Educate me on camber plates...

[widebody911]

I have another alignment coming up, and I was looking at my front strut towers. They're in sad shape. For one, the body is tweaked; to get even camber, the strut is close to the inside max on the driver's, and outside max on the passenger side. I was thinking of elongating the holes, but I'm also considering installing camber plates.

Are they worth the expense? I did a few searches and didn't find anything definitive. Are bolt-in camber plates OK, or should I go all the way to camber boxes?

[widebody911]

If I take a "Jack Olsen" picture, will someone reply?

[Tyson Schmidt]

Thom, it's more likely that you have a bent strut than tweaked strut towers. I really don't think you need camber plates to get enough camber.

What front strut housings do you have?

[PorscheGuy79]

I have a similar problem, I cant get less than 2 degrees of camber on my passenger side but on my drivers side im at the stock setting. I am preatty sure its a bent strut but I will know for sure when I take it apart in a week or two.

[Craig 930 RS]

How about the decambered ball joints by WEVO?

[widebody911]

I've always had this problem, and the (Bilstein) struts are fairly new. When I first tore the suspension apart a few years ago, I discovered that all the bits on that side had been replaced. There's also a ton of bondo on the door and fender, and a few other little anomalies, like funky hood alignment.

It was obviously hit in a previous life, and repaired poorly.

I've bent a strut before, and the problem I had then was too much negative camber - like 12 degrees!

Anyway, it is what it is, and I'm foolishly trying to make the best of it, instead of sending it down to Pick-N-Pull and buying an Integra.

I already have the de-cambered ball joints.

While we're here, how much camber is too much, and what should be the camber 'spread' front and rear? It would appear that most cars are limited by the hardware, but with cool toys like de-cambered ball joints and camber plates one can experiment with a wider range of settings.

[Jack Olsen]

Too much in front and your car's braking capability starts to disappear. The inside edges aren't all that effective at stopping the car.

Then again, Tyson and I have seen an M3 that was kicking everyone's butts with -6.25 up front.

[PorscheGuy79]

Originally posted by Jack Olsen
Then again, Tyson and I have seen an M3 that was kicking everyone's butts with -6.25 up front.

I guess the logic there is if you have that much camber then you dont need to brake.

[Chuck Moreland]

Originally posted by Craig911
How about the decambered ball joints by WEVO?

It's hard to keep the players straight without a program.... but these are made by Elephant Racing.

As a rule of thumb, I like .5 degrees more negative on the rear than the front. But use a pyrometer to figure out what works best with your specific setup.

[Craig 930 RS]

WEVOs, Pelicans, Elephants.......I need a guide to the zoo ;-)

[Craig 930 RS]

Thom -

Try -3.0 rear, -2.2 front ( my settings); will probably go with -2.6 up front with decambered balls.

We both essentially have widebody track cars - I sure like the settings I currently have -

[Tyson Schmidt]

I guess you're right Thom. I didn't notice the part where you said you couldn't get enough negative camber. Yep, when they bend, you have too much negative on that side.

As far as how much negative, on a 911, -2.5 up front should be the max. If you need more than that, then you need to adjust something else in the suspension to balance things out. Like Jack said, too much negative camber up front starts to hurt braking performance.

[Tyson Schmidt]

Originally posted by PorscheGuy79
I guess the logic there is if you have that much camber then you dont need to brake.

That's exactly right! This guy had a front sway bar the size of a sewer pipe up front. He was lifting the inside front wheel off the ground about a foot and a half, I kid you not! So to keep the outside front tire flat in this situation, he had to crank in -6.25 degrees.

He was running huge slicks on a Euro E-36 M3. My guess is he just couldn't get the suspension stiff enough to handle the grip, so he compensated the best way he could. He was running 1:26's at Big Willow with 300 horsepower. Pretty impressive!

[Randy Blaylock]

How about -9 degrees on the right side and +8 on the left? Yes, it's intentional, and the brakes work fine. 8 inch goodyear slicks at 14 psi. cars weigh 1300 lbs +/-. The cars pull 2+ Gs around the turns.





Here's my wife racing a 73 911, 2250 lbs, 300 hp 3.6, 225/50-15 tires, running -2.8, slight toe out front/-3.1, 0 toe rear, and the settings are perfect per intensive probe type tire pyrometer testing.

[Chuck Moreland]

These are not cars, they're 4 wheeled motorcycles leaning into the turn. If you look close I think that one driver is touching his knee

Talk about camber thrust, do they do opposite lock to go straight?

[Nine9six]

Chuck...You're cracking me up!