There are many ways to align your wheel and the normal method involves 30 minutes and a few quid. Not in France. €40 for a check and another €30 to adjust. And that's just a basic 2 wheel check. A 4 wheel check is well over the ton.
There are a few DIY tools in the market; Gunsons have done a simple gauge for years, and there is a new one using mirrors and a laser. Both are around £60/70.
For simplicity, if your cars wheelbase is the same front to back, you can set a line the same distance out from the wheel centres front/back and measuring the distance string to tyre and adjusting it until you get the desired difference.
I've used another method as the Xsara wheelbase is different front/back. You measure the distance from the same point on the front tyres left to right, from the rear and front of the front tyres. This method assumes the rims aren't bent and the tyres are pretty identical and that your wheels are equally at fault. I was pretty sure the tracking was out on the car as the outer edges were wearing and there was a bit of steering wheel wobble. This is toe-in or positive toe (http://www.etyres.co.uk/glossary-tyre-terms?term=toe-inout) I measured the 2 distances and found 151.5mm towards the rear and 149.5 towards the front, confirming the toe-in. I'd squirted wd40 on the adjustment nuts a few weeks back and they came straight off. 20mm AF on the nut, 18mm (odd size) on the rack arms. I finally found out the toe figures which are 0mm. I started with 1/4 turn each side and this swapped the measurements over! 1/8 turn back got the numbers to 151mm.
I've been studying the original / classic Dunlop system and will probably try to make a modern version with a web cam and/or a laser.
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