If your ATVs front end alignment is off, you may notice the ATV pulling to the side while riding, or a shaking and wobbling feeling in the handle bars while on the trail.
That’s not the only effect you’ll notice either, your tires will wear unevenly and need to be replaced sooner if you’re out of alignment. Not to worry, a front end alignment is a pretty easy task you can do yourself at home with some basic hand tools.
When you buy a brand new quad, the manufacturer recommends you do a front end alignment after the first 30 days. Then, every 3 months after that. To me, that seems a bit extreme. I do mine once a year with my yearly maintenance before I take it out for the season.
You will also want to do an alignment any time you swap out your tie rods, or do any work on the machine involving those parts. Here are the steps you take to do an alignment, I go into more detail on each of these steps below.
First you want to make sure your quad is on a level surface. You don’t need to spend a ton of time on this getting it perfect. But try to get the machine as level as possible, it makes the whole job easier.
If you have a flat spot in a garage or drive way, that would work best. But you could always jack up one side of the machine if you’re on a really uneven area. The quad won’t need to move for you to do the alignment.
As part of this step, make sure your tire pressure is set to spec or to what you normally ride with it set to. The most important factor is that the tire pressure is the same from side to side. Front and back doesn’t need to match, and usually shouldn’t. But make sure the left front tire matches the right front tire at least.
This step isn’t absolutely necessary, but it sure makes everything a lot easier knowing the handle bars aren’t able to move and mess with any of your measurements. If you have someone that won’t mind sitting there holding the handle bars straight that would work.
In fact, having someone sitting on the machine is better because the measurements will more closely match the conditions you have when someone is riding the machine.
But if it’s just you doing this job, you’ll have to find another way to secure the handle bars.
I usually just get a ratchet strap and wrap the two hooks on each side of the handle bars and through the grab bar on the back to keep the handle bars from moving at all. It’s really a simple step that will save you some headache later on. Don’t strap it down to tight or you could cause other damage, just enough to hold her steady.
The camber of your front tires is often overlooked. But since we’re doing an alignment, this is the best time check the camber is on point. You’ll want to take a level and place it against the side of the tire vertically. Try to be as close to center near the axle as you can.
Rest the level against the bottom of the tire on the outside of the tire and get the bubble into the center of the level. Now measure the gap between the top of the level and the top part of the tire. You should get somewhere between 0.2 and 0.8 inches distance.
Not all ATVs and UTVs are rated to have the same camber. Check your service manual for the exact measurements, but about 1/8 inch to 3/4 inch is a pretty common standard to go by. If you’re not within those measurements, you should adjust your camber.
To adjust your camber, take the cotter pin out of the castle nut of your ball joint where it connects to the upper A-Arm and loosen the castle nut. Now with the correct size wrench, adjust the ball joint by screwing it in or out to get your camber within the recommended range.
Some A-Arm assemblies require that remove the ball joint from the spindle it sits in order to adjust. Once you’re done with the adjustment tighten back up the castle nut and put back the cotter pin.
If you want to think of the camber as the vertical alignment, then think of the toe as your horizontal alignment. First determine weather your machine calls for a toe-in or toe-out alignment by checking your service manual.
Most quads require a 1/4 inch toe-in alignment.
There are two popular methods for actually getting the toe-in toe-out measurements. I prefer method two because it’s easier to see if only one tire is out of alignment or if both are.
Method 1 is quicker and a pretty straight forward way to get your measurements. You’ll simply measure the distance between the middle point on both your front tires, front and back at axle height.
The distance measurement between the center of the front of the tires will be measurement A and the distance between the center of the back of the tires will be measurement B. You will take your measurements and subtract measurement A from measurement B to find your toe-in. If the measurement is negative, you have a toe-out situation.
I found it easiest to measure the front of the tires, then put a piece of tape or something to mark where you measured. Then rotate the tires 180 degrees by rolling the quad to get the back side measurements.
To find out which wheel is out of alignment, maybe both are, maybe just one is. Take a long 2×4 or something long and straight that won’t bend. And hold it flush with rear tires and along-side the front tires.
Measure the distance the from the 2×4 to the front tires. The distance should be the same from right tire to left tire. If it’s off then you will want to get the adjustments done to the tie rods to get these to match.
