Home Built Camber Gauge

[aston@ultrasw.c]

Show off your home built camber gauge.

I know I could buy one but it's more fun to make one and save a couple of $, or not

Specs:

dedicated for 16" Fuchs,
hands free,
utilizing an off the shelf digital inclinometer.
accuracy +- 0.2deg?

[burgermeister]

No pics ... looks suspiciously like a home depot digital torpedo level / angle finder and a milled-very-flat piece of 2x3 oak 17" or so long, with a notch taken out of the middle to fit around the center cap.

The main downside is that it reads 89.5 whether you have +0.5 degrees camber or -0.5 degrees camber ... gotta look for those little arrows.

Also gotta have a level floor - my garage floor is 0.4 deg slanted, and I need a piece of 1/2" plywood under the RH front wheel and 1/4" under the RH rear wheel or I get false readings.

[911pcars]

Speedway Motors sells an inexpensive liquid level display kit to determine the slant of your floor. Home Depot sells the designer vinyl floor tiles to bring the floors up or down to spec.

Sherwood

[armandodiaz]

Best purchase I ever made:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00948295000P

[euro911sc]

Wow, that Sears piece looks great for $29.99!! I'll have to get one and see how cheap I can mfg a jig.

[avendlerdp]

My iPhone has an inclinometer application that cost $3.99. Pull off the center cap on the wheel, rest the iPhone on the flat part of the wheel and read the camber.

[MotoSook]

I bought an aluminum 4' level with a digital level like this Sears unit in it from Amazon Tools for maybe $70. I can't remember the exact $. It's been a while.

I cut the aluminum frame and got it weld for a camber tool. I think I spent about $120 total...but it was cheaper than the Smart Camber...and works the same. I'll post a pic when I get back in the shop later this week.

[midnight911]

this is how i do it. It's not a gauge but works accurately and reliably...and affordable.

fishing line, fishing weight, masking tape, sponge block, ruler, and excel formula...




1. level the car. 2. tie weight at the end of a fishing line. 3. tape the fish line. 4. put sponge at the fender edge so that the weight and line is free from the wheel/tire, and adjust line so that the line runs center of the wheel. 5. wait for the weight/line to settle. 6. measure the distance from the wheel edge to the line, top and bottom. 7. memo the distances and get the difference. 8. go to your pc, run excel, and do this formula:

=DEGREES(ATAN("the difference you got from measuring"/"wheel width"))

then you'd have the camber angle.

[sc_rufctr]

That's a great and simple way to do it... Well done!

By the way I like your wheels

[midnight911]

well, my method fails after all. i only hit one out of four spec requirements