Hit the road, Jack!

[mark houghton]

For those of you stuck in the grip of winter snows or floods, welcome to the Pacific Northwest where winter never really materialized - at least in the center of WA state. Got tired of waiting for spring and fired up the beast for a 60 mile spin today. As usual from me, nothing special, just lugging along at 60/3k. Only a tickler to get you all out where you belong!

https://youtu.be/cM-ng8eGMvs

[FC356]

Leaving Sunday for a 2000 mile RT from Louisiana to Marfa and then Kerrville for Hill County Rally....taking the 84 930 Slant....Mardi Gras week off....Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler...

[kevinbodman930]

Mark,I tryed commenting on YouTube but you shut the comments off.Cool that you got the old girl out how is she running?

Sent from my SM-N976U using Tapatalk

[mark houghton]

Originally Posted by kevinbodman930

Mark,I tryed commenting on YouTube but you shut the comments off.Cool that you got the old girl out how is she running?

Sent from my SM-N976U using Tapatalk

She's running like a champ. After sitting for a few months, fired right up within about half a second of cranking. Still some odds and ends I need to fix, like no heat (which I can do without except would be nice this time of year). Some sort of problem in the center console control mechanism that won't pull the heater boxes shut. Otherwise, the only other real bothersome issue is bad wheel alignment on the right rear, eating the inner edge of the tire.

I'll check my YouTube channel and fix the "no comments" thing.

[Ralph3.]

That Banks Lake?

[Alan L]

Mark - why didn't you get the tools out over winter and get stuck in?? Sounds like a camber adjustment on rear. They are simple - spirit level. Chock it out as necessary at bottom for the fenders, then measure the gap at the top to rim (when level). Compare to good side. You have camber adjust in the spring plates. I have a screw adjust on my spirit level (home made) and can set at any required angle - simple Trig calcs. The heater may be frozen cables.
Shame on you :-)
Great that you are enjoying the beast.
Regards
Alan

[mark houghton]

Originally Posted by Ralph3.

That Banks Lake?

Blue Lake, actually. Part of the Sun Lakes state park area.

[mark houghton]

Originally Posted by Alan L

Mark - why didn't you get the tools out over winter and get stuck in?? Sounds like a camber adjustment on rear. They are simple - spirit level. Chock it out as necessary at bottom for the fenders, then measure the gap at the top to rim (when level). Compare to good side. You have camber adjust in the spring plates. I have a screw adjust on my spirit level (home made) and can set at any required angle - simple Trig calcs. The heater may be frozen cables.
Shame on you :-)
Great that you are enjoying the beast.
Regards
Alan

Thanks for the friendly jab! Just lazy is all. You're right, probably too much negative camber on the right rear, thereby wearing the inner edge of the tire. Have never messed with alignment, kind of scares me I guess, and not sure I follow your directions. Sounds simple but will need to do some research. Tires aren't cheap nor readily available in these stock sizes so I should get off my lazy ass and dig in to it.
The heater is secondary. I suspect frozen cables most likely; the boxes themselves seem free to move.

[Alan L]

The rear camber is a simple adjustment. One of the bolts in the spring plate is for camber. So all you need is a way to measure it - spirit level. In the vertical mode. If you like I will post a pic in a few days. But the spirit level can give you a dead vertical reference point. Then you measure how far off vertical the wheel rim is. That will be the distance from the inside edge of the level to the top of the rim. The more camber (-ve) the bigger the distance. Set to same distance as the good side. Or alternatively using trig you can calculate these number (distance) in to degrees. But in your case your other wheel is the useful reference point. The only snag to overcome is that the fenders will stop you lining the bottom of the spirit level against the lower part of the rim - and still getting the level to vertical. So you have to chock the bottom of the level out far enough so it can sit against the bottom of the rim and still get to the vertical without hitting the fender. Then measure the gap at top and compare to other wheel. Simple. I do my own alignments on the track machine, and corner balances.
Regards
Alan

[mark houghton]

Originally Posted by Alan L

The rear camber is a simple adjustment. One of the bolts in the spring plate is for camber. So all you need is a way to measure it - spirit level. In the vertical mode. If you like I will post a pic in a few days. But the spirit level can give you a dead vertical reference point. Then you measure how far off vertical the wheel rim is. That will be the distance from the inside edge of the level to the top of the rim. The more camber (-ve) the bigger the distance. Set to same distance as the good side. Or alternatively using trig you can calculate these number (distance) in to degrees. But in your case your other wheel is the useful reference point. The only snag to overcome is that the fenders will stop you lining the bottom of the spirit level against the lower part of the rim - and still getting the level to vertical. So you have to chock the bottom of the level out far enough so it can sit against the bottom of the rim and still get to the vertical without hitting the fender. Then measure the gap at top and compare to other wheel. Simple. I do my own alignments on the track machine, and corner balances.
Regards
Alan

Thanks Alan, I'm starting to do some research on this and your input helps bunches. It seems that everything I've read so far has alignment being done with the car on jack stands and the trailing arms drooping un-loaded. Maybe that's a proper starting point, but I suspect the final true reading is with the tires on the ground with the suspension fully loaded. Your thoughts?

[Alan L]

Absolutely - you have to do it loaded. And not just dropped down off a hoist/jack stands. Torsion bars take a bit to settle. But it is a simple adjustment as long as you have a decent way to measure it. So you can check and adjust 2-3 times if needed to get it close. One of the times a pit would beat a hoist. When you hoist the car you get heaps of + camber - so far from where you are trying to go = useless.
What you can do is slide part under car to the adjuster bolt and tweek it, then roll the car back/foward a turn or two to let the wheel find the new setting - take the load out of the tyres. Then measure and adjust again. Repeat til satisfied. You ahve the spring plate height adjust bolt - the large thin one near the front of spring plate. Then the camber adjust is the rearward one - pretty sure.
A bit of search should tell you which way to go to reduce camber. I can do some pics and better instructions early next week when I get back to car and manuals. I have changed my adjuster to Elephant race unit - gets more camber. So I will have to refresh the memory as to which way does what.
Alan

[Alan L]

OK Mark - here is my shadtree camber adjust system. You will see you take the spirit level to dead vertical (car needs to be on flat surface). Then measure the distance to the rim. You can use a tape measure - I have fitted a screw. Easier. In your case you just need to compare sides and fix the incorrect one to same spec as good one. You will see a number written on the level - x 0.12. That is the trig conversion factor to convert mm to degrees - for my 17" rims. so 10mm - 1.2 deg. You will note I have chocked the bottom of the level - so I can clear the fender. Doesn't matter in your case - but if I want to convert to degrees I have to subtract this value of the distance measure. Simple.
In terms of the process - if you find it too tight under the car you will need to jack that side up, make an adjustment and run it around the block, park it on the same flat spot of ground and measure, then repeat. Much simpler than setting ride heights.
Couple of pics of the camber adjust bolt location. The one with the black bracket - on my 930 - Elephant race system. But same bolt for you - as in the other pic off my SC.
Not sure which way you turn the bolt to reduce camber - but a search should tell or I can probably look it up.
Regards
Alan

[mark houghton]

You da' man! Gonna have to bone up on my trig, though; it's been over 50 years since they tried to teach me about sines/cosines/tangents and the like. I'm an educated Microbiologist (ask me about COVID19) but not good at math crap. Pretty straight forward, I WILL figure it out. Thanks.

[Alan L]

You don't need any trig - just set the poor wheel to same as good.
If you want to know the degrees and have 17" rims, you can use the calc factor I use.
Good luck.
Alan