Wheel Alignment, Is this excessive camber? |
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Wheel Alignment, Is this excessive camber? |
fiacra |
Jul 5 2024, 08:23 AM
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#1
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Person.Woman.Man.Camera.TV Group: Members Posts: 407 Joined: 1-March 19 From: East Bay Region - California Member No.: 22,920 Region Association: Northern California |
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?
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technicalninja |
Jul 7 2024, 07:52 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1,825 Joined: 31-January 23 From: Granbury Texas Member No.: 27,135 Region Association: Southwest Region |
OK, here's the sheet from the shop: @SuperHawk996 Both you and I "saw" -2.5-3 degrees of negative camber in the first photos. I said -2+ and you said, "To my eye it looks like more than negative two degrees." I'd bet BIG money both of us are right! The "pre-alignment" pics looked decent. They were at the wrong camera angle to really tell but looked "stock" to my eyes. I don't believe ANY of the numbers on that sheet. I saw that shit and thought "They didn't chuck it up right! Are there ANY shims in the rear suspension now? SH said, "My bet is the jokers pulled all the shims and are too lazy to use the shims to set the camber properly; takes too much time." I thought "Yep, He's RIGHT! So, you and I are lock step here... No WAY would I take that back before I at least took my own measurements (not that bad with a flat piece of concrete) or had another shop (hopefully decent!) measure it. Now, I've had a bunch of time on both Visualiners and full on Lazer beds. It's DAMN hard to align a car, take it on a test drive, have an issue, re-chuck it up and end up with the exact same numbers a second time. The Visualiner was BETTER at consistent results. You had to MANUALLY center the heads. The visualiner just produced final numbers, it didn't have "acceptable ranges" or a nice print out. YOU HAD TO THINK with a Visualiner. I was initially trained on a Visualiner but got LUCKY early on. I watched/was trained by a FREAKING master that used ONLY flat concrete and would not accept a bed. The "flattest concrete" in the Mazda dealership I worked at was in the center aisle in the middle of the service department. He was the head of the dealership's "race" program and was a Ferrari tech during business hours in the small Ferrari dealership Roger Mauro owned. Alignments were done by him after-hours on Saturday. Nobody wanted to work on Saturdays anyway. I was a 23 year old tech that was learning fast. I was there for every alignment he did during my time at Roger Mauro. He taught me 1000% more than anyone else regarding suspension set up. Do it on flat concrete! Use cheap ass tools! Do not trust others IF you have a way of verifying their work. I still don't believe any of the numbers you got on that sheet! That car has MORE than -2 degrees camber on the rear. Not -1.4! |
Superhawk996 |
Jul 7 2024, 07:59 AM
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#3
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914 Guru Group: Members Posts: 6,468 Joined: 25-August 18 From: Woods of N. Idaho Member No.: 22,428 Region Association: Galt's Gulch |
I don't believe ANY of the numbers on that sheet. I saw that shit and thought "They didn't chuck it up right! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) The initial front toe looks like almost 3/4” of toe in. Seems hard to believe it drove there with that kind of extreme toe in and didn’t feel significantly different before vs after alignment. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) |
fiacra |
Jul 7 2024, 08:12 AM
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#4
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Person.Woman.Man.Camera.TV Group: Members Posts: 407 Joined: 1-March 19 From: East Bay Region - California Member No.: 22,920 Region Association: Northern California |
I don't believe ANY of the numbers on that sheet. I saw that shit and thought "They didn't chuck it up right! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) The initial front toe looks like almost 3/4” of toe in. Seems hard to believe it drove there with that kind of extreme toe in and didn’t feel significantly different before vs after alignment. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) And yet....it didn't feel significantly different. I'm willing to accept that someone else might have noticed a difference. I just checked and there is at least one shim in place on the right side. |
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