Wheel Alignment, Is this excessive camber? Options

[fiacra]

1975 1.8 fully stock California car. I just put in turbo tie rods as well as a new trailing arm bushing, so alignment was needed. Not easy to find shops that do alignment on these cars, but a local member recommended a racing shop about 30 miles away and I took it there. They asked if I wanted it aligned for "street driving" and I confirmed that was the case. Let me emphasize that this is a stock California car in well maintained condition (a previous owner had it for 44 years and really took care of it) and I'm a really mild street driver. It is rare I'll use every one of the 76hp this can put out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) . Street driving only, no AX, no racing. It drove fine getting to the shop, no pulling, no vibration, etc. They told me it drove "much better" after alignment, and that the alignment was way off, especially in the rear. I couldn't tell any difference in how it drove pre and post alignment, but remember I drive for fun and I'm not by any means an aggressive driver. I brought a bunch of 914Rubber sourced shims with me, but they needed none of them and in fact returned to me a bunch of shims that were already on the car. I didn't notice it at the time I got the car back, but the next day I could see the rear wheel stance was significantly different, with (in my opinion) a lot of camber. Prior to the alignment it had maybe 1-2 degrees of camber. Again, I can't tell any difference in how the car drives, but maybe I could if I really pushed it? My question is, is this correct? I've really not seen this amount of camber on other members cars. Also, I kind of hate the rear tires leaning inward look. Not sure if I should take it back and ask for this to be "corrected." Other options are to live with it, or take it to another shop. Any thoughts? Is this amount of camber correct?

[914_teener]

Ok....I've done 914 rear ends before. I know that car and yes....It's a very nice car and great previous owner.

So first...when you did you do the rear bushings, are you sure the trailing arms are spec and then..that the arm freely moves and does not "hang up" by binding the bushing?

Second...did you change the springs as well?

Finally...it's hard to tell because the pavement appears to be not level but from all appearances...too much negative camber. Stay with the spec settings for street driving even spirited street driving.

So as far as "finding somebody"...since an alignment on a 914 is a pretty easy thing to do...Nobody wants to set it up on a Hunter rack unless they believe you have the money.

So check your trailing arms and shims, if there aren't any of them then that's your problem.

I use a protractor and string....that's all you need.

PS. Last time I tried to get somebody to put the car on an alignment rack, I handed him the stock specs. When I did that the guy no longer wanted to align the car. This happend twice since he assumed the car was modified...which it wasn't. Basically I couldn't find anybody and Eric Shea encouraged me to do it myself....so I did.

[fiacra]

Ok....I've done 914 rear ends before. I know that car and yes....It's a very nice car and great previous owner.

So first...when you did you do the rear bushings, are you sure the trailing arms are spec and then..that the arm freely moves and does not "hang up" by binding the bushing?

Second...did you change the springs as well?

Finally...it's hard to tell because the pavement appears to be not level but from all appearances...too much negative camber. Stay with the spec settings for street driving even spirited street driving.

So as far as "finding somebody"...since an alignment on a 914 is a pretty easy thing to do...Nobody wants to set it up on a Hunter rack unless they believe you have the money.

So check your trailing arms and shims, if there aren't any of them then that's your problem.

I use a protractor and string....that's all you need.

PS. Last time I tried to get somebody to put the car on an alignment rack, I handed him the stock specs. When I did that the guy no longer wanted to align the car. This happend twice since he assumed the car was modified...which it wasn't. Basically I couldn't find anybody and Eric Shea encouraged me to do it myself....so I did.

@914_teener Interesting that you know the car and the previous owner. Other than a large binder of records, I have no backstory on the car. As he pointed out earlier, I bought it from Bob Burton, who essentially was just a middle man that was flipping it for a profit and didn't have much of the car's backstory. Care to share what you know? PM me.

To answer a few questions:

No, it is not lowered. The car is bone stock, other than the turbo tie rods. I did replace the Rivieras it came with, but the Fuchs were an option so I consider them stock. Trailing arms appear original to the car. I did the bushing on the right side, but not the left. The work was done a week before the alignment, and the alignment was done was last week. This is all recent work. It drives fine, and is not twitchy. I can't tell any difference between how it drives pre and post alignment. The ride height is equal between the front and rear, at least by eye. There is no indication that the pivot is binding on the bushing. In any case, I only did the one side and this is wonky bilaterally. It was fine when I drove it into the alignment shop, and didn't have any obvious excessive camber. I did not change the springs. I can check to see if there are any shims in place. I'll check the specs on the sheet I was given as soon as I can get back to the car, which is over at my second garage. I'll report back tomorrow. The consensus seems to confirm my feeling that this just isn't set correctly. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to bring it back to the shop that did the alignment and have them fix their error. That seems the logical thing to do, although I'm game to try it myself. They deserve a chance to make it right. That's what I would want someone to do if I did something incorrectly.

Two pictures of what it looked like right before I took it to the alignment shop. This was after I finished the last round of work (new calipers, soft lines, turbo tie rods, MC, trailing arm bushing, changing to the Fuchs). To my eye the car looks level. Not a good angle to see rear wheel camber, but I can assure you the wheels were not leaning in.