[glenlivet]

It was maintenance day for the 800 Trail. Change out both dif oils, (good looking oil and very acceptable small bit of ferrous mud/debris on the plug magnet, for wear in) No metalflake sparklies at all.
Flushed and changed out the antifreeze, good for 40 below now.
Set the toe. Found I had 1/4" of toe out, not so awful but I set it to 1/8" toe in. Here's my jig, made for the King Quad but it works just fine on the similarly 14" shod CF Moto. Simple:

Two 30" long pieces of 2X4 with cut out sections so the tread does not interfere, the inner parts bear up against the rim edge held in place by bungee cords. Measure toe from the outsides of the 2X4's.
Has to be at a bit front high to get a measuring tape reading at the back but otherwise works just fine.

[murdo]

I like that. 

[ctdls]

Good news on the oils! Good practice to watch what is coming out 

I'm sure spec is 2-4mm Toe out, would be curious after you drive it what you think.

My preferred alignment method is all four wheels, being the rear is fixed might as well align the front to them. Then you can center the steering wheel as well.

It's easy to do with a string all the way around, start & end @ the trailer receiver. I have 4ea 40mm plastic blocks, they are place under the string @ the rear of the back rim & under the front rim edge.

  I just had a look @ PDI & the service manual, looks one states toe in & the other toe out........only CFMOTO 

[glenlivet]

My King Quad too, specified toe out as the normal state of affairs, something that was a topic of discussion with plenty of tech savvy owners and the consensus was to set it like a car, slight toe in. Or straight ahead.
It would seem as though lots of toe out would aggravate the tendency when turning the steering a bit, for the machine to pull away from the intended turn. Maybe they think it's more stable feeling like that. Never did hear a justification for massive toe out that made sense.
Maybe it's so the front tires will wear more rapidly and thus more evenly with the rear tires.

Can't find it again but I'm sure one of the service manual specs called for 4-10 MM toe out! Put-the-crack-pipe-down.

Adjusting allowed me to lengthen the right side tie rod to fix the toe, and at the same time correct the @20 degrees steering wheel pointing left of center it's always had. She's dead ahead now with the steering wheel pointing straight.
And I have the day off! And..... it's raining. 

[NMKawierider]

Although there are a few that call for toe-out, CFM isn't one of them. It calls for 4-10mm +- toe-in. But for me anywhere close to 10mm and my tires I get too much undercut or rollover and some unpredictable behavior on some softer, sharper corners plus reaction time is reduced. I settled on around 2mm total toe-in. That's enough to hold-off the road wandering on faster roads and still give me what I need on faster, tight trails.

Here you go:

[ctdls]

I had never checked the service manual for spec & always wondering about the toe out setting as shown in the PDI set up. They even call it toe in, when they show it clearly it will be toe out.

Me knows better than to accept something when the inner voice is questioning  I chalked the PDI up to the Chinese to French Canadian to Engrish translation 

It's maddening this type of BS, good news it's included in the price  To bad Wheels does not tune in anymore I would be curious his take on this.

[ctdls]

Some good news  the alignment specs in the Canadian PDI are correct, it's not an error.

Going from toe out to "in" should make for some interesting handling differences. One of my concerns would be stability & tracking....hopefully we will get a report back 

[REDRIDER]

I think going toe in will give you a little quicker steering but may feel a bit too reactive, may even roll the tire a bit on cornering. I've never tried it.

[NMKawierider]

Rear wheel drive vehicles on any road including trailers must have their guiding wheels point to the same spot- at least 100-200 yards ahead of the vehicle to drive in a straight line. Toe-out points them away from each other and can cause wandering and "darting" as the traction changes per side and leading tires change however it is common to set front wheel drive vehicles with tow-out as they are the drive wheels and under power they are pulling forward and together taking it to zero and over.. where rear wheel vehicles get theirs set to toe-in as their drag resistance tends to pull them apart. For me at least.. if I am on a road...I am not in FWD. The overall goal is to have the front tires run parallel as practically possible with eachother when the vehicle's in motion. But it is also a fact that some off-roaders...and some specs do  prefer toe out as it causes quicker steering reaction and overcomes some inherent frame flex issues.. but for obvious reasons in 2wd, can suck on any paved road. Also, too much either way will not only negatively effect steering but cause wear on the tires called "Feathering"- either on the outside or inside edge.  For me I have tried it from 10mm toe-out to 10mm toe in and for my riding I found 0-2/32" total toe-in works best for me. If I ran more roads I would increase it to 1/4" toe-in. 

