Stupid corner balance/height question

[Brent 930]

Has anyone who had there car corner balanced realized there car looks crooked from the naked eye? In other words you set the height and it looks level but then get a corner balance done and now it doesn't. If not and you set the height and the car looks level that you should be close enough unless your racing the car in competition.

Thanks

[Chuck Moreland]

The proper sequence is to set the height (level), then corner balance. When corner balancing, effort should be made to keep the height correct.

A quicky corner balance job may short this last point. It's a lot easier to adjust the fronts, and all corner weights can be dialed in using the fronts only. But getting the weights and the height correct simultaneously usually requires adjusting the fronts and rears concurrently. This is where the quicky job cuts corners (pun intended).

That doesn't mean you got a quicky job. Sometimes it is not possible to have all 4 corner heights perfect and corner balance perfect at the same time. In this case corner balance should be optimized in preference to level.

Usually this is one corner slightly off on height, maybe up to 1/4 inch. Not a big deal.

With a tweaked tub it may not be possible to acheive proper height at all corners and corner balance at the same time. Maybe significantly more than 1/4 inch off.

Be sure you are measuring height at the tbar centers, not at the wheel arches. Variations in body work can throw off the visual.

Corner balance is important for all 911s. If you do suspension work and don't measure CB, it might be substantially off. Level height is NOT an indicater of correct corner balance.

If CB is off, the car will not track straight even when properly aligned. Braking limits will be reduced with one or more wheels locking up early. And handling will be different left to right.

This is critical for competitive cars but important for street as well. Stiffer torsion bars are less forgiving of CB error. Any car that has stiffer tbars must be corner balanced.

[Rich Lambert]

Maybe the car looks crooked because the driver's weight was taken into account. Does it look crooked when you're sitting in it?

[Brent 930]

Thanks Chuck, this is starting to hurt my head since this can go back and forth too many times. Everytime I want to make a change I would have to get another corner balance? If so, this would be too much for me. I mean, where does it end?

OK, it makes sense just because the height is correct it maynot be corner balanced since each side has differences in weight especially after making changes. Which brings me to another question, are these cars corner balanced from the factory?

Rich, I put my approx. weight in the drivers seat when checking the height. I realized before and after my 4 wheel alignment that the front passenger side was still sagging. Yes, I had my torsion bars replaced a year ago and questioned this then but that was without my ass in the car. I had more things on my mind then and didn't pursue it any further until now. Now I believe there is an issue. By adjusting the front passenger side torsion bar (very easy) I was able to get the height correct both front and rear within 2/16". BUT, from what I was told this might not be right since I didn't raise the back and front of the car when checking this. I will be a busy bee tonight doing that. Then I will know if I need the T bars re indexed or not. This could never end....

[Chuck Moreland]

You also need to make your measures, both height and weight, on a truly level surface. Don't really on your eye to guage level (unless you can see a 1/8 difference between all four tire patches ), use a water level.

[mwbaum]

I am getting new tires today with an alignment. I have never had my 85 corner balanced. I do not track the car but enjoy spirited street driving. Would corner balancing make much of a difference to me?

TIA

[Brent 930]

My garage isn't truely level but I checked it with a carpenters level and then a machinist level and as expected the machinist level (accurate to the .001" graduated 1 foot) was way off. So I used a nice ruler to see the error using the machinest level. Even then my garage floor isn't a piece of slate like for a pool table so it could be uneven across the whole floor. Will have to do what I can for now. Boy, just when I thought I knew alot...back to reality.

Thanks

[911pcars]

Brent,
Some of us use the Deco Load Checker. I haven't compared it with corner scales, but it's more accurate than the alternate (eyeball). The only source I know of is
Speedway Motors.



Sherwood

[Brent 930]

KICK ASS! I have to get one, so you put the pole inside the top of the wheel and jack it up to get a reading?

Thanks

[911pcars]

The pole is the lever you push to lift the wheel. Sort of a see-saw, bumper-jack motion. You insert the pole into one end of the lever which sits on top of the purple stand. There's a pin on the other end and is the lift point for each wheel (yeow!). The pivot of the lever bears weight on the pressure gauge and the force transfers to the pressure gauge for the corner weight display. Easier seen than explained.

Before you get a heart attack with visions of pock-marked wheels, you can (should) fabricate an intermediate device to accept the pin and spread the load onto the wheel. I fashioned a length (~6-8") of aluminum bar in the shape of a chord section of the wheel and contoured to match. A drilled hole accepts the pin. Cushioning between the al. piece and the wheel is a thick piece of leather I got from the local shoe repair shop. Not sure of the setup others use but it's probably similar in effect.

Sherwood

[Brent 930]

Now I get it, that little finger goes under the lip of the rim and then you jack it up until the tire comes off the ground. I'm going to get one)

Thanks