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Old 05-13-2008, 10:13 PM
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danyl danyl is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Savannah, GA
Posts: 150
Pardon my long reply, but maybe you'll find some of it usefull:

I've recently invested in the equipment to do my own alignments. The first thing I learned was how unreliable most "store" alignments are. If you put the car back on the machine immediately after the alignment, you'd probably find different measurements.

One needs to put appropriate weight in the seats to get a good road alignment. (most shops don't bother). One also needs to settle the suspension by bouncing on it. (most places don't bother doing this either)

Second...Caster and Camber are directly related, but not porportional in a linear fashion. My father-in-law and I actually worked out the trigonometry for the Spider's caster-camber arm relationship in order to predict the changes that each makes on the other. A small difference in caster between the two sides will affect camber differences to a larger extent.

Third...You say that your vehicle has not been wrecked. Are you certain? There are a few subtle signs you may want to look for: On the lower A-Arm, there are four bolts holding it's support bar to the frame. The support bar then goes into metal ball-n-sockets to the arms that connect to the wheel. There are large washers between the support bar and these ball joints. Are the washers bent? Even slightly? This would be the result of a hard wheel impact during your vehicle's history. It will grossly affect geometry and the camber angle under different weight loads. (ask me how I know)

A front end impact can also move the attachment point of the caster arm more rearward on one side than the other. A small/subtle difference can make bigger camber differences at different wheel angles.

Mine was wrecked. At 0 deg to 15 degrees of wheel rotation, no difference was noted. At 0 deg to 22 deg of rotation a side to side variance was noted.

Finally, may I suggest adjustable upper control arms to adjust camber. They are $100 each from IAP and simple to install.
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Danyl
1987 Spider Veloce, first and only owner...
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