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Anyone change their own caster, camber, and toe in?

18K views 39 replies 17 participants last post by  Norm Peterson 
#1 ·
I was reading an old issue of MM&FF, about how to change your front end alignment. I was wondering what would be a good gauge to buy? I found a Longacre gauge, is it any good?
What is the correct way to adjust your caster, camber and toe-in?

Thanks.
 
#27 ·
I drive my car on the street all the time now so I'm running much less negative camber than I used to when I drove less to help my front tires last longer. If I go to the track occasionally, is it ok to just increase the negative camber by a certain amount on both sides for the track or does this adversely effect the toe as well. I'm just trying to figure out if it's safe to do like this or if I have to do the whole alignment everytime.
I'm going to Texas Motor Speedway to run the ROVAL and I don't want it to be pushing like it does on the street with my mild front alignment and torque arm out back...
 
#28 ·
Just dump the camber in and run it. It'll toe out a little bit but that's usually OK, but if you're running a very mild setting (like less than 1 degree) and you can get more than 2.5 degrees then you might want to prepare to take one full turn out of each tie rod when you do. That'll toe the front end in about 1/8th inch and compensate for what you added by increasing the neg camber. 7/8 wrench for the jam nut, 14mm wrench or vice grips to turn the tie rod. I run 1.25 to 1.5 neg on the street and max it out to 2.5 neg for events and I don't mess with the toe anymore when I do.

Before you make any changes, measure how far each strut top is from its closest fender edge and write it down. When you're done with the event, move the plates so the struts are back in their original positions and it'll be like you never changed it.
 
#29 ·
MFE said:
Before you make any changes, measure how far each strut top is from its closest fender edge and write it down. When you're done with the event, move the plates so the struts are back in their original positions and it'll be like you never changed it.
Or another way to do it since he has SN95 MM plates is to scribe/mark where the place that the camber plate is for street alignment. At the track push them in all the way. When done push them back out to the markings. The benefit of the SN95 MM plate setup is that the Caster plate holds in the factory camber slots where the Fox MM plate setup uses the camber plates to hold in the factory camber slots. When the SN95's camber plate is moved there is no chance of the plates moving within the factory slots. With the fox plates though, there is a chance of the plates moving in the factory slots.
 
#30 ·
Bringing this one back up from the dead.

I realize everyone's car is different due to different year and ride height and suspension parts, but is there a ballpark estimate of what distance to shift the strut top mount inboard or outboard to get, for instance, a 0.5º change in camber?
 
#31 ·
This would really vary on each car, especially if measuring from the top of the strut. Most of us use C/C plates and have the strut shaft spacered at different heights due to differing variations.

One of the nice things about the Smart Camber gauge I use is that it can stay on the wheel. If I need to add -0.5* I will jack that side up, with the gauge still on there, and add -0.5* off of the measurement it has in the air. When I lower the car down, the ground measurement should read an additional -0.5*. Very quick and very easy. I can't say how much I love this tool. Now if I only had a quick way to do toe. Maybe I will build my own laser setup...
 
#32 ·
Oktavius said:
Now if I only had a quick way to do toe. Maybe I will build my own laser setup...
You might want to try my string method. After you get used to setting it up it works well and pretty fast to set up too. I've edited the toe section a little since I posted it a while back.
Clicky HERE
 
#33 ·
I'll bring this back from the dead due to a new revelation.

I started getting some inside wear on my drivers side tire. I was convinced I had fairly even camber on both sides with my angle finder. I had figured 1/2 degree negative on both sides. I recently bought a 24" Craftsman SmartTool level off Ebay. (got a heck-of-a-deal at 34+7= $41 shipped) Checking with the digital level it turns out I had 1.3 degrees negative on the drivers side and .7 degrees negative on the passenger side.

