Quote:
Originally Posted by Joesmallwood
I am trying to digest all of this as the string goes along. I think I understand everything, but I do have a left field question.
My car is an '81 SC: 21/27 t Bars, 225/45/17 up front, 255/40/17 out back, Bilstein HD (green) up front and out back, Eibach adjustable up front and out back in the center position, ride height is 24 3/4" up front and 24 3/8" out back, camber is -.9 and -1.2 up front and -1.5 in the back, toe is zero front/back, and lastly, I drive mostly county/country roads with rally's in the hills - no track or DE.
The question I have is regarding front camber. I would like to target .5 up front, but I can't seem to get the camber any further down than what I have on either side. I have checked for bent struts and not found any witness marks for buckling, plus, the Bilstein inserts are only two years old and I had zero issues taking the old units out and inserting the new units. The camber issue has been present since I bought the car.
What should I look for, check, etc, and if nothing is "wrong", what are options for removing a little more camber? Is targeting -.5 advisable or should I go more? I see LOTS of cars that appear to have very little front end camber for road driving. The rear camber is a mixed bag - some appear to have zero, but some appear to have -2.0+ and everything in between.
And sorry for hijacking for a moment, but this is a good thread to inject a question like this, I think.
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Your car has been lowered by ~50mm+/-, it's hard to be accurate w/ fender #s, a - b is the best way to determine actual height
as the car is lowered w/ no other changes the camber goes increasingly negative, eventually the adjusters run out of range. The only thing to do at that height is to use membered ball joints and/or camber plates
you don't mention what wheels you have but depending on the width and ET yo may run into issues w/ interference at the lip w/ less camber. I run 8x17ET25 225/45 x17 and lower than yours w/ out issues but 7 or 8ET23.3 225/45 is likely to interfere w/o extensive lip massage
That's a really nice wheel & tire combo, you can generate a ton of grip which makes roll geometry worse, the 21/27 tbars & Eibachs really help w/ that
at that height you are roughly 2" lower than stock and have reduced bump travel by almost that amount it' s quite likely that the car is riding on the bump stops if not it's on the edge of doing so, you really need to raise the spindles, according to Elephant you could go +40mm w/ 17" wheels but I'd be conservative and go 30-35mm
additionally the steering is whacked and you would need to raise the outer and/or lower the inner ends of the tie rods, rack spacers are only ~11.5mm max
at ~160mm ride height, rack spacers and +30 spindle and ~9mm raise of the steering knuckle should put you in the right ball park