Ammco Optical Toe Gauge

I have a bit of a mystery that I am hoping someone could shed some light on. I purchased a set of tools for alignment last weekend. There were these assemblies that use lights pointed at either side to measure the toe in of the vehicle. They use magnets and attach to a wheel in a similar way as a caster/camber gauge or reflectors for alignment.
Anyone ever see these before or use them? I am guessing they are from the late 70s or 80s.

Yeah, they work fine if they're calibrated, and installed on the vehicle properly. I have no idea how to calibrate them, perhaps it's a manufacturer-only process that doesn't need to be adjusted in-the-field unless the tool is dropped or something.

The big issue is getting them installed true to the spindle. Which--usually--means you need the bigass clamp-on wheel rim adapters that get individually adjusted using a bubble-level. The you put the toe tools onto the rim adapters just like you would with a camber/caster gauge.

I've got rim adapters, but they're old enough that they're really intended for 13/14/15 inch wheels, perhaps they'd expand to fit 16 or 17 inch wheels...but the common wheel sizes today are beyond their range.

Do those also shoot a pinpoint of light rearward, to scales mounted to the rear wheels? I remember something like that--allowed you to verify that the front wheels were "straight ahead" based on the car position on the alignment rack. That way if the car wasn't perfectly-straight on the rack you could still get the alignment correct.

Been a long time since I've dicked with any of that. I thought I'd get my rack set up last summer, now I'm hoping to get it set up this next summer.

No experience but its cool to see tools made for people who actually knew what they were doing and could do it right the first time

Schurkey,

These came with a big square tube for calibration so I have that part. There were also wheel clamps. To your point they may not fit larger wheels. If I need to get some updated clamps so be it.

You make an interesting point on the rear wheels there were some plates with numbers as well that came with these. I may have to just power this up and start playing with it.

Thanks for the feedback

TreeGeared said:

These came with a big square tube for calibration so I have that part.

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Never calibrated 'em. I don't know anything about the "big square tube".

TreeGeared said:

There were also wheel clamps. To your point they may not fit larger wheels. If I need to get some updated clamps so be it.

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Expensive, but available.

TreeGeared said:

You make an interesting point on the rear wheels there were some plates with numbers as well that came with these. I may have to just power this up and start playing with it.

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Yup, that sounds like the rear plates.

I suppose you could look on-line, and with Ammco specfically for an operator's manual.

TreeGeared said:

I have a bit of a mystery that I am hoping someone could shed some light on. I purchased a set of tools for alignment last weekend. There were these assemblies that use lights pointed at either side to measure the toe in of the vehicle. They use magnets and attach to a wheel in a similar way as a caster/camber gauge or reflectors for alignment.

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Anyone ever see these before or use them? I am guessing they are from the late 70s or 80s.

Click to expand...

Damn, that's a score right there.