For those that cannot build their own stuff I'd highly recomend getting the SmartCamber tool. I plan to machine a precision telescopic holder to mount the module out of the level I bought so I can adjust for unlevel surfaces. I also plan to put a laser module in it so I can shoot forward off the rear wheel to measure toe angle. At the very least get one of these 24" digital levels and you can get accurate readings off the tire. As long as you have the car on a level surface and don't put the level on the bulge of the tire at the bottom. Read it from just in front of or behind the center of the tire to avoid reading the bulge.

I have the camber plates pulled all the way out for the street cause I drive like a grandpa on the roads and I have 30 miles of straight highway back and forth to work. If you have short distances and more turns in your normal driving you may be able to run more negative camber without wear but if you drive a lot of highway like I do it can wear the tires on the inside. I would have never thought 1.3 degrees negative would give me uneven wear but it is only on the LF so it is not misadjusted toe.

I've got to either replace my stock camber bushings or go back to CC plates to be able to get the alignment back to 1/2 degree.
 
#34 ·
I have a 96 Cobra that I auto-x, but have never done my own alignment. I am going to try this, however, I also want to start drag racing. My plan is to have a streetable car for city driving (to and from the races) that wont destroy my tires. I have a set of auto-x wheels / street tires (Cobra R & Yokahama AVS Sport) and a separate set of drag racing wheels / tires for the 1/4 mile track. I understand I want max neg camber (as long as it is even on both sides) and max positive caster for the auto-x. How will these numbers differ for drag racing? Hopefully with enough practice, I can check the alignments the day before the race (whichever type it is for that weekend). I am still reading up on the toe, so any information on that is greatly appreciated for auto-x vs. drag racing.

Thanks for all the information you guys "in the know" share with those of us that are still learning.
 
#35 · (Edited)
trevman2 said:
How will these numbers differ for drag racing?
I'm not a drag racer but I imagine you want as little drag as possible for straight line performance. I'd say you want zero toe, leave the positive caster, and maybe the camber too so to have the smallest contact patch you can get on the front tires. It might work better to have zero camber and pump the front tires to max pressure. Maybe a drag racer will chime in with better info or you could go to the drag race forum and search or ask.
 
#36 ·
I'd run zero caster or close to it negative, keep the caster, and set the toe depending on what kind of control arm bushings you have and what deflection you can expect. If they're stock rubber, try 1/16th to 3/32 toe-in, which will likely go to zero at speed. If they're urethane or delrin, try even less toe-in, point being trying to get it so it'll be zero when going down the track. That's me, anyway.
 
#38 ·
MFE said:
I'd run zero camber or close to it negative, keep the caster, and set the toe depending on what kind of control arm bushings you have and what deflection you can expect. If they're stock rubber, try 1/16th to 3/32 toe-in, which will likely go to zero at speed. If they're urethane or delrin, try even less toe-in, point being trying to get it so it'll be zero when going down the track. That's me, anyway.
I believe this is what he ment to say.

Another trick, if you are running wide tires up front, is to raise the air pressure so you are only running on the very center of the tire.
 
#39 · (Edited)
Yes, camber is what I meant, sorry
 
#40 · (Edited)
I think the hot tip for strip alignment is to set the specs (0 camber, minimal toe-in) with the nose slightly raised (as it will be under WOT acceleration). Better than guessing how much bumpsteer and camber gain will show up relative to the at-rest position. After all, it's the alignment while competing that matters here, not the at-rest specs. However, it would probably be useful to also read and record the settings that correspond to the at-rest position for future reference. Picky, yes. But so is 0.001 second timing resolution.

If you have a few pictures taken at various points along the quarter, use those to establish how much to raise it (and probably concentrate your attention on pics taken where you're in 2nd & 3rd gear, since the time spent in those gears should be greater than the time spent in 1st & 4th).

During your run, toe change will be governed primarily by rolling tire drag and control arm bushing stiffness. This is what you're compensating for with a toe-in setting. Tires with greater rolling resistance (wider, softer, underinflated, etc.) and relatively soft OE rubber control arm bushings will result in greater toe change than skinnies at high pressure and poly/Del-A-Lum control arm bushings.

Norm
 
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