Lightweight Camber

[peter_m7uk]

Hey chaps,

 

Was just measuring wheel camber on my Lightweight today and came out with the following values:

 

Front right -1.32deg

Front left -0.72deg

Rear right -0.72deg

Rear left +0.93deg

 

So they are all close to the recommended (from what I can gather) 1deg camber, but the rear left is positive! Will this bug*er up the handling and if so, in what way?? There's no way to adjust rear camber on the Lightweight, so it would have to be done with shims - Anyone know where I can get a -1.65deg shim to bring the rear left to the same as the rear right??

 

While I'm on, I reckon I can adjust the fronts by about 0.4 deg for each turn of the top balljoint. Will the 0.6deg difference betwern the fronts be noticeable when driving? If I adjust, should I go for -0.92deg on the front right and keep -0.72 on the left, or go to 1.12deg on the left and keep -1.32deg on the right?

 

This is for mainly road use with the odd track day, before anyone suggests crazy -10deg race settings

;D

 

Cheers,

Pete

[Guest gdc]

hi pete

re the rear the difference can realy only be in the back plate spacers , ie are they dead square to the back plate and the support plate , i cant say for sure cos mine has never been measured so i am deffo no expert .

or the top and bottom holes for wish bones are out very slightly .

could you have a small ammount taken of the spacer to sort it ,out might be easier than shimming it out .

re the fronts i have arround 1/4 of an inch neg , and seems fine

 

graham

[Guest diyer]

Pete,

 

I adjusted the rears using shims between the backplate and hub.

 

Simon

[peter_m7uk]

Thanks for the replies, LW gang.

 

I'm pretty sure it's a slight misalignment of the box sections that hold the wishbones,

as the right hand wheel is in at the top, the left hand is out at the top and the two

are linked via the box section. Probably just got it out by a mm or two when I

constructed the back end.

 

As for correcting it, I'm not sure about having a a small amount taken off the spacer,

as I think it would need high precision machining to get such a tiny angle onto the

surface? Not sure where to go for that round here and they might say it's not worth

their while or ask for a fortune, but I could look into it.

 

What did you use for shims, Simon, and where did you get them?

 

Hope you're both still enjoying your cars? Maybe one day I'll join you! Split up

with my girlfriend not long ago, so I finally have loads of spare time

 

Pete

[Guest Ad_W2001]

Pete am i right in thinking you work at Ricardo? maybe one of the machinists there could help?

[Guest diyer]

Go for very thin washers!

 

Thats what i did

 

cheers

Simon

[Guest gdc]

hi

richard told me some time ago that colin denyer when racing his lightweight experienced brake bind on hard cornering .

it was assumed that the support bracket from the w/bones to the back plate might be warping or at least moving under load . my personal view is that the most solid rework is the best to ovoid future probs , so the largest support behind the back plates might be the way to go .

simon have you had this prob on the road ?

i havnt so far but mine is as standard, but i havnt realy given it real stick yet , with the new engine though ?

 

graham

[Guest diyer]

I have to say, i have only briefly been out in the car since adjusting the back, i have had no 'brake binding' and the car felt less likely to break away, it was originally showing a bit of positive on one side.

 

Simon

[Guest Nigel Novice]

When I was spannering for my mate in Super Rods in his Sierra, it was common practice among the teams to put thin washers in the lower bolt positions to get a bit of neggy camber.

[Snapperpaul]

When I was spannering for my mate in Super Rods in his Sierra, it was common practice among the teams to put thin washers in the lower bolt positions to get a bit of neggy camber.

also heard this from Gavinc and Kwick Arf as they raced the same, camber wedges have been mooted but the washer trick will work on the rear. The front is a little more difficult to deal with but could be achieved with a re made wishbone

[Grizzly]

While I'm on, I reckon I can adjust the fronts by about 0.4 deg for each turn of the top balljoint. Will the 0.6deg difference betwern the fronts be noticeable when driving? If I adjust, should I go for -0.92deg on the front right and keep -0.72 on the left, or go to 1.12deg on the left and keep -1.32deg on the right?

 

This is for mainly road use with the odd track day, before anyone suggests crazy -10deg race settings

;D

 

Cheers,

Pete

 

Hi Pete,

I'd go for 1.12 & 1.32

I've just been re-jigging mine. It's been a long story (as is the way with all things RH) I'll write it up when I next do my website.

On the rears, I now have 9mm (N/S) & 7mm (O/S) and for the fronts: 8mm (N/S) & 8mm (O/S) although I've just found there's a bit of play in one of the top ball joints now, so it looks like I'm going to have to swap these too

Anyway, apparently Tricky Dicky used to say "... a quarter of an inch". Not sure exactly what this all equates to in degrees (as near as I can measure at the rim, 1 degree = 7.2mm) but I think I'll be happy with this for now at least as it's a vast improvement on what I had before. Which was:

Rear N/S 15mm, Rear O/S 17mm, Front N/S 10mm & Front O/S 18mm

Bearing in mind it's a Robin Hood, probably not too bad. Further tweaking anticipated over the winter.

[peter_m7uk]

Thanks for all the replies, gents

 

Although I like to do things "properly", enough of you are in support of washers, that I think

I may give it a try. I probably could get some wedges done at Ricardo, Adam, but it normally

requires a certain amount of begging and a long wait from our lads even if they're prepared

to set up a program to mill the spacer down. Hard to resist a couple of 2mm thick washers

doing the same job!

 

Cheers,

Pete