[glenlivet]

Good explanation. 

[Sockman]

Got oil/filter changed, changed the front and rear diffs (about a small pea-size of stuff on the drain magnet, but otherwise fluid looked good).  Fixed my remote winch, put some new mirrors on, messed with wiring (again), and aside from the front toe and checking the air filter (cleaned it late last season), I think I'm ready for this year's riding.

Everytime I walk past my Zforce, I swear my fronts are toe-out.  I've tried aligning it several times.  Glad I stumbled across this thread.  I'm going to make that jig and try this again. 

Also, my steering wheel has never been centered.  The OCD in me hates that.     I've tried fixing that, too, and it always ends up off.

[NMKawierider]

Got oil/filter changed, changed the front and rear diffs (about a small pea-size of stuff on the drain magnet, but otherwise fluid looked good).  Fixed my remote winch, put some new mirrors on, messed with wiring (again), and aside from the front toe and checking the air filter (cleaned it late last season), I think I'm ready for this year's riding.

Everytime I walk past my Zforce, I swear my fronts are toe-out.  I've tried aligning it several times.  Glad I stumbled across this thread.  I'm going to make that jig and try this again. 

Also, my steering wheel has never been centered.  The OCD in me hates that.     I've tried fixing that, too, and it always ends up off.

I found a couple of things over the years. One is that even perfectly aligned the toe looks toed-out because of the front body taper. Next is: centering the wheel by using the tie rods only may end up having one side way out and the other way in which most always ends up bending or breaking the tie rod end at those long exposed threads. Sometimes you just have to pull the steering wheel or any splined section and move it one or two..then do final fine adjusting with the tie rods just so it's even. And finally, the closer it is to zero toe, the better it will handle the trails and higher speeds without plowing. I set mine with 1-2/32 on each side so as not to give me any more then 1/8" total toe-in. And always measure from in front and behind the tread of the tire, not at the rim. Here's an old video I did many years ago on my Brute that most will apply to the Z using the string method. Some won't apply like the aftermarket P/S but the rest pretty much does.

   

[Sockman]

Yeah, I've done the string method before.  And I've pulled the steering wheel and moved it over a spline.  And when I think I got it right, get in and drive, it seems like it was right back where I started.

I'll try the string method again.  Crack some beers and give it a go. 

THanks!

[NMKawierider]

Yeah, I've done the string method before.  And I've pulled the steering wheel and moved it over a spline.  And when I think I got it right, get in and drive, it seems like it was right back where I started.

I'll try the string method again.  Crack some beers and give it a go. 

THanks!

Lol..maybe leave the beers in the icebox until after Hay did I ever mention my son and family moved over to Blue Grass? Bought a house on some land about half way between Blue grass and the river. Pretty nice over there...quiet...grassy...lol 

[Sockman]

Yeah, I've done the string method before.  And I've pulled the steering wheel and moved it over a spline.  And when I think I got it right, get in and drive, it seems like it was right back where I started.

I'll try the string method again.  Crack some beers and give it a go. 

THanks!

Lol..maybe leave the beers in the icebox until after Hay did I ever mention my son and family moved over to Blue Grass? Bought a house on some land about half way between Blue grass and the river. Pretty nice over there...quiet...grassy...lol

No, but that's really cool.  Blue Grass, as a crow flies, is probably only a few miles from me.  I'm just across the river from there.  If only these machines could float!

Did he get much land?  Enough to ride on?