1st Corner Balance Results

[terryb]

All German Auto in Escondido, CA did a corner balance and alignment on my car yesterday and I'm interested to hear from others if these are good numbers. I also had them install turbo tie rods while they were in there. (I know, I know, it's supposed to be an easy job and I should've bought the parts from Wayne and followed the instructions in 101 Projects, but I'm moving my company to a new building and I'm short on wrench time. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) I haven't had a chance to drive it, except home from the shop but it does seem slightly tighter.

Total weight: 3058

Front weight: 1234, 40.35%
Rear weight: 1824, 59.65%

Left weight: 1592, 52.06%
Right weight: 1466, 47.94%

Left Front: 648
Right Front: 584
Left Rear: 945
Right Rear: 881

Camber LF: -0.5, RF: -0.6
Caster LF: 5.7, RF: 6.0
Toe LF: 0.16, RF: 0.16
Cross Camber: 0.1
Cross Caster: -0.4
Total Toe: 0.32

Camber LR: -1.1, RR: -1.0
Toe LR: 0.21, RR: 0.28
Total Toe: 0.49
Thrust Angle: -0.04

Thanks for any comments.

[tt_targa]

Thanks for the heads up.

I have purchased the tie rods, plan to put them in and then do a corner balance.

Guess you decided that your struts were ok? I have wondered about mine. I think they are 110k old.

I don't really understand if those are before or after numbers.
If after, why are camber number so different left to right.

[terryb]

These are the numbers after the balance.

The shop said the struts were in moderate to poor shape but I couldn't afford to have them do everything all at once so I opted to do the struts later.

Is a 0.1 difference in camber considered a lot? Or are you looking at the 0.3 difference in caster?

[ttweed]

Originally posted by terryb
All German Auto in Escondido, CA did a corner balance and alignment on my car yesterday and I'm interested to hear from others if these are good numbers.

Your corner balance numbers are great, within 6 pounds of ideal weights.

One tenth of a degree of camber is not a lot. Your alignment specs look fine for a street car, except maybe the toe. Are these numbers for "toe-in"? What are the units of measurement? If they are in inches, you have a lot of toe in the rear and quite a bit in the front as well.

TT

[terryb]

It appears to be degrees since the paperwork shows the superscript circle symbol next to all numbers, but doesn't specify -in or -out. I'm guessing positive is out and negative is in?

What would an be an example of numbers that might change showing a car set up for street+AX?

[ttweed]

Originally posted by terryb
It appears to be degrees since the paperwork shows the superscript circle symbol next to all numbers, but doesn't specify -in or -out. I'm guessing positive is out and negative is in?

What would an be an example of numbers that might change showing a car set up for street+AX?

If they are in degrees, then that's not excessive, and I would wager they are both "toe-in". That would translate to about 20 minutes (1/3 degree) in the front and 30 minutes (1/2 degree) in the rear, which would be fine for a street setup.

Differences for autox/track-- you probably want 0 toe, or even slight toe-out in the front, to aid in turn-in. That can get darty in a street car, though. Depending on tires, you would probably want all the negative camber you can get. 2-3 degrees negative is desireable for most radial race tires. This will result in poor tread wear on the street, though.

Are you a PCA member? You should come out to Qualcomm on June 6th for a PCA-SDR autox and see what your car can do.

TT

[terryb]

Thank you very much for your input Tom. Yep, I'm a PCA member and have been to Qualcomm for one AX and the Performance Driving School late last year in this car. It was a blast and I think I learned quite a bit. Most notably, don't drive over your lunch cooler in the excitement to get onto the track!