For a toe-in alignment you will want the front of the tires measurement away from the 2×4 to be higher than the back of the front tire by about 1/8 inch. Remember that the standard toe-in measurement is about 1/4 inch? Well, that’s both front tires combined.
If you find that you need to make adjustments to your toe, that is all done with the tie rods. Start by loosening the lock nut on the tie rod ends. You will want to use two wrenches to do this part.
One wrench to hold the tie rod in place and the other to loosen the tie rod end lock nut.
If you don’t use two wrenches you could cause damage to your machine.
Once the tie rod ends lock nut is loosened up, you will be able to adjust the tie rods. Make the adjustments to the tie rod by spinning clockwise or counter clockwise to get your correct toe measurement.
You will most likely need to adjust the tie rod, and take another measurement, repeating until the toe is where you need it to be.
After you’ve got your toe-in or toe-out where you want it, you can tighten the tie rod end nuts back up and you’re good to go. It’s a good idea to take another measurement after you’ve tightened them up just in case it shifted a little bit when tightening.
There you have it, an ATV front end alignment. If you’re alignment is still off after doing this, you may have a bent tie rod or A-Arm. If you notice, the handle bars still wobble or shake, you may just need to Balance The Tires or maybe even Replace The Wheel Hub Bearings.
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All the rough trails, rocks, holes, and hauling people do with off-road vehicles take a serious toll on ATV front end alignment. Thankfully, this is a repair job you can do yourself. Read this post to learn how to align an ATV front end.
The owner's manual will have recommended times to align the front end of your ATV.
You should also do a front-end alignment if you need to replace your tie rods.
You can tell that the front-end alignment is off at any time if:
Front end alignment protects the tires from uneven wear and early replacement and protects you from poor steering that can lead to unsafe riding conditions.
The first thing to do is get your ATV level. It doesn't have to be exact, but the more level it is, the more accurate your work will be. If your working space isn't level, you can compensate with jacks, and jack stands for support.
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Check your tire pressure. Make sure they are all filled to the optimum pressure and equal to each other. I mean, why not fill them now? If nothing else, the two front tires need to match so you can accurately judge their imbalance.
Climb on the ATV and get the handlebars straight. You can have someone sit on the ATV and hold the handlebars in position or tie the handlebars in place with a ratchet strap.
Hook one end of the strap to each of the handlebars and run it through the grab bar. Tie it just strong enough to hold it steady. If it's too tight, it can cause damage while you're adjusting underneath.
You may choose to or the owner's manual may recommend that the ATV be weighted while you align the front end to simulate riding conditions. If someone will be sitting on it to hold the handlebars, this is already taken care of. If not, you can place something heavy on the seat.
Image from www.dirtwheelsmag.com
Draw a chalk line on the center of both front tires at axle height and use a tape measure to measure from one chalk line to the other.
Write that down as measurement A.
Draw a chalk line on the back of the front tires just like you did before and measure just like you did before.
Write that down as measurement B.
Subtract measurement A from measurement B. If the answer is positive, you are in a toe-in situation.
If it is negative, you have a toe-out situation.
You want the wheels to be just slightly toe-in, to an exact amount: 1/4 inch.
Image from www.dirtwheelsmag.com
Grab your two wrenches. One to grip the flat notch to hold the tie-rods. One to turn the lock nuts.
The owner's manual may have unique specifications for your tie-rods so check that out before tackling this step to avoid wasted time and potentially breaking your tie-rods.
The outer rods have left hand threads. Be careful to turn the nut in the right direction so you don't damage the threads.
Loosen the nuts on the tie-rods to give yourself some play. Then adjust the tie-rods by turning the flat notch.
You'll have to work the rods and re-measure bit by bit until you make it so that measurement A is 1/4 inch less than measurement B. In other words, the front of the tires are just that amount turning inward.
If you leave it with too much toe-in, the ATV will be slower and twitchy in corners.
If you leave it with too much toe-out, it won't turn precisely.
The tie-ins must be evenly aligned when you're done adjusting them. If not, you need to keep adjusting until they are or take the ATV to a professional.
Tighten the lock nuts on the tie-rods, and that's it. You're finished. Have fun on your aligned ATV!
