Tracking , Camber And Ride Height

[Guest Ken Brough]

sva looming on thursday still have these to sort out.

 

off work now so 3 full days to polish it off.

 

Without the access to tracking / camber gauges ect has anyone got any ideas until i can get it to a tyre station after the sva pass.

 

My thoughts are as follows but if anyone has any others please let me know

 

For tracking could i run 2 straight lengths of steel box section placed on each wheel pointing forward then measure as close to the wheels and as far from the wheels as possible then get them parrallell then turn each track rod ends in the same amount.

 

Anyone know how much 1 revolution of the track rod end equates in degrees.

 

Do you think this would be somewhere near or just laughable.

 

As for camber 2 degrees in i recall from the video.

 

hows about putting the car on a flat level surface then once the ride height is sorted using a peice of steel box section the same size of the wheel. hold it against the rim then with a magnetic adjustable spirit level set it at 2 degrees stick it to the box section then turn in/out the top ball joint.

 

Should this get me somewhere near.

 

one last thind what is the best position for the front robinhood shocks fully wound up , down or somewhere in the middle

[Peter Bell]

Hi Ken, the camber seems a bit excessive, 1/2 to 1° -ve I would say, and setting up the toe in is fine initially at least with 'straight edges' just make them toe in slightly, equal to about 3mm at the front of the wheels. The important thing is to make sure the length of thread showing on the track rod ends are the same on both sides. I don't know what suspension you have but the castor angle needs to be about 3° to give decent self centering. Good luck!

Peter

[Longboarder]

If you have some scrap wood lying round you can make up a pretty accurate tracking gauge as below. Stick/tape/etc long screws or nails at mid wheel height so one of them can be moved in or out. Then you can place gauge between rims at back of wheels and adjust pointer screw/nail till both are touching and repeat at front. Half to one degree in. Camber can be done with long spirit level with two pointers sticking out equaly at bottom and top rim height to give a vertical measure and then shorten upper link by one full turn to give a little negative camber about 1 degree. Do on flat and always roll the car to and fro after adjustment to let it settle before remeasuring

Castor angle is not easily adjustable so you will have to live with what you got. Wind spring seats up till lower wishbones go out and down by about five degrees.

Good luck thursday.

 

Nigel

[Guest Fred2b]

I did my initial setup by sticking one of those laser pointer pens (Maplin £5) to a block of wood about 300mm long. Park the car staight and level in front of a clean wall or board about 1.5m off it. Place the block of wood against the rear wheel rim ( not the tyre ) at hub height and turn on the laser. Get a helper to mark a dot on the wall. Do the same for the other side. Move to the front wheel and mark the laser dot on the wall and do the same the other side. Measure the distance between the two dots on each side and add them together then divide by 2. This is the distance to set the tracking to to get the wheels parallel. Make it 1 or 2 mm less for slight toe in.

It should be good enough to drive on without wearing tyres out untill you can get to a garage to have it done properly but I have done over 500 miles in mine like this and they look ok.

Fred

[Guest Fred2b]

If you have Microsoft Word this diagram might help. (I hope it attaches ok)

Fred

Wheel_Alignment.doc

[Guest Roger 2B]

I can't open the attachment. Is it just me, anyone else manage?

[Guest Russler]

no probs, just you

[Guest Roger 2B]

Must be the way our work computers/network are set up. I'll try at home tonight.

[Guest MikeD318]

It might be trying to open the attachment in your web browser. Try saving the attachment to your hard disk and then open it from there.

[Guest Ken Brough]

Thanks for all the advice lads i will have a go at the steering / camber ect tomorrow as i have just had a couple of spanners made for adjusting the ride height.

 

Am i right in beleiving that castor angle is a line running between the centre of the top and bottom ball joint.

I am running rh double wishbones with rh bspring / shocker.

 

If this is right is there any way of adjustment as i seem to remember reading that you have to heat up the threaded portion of the top ball joint with oxy acetylene and bend it rearward to enable self centering.

[Guest Fred2b]

Castor on the 2B with double wishbones is pretty much set by the manufacturer. Some have managed to get a slight adjustment by turning the dummy strut one way or the other.

[Longboarder]

Castor is set by the line between the centres of the top and bottom ball joints viewed from the side of the car. The positions of these are fixed by the wishbones. Twiddling the dummy strut can alter toe, camber, KPI, steering geometry and probably other things but not castor. Your car will drive differently after a twiddle, maybe even better than it was if one of the above has been optimised, but this is not down to change in castor.

 

Nigel