can get access to a hoist and I reckon that would make things easier.
As a side issue, I'm having trouble fitting the exhaust centre pipe with clearance around the floor starter. I've got a set of Maniflow extractors and the centre pipe is not playing ball. Makes it harder when you're laying on your back under it so I was going to use the hoist for that and will check wheels at the same time.

Cheers, Rocky

I make sure the strings are parallel to each other and then check they are the same distance from the sills at the front and rear.

I gave a 6mm alloy plate on the drivers side of my car...

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Thanks - I'll have a crack doing that then and see how I go.

Gees Simon - that's a fair whack of toe in you had. I thought mine was bad needing 3mm.

Yeah.. and that's with adjuster brackets at the back too, the right hand side of the car is 10mm shorter than the left...

I use this page to help with alignments: https://robrobinette.com/DIYAlignmentCalculator.htm

I had it done professionally then went home and verified the numbers then went from there

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

My car had a good whack on left front and rear sometime in the past, I moved the LH outer pivot hole 7mm forward to fix it. Now has 1.5mm toe in each side, I also moved both outer holes upward to give 1° negative camber.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

The calculator looks good and easy to use. I'll make up the spacers and give it a go.

I know mine has been in a few battles as well. The bloke I bought it off got it second hand in 1965 and it had already been pranged in the front driver's side. His Mum then decided to try and shift a bluestone pillar with the front passenger side and managed to bend the subframe on that side.
The wheel base was about 5/8" shorter on the passenger side originally and after I put the new subframe in, that reduced to about 5/16". Mind you, once I put the spacer in the driver's side, the wheelbase will increase and that side so will be interesting to see how it ends up.

Wheelbase pfft.
Renault 16TS has one side 100mm longer than the other.
Because their rear torsion bars are one behind the other, across the car.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Hey Doc, after knowing that I didn't bother to check the wheelbase. The tyres are roughly in the centre of the wheel arches so they'll be ok

I spent today mucking around following the info you blokes gave me and set up the stuff to measure from. Instead of string, I used some dead straight steel as I found it was easier to set up.
After a bit of adjustment on the front end, here's the results I've ended up with. I used the online calculator from Simon.

Front left 0.05 degree toe out
Front right 0.27 degree toe out
Rear left 0.87 degree toe out (not good as should be toe in)
Rear right 0.14 degree toe in.

So it looks like I've fixed, to a rough degree, the big toe in on the rear right after putting a 3mm shim in and got the front good enough to do a few miles running the motor in before I get the front end aligned properly.

However, as you blokes mentioned, the passenger side radius arm might not have been right in the first place and it looks like it's got toe out. To give you an idea of how much, the measurements from my steel bar to the outside wall of the tyre were 138mm at the front of the tyre and 144mm at the rear of the tyre. Given the amount of change on the driver's side by using a 3mm spacer to correct the toe in, I'm guessing that about 1mm adjustment of the radius arm shaft might be enough to get some toe in. Could perhaps go to say 1.5mm and if I end up with too much toe in, could then use a shim to counter that.

So my next question is how do I get say 1.5mm adjustment from the shaft? I've had a look at the bracket that holds the outer end of the shaft and there doesn't appear to much of a gap between the bracket and the radius arm. If I could get enough movement there it would be an easy fix.
Do I need to work on the other end of the shaft where it goes through the subframe? Slot the hole and then re-plate it?
How have you blokes fixed this?

The other option I suppose is to just leave as is and wait until everything settles and see what the proper wheel alignment shows. Also, would the amount of toe out I've got upset things dramatically?

Thanks Rocky