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So, in a rut, the steering wheel rips out of your hands, when driving straight the ATV goes to the right or left, you notice uneven tire wear or you see that one or both wheels sharply go to the side with the steering wheel set straight - all these are clear signs that that it's time for toe and camber adjustment .
It should be noted that on some ATVs only the convergence is regulated, and the camber is set by the manufacturer. nine0011
Getting rid of the problem.
There are many ways, we will try to talk about the most obvious and intuitive.
Which nuts to turn?
#1 Loosen nuts; No. 2 Toe adjustment (turn the tie rod itself with a wrench; No. 3 camber adjustment;
Attention! You do not need to hang the ATV, adjust it on a flat surface without holes and hills, set the steering wheel straight.
Visually we try to evaluate the wheels in front, look at the eye, it will immediately become clear which wheel goes to the side more and which one less. Sometimes adjusting by eye is enough, if we want everything according to science, then we move on.
Method 1
On the rim, on the very edge from the inside, on both sides of each wheel, near the shoulder, we make marks with a marker so that the marks are parallel to the ground.
With the help of a simple ruler, we set the convergence, we rest the ruler against the marks and measure the front and back along the marks. nine0007
A ruler is a pipe inserted into a pipe of a larger diameter, at its ends there are L-shaped stops (curved so that the bottom of the ATV does not interfere), with which we will rest against the marks.
For convenience, we fasten the tape measure onto the ruler and look at the numbers, the shiny bolt is the lock, rested on the marks in front and fixed it, looked at the numbers and repeated the procedure on the back of the wheels.
We loosen the locking nuts on the steering rods, turn the rods in one direction or another, twisted and measured a bit, realized that it was a little or a lot, we turn further. Wheel alignment is measured between the edges of the rim. The wheels should be as in the figure below, the difference between A and B should be 0-3mm (less in front and more in the back).
Universal convergence is made 0 mm. nine0007
After we lock the nuts and try to drive, perhaps the steering wheel will be a little crooked, and the quad will drive smoothly. We loosen the lock nuts again and turn the rods for the same number of revolutions, thereby aligning the steering wheel, but without touching the convergence.
Nothing needs to be adjusted on the rear suspension.
Method 2
1. Set the steering wheel to straight ahead.
2. Place the stands in front of the ATV perpendicular to the rear wheels as shown. nine0052 3. Stretch the elastic band around the ATV legs so that it just touches the rear wheels lightly.
4. Measure the distance between the tensioned tape and the front and rear points on the front wheel rim. The distance to the far point on the rim should be 2 - 3 mm greater than the distance to the near point on the same rim.
You yourself could see for yourself that there is nothing complicated in adjusting the toe and camber on an ATV, and you yourself are quite capable of doing it without resorting to the services of a car service.
So we put the saved money in our pocket and happy and satisfied we go for a ride. nine0007
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| Quite often the question is asked how to adjust the toe of the ATV front wheels and how it should be. Here is one of the ways: — So: in technology, this is called “wheel alignment angles”, they distinguish between the amount of convergence, camber (camber), longitudinal inclination of the axis of rotation (castor), transverse inclination and displacement of the axes. Now let's go directly to the issue of adjustment. Our task is to make this simple and accessible methods, without "computers" and quite accurately. According to the method of measurement, there are two methods:  |
Of all this porridge, we are only concerned with the "descent" - we will express it this way for brevity. The rest are structurally incorporated values and are not regulated, you can only control ... 
You can’t drive like that, it’s dangerous, the quad doesn’t steer normally. nine0102 If the quad runs as if on rails, but rests in turns, as if the drive has not been turned off, it hums noisily with rubber, the steering wheel is heavy - a sign of derailment in “-“. This is an "understeer" phenomenon. 
With a sliding stick, in the pit, the distance between the disks is measured. wheels at the front and rear. The advantage of this: infallibility and accuracy of the ABSOLUTE size, i.e. difference in distance between the wheels. Minus: there is also a RELATIVE convergence, this is the position of the lane lane. wheel relative to the rear stripe, Specifying the "steering wheel in the center." Problems with this… 
nine0102 But if the steering wheel was previously beveled or the rods or levers were changed, then it is better according to method No. 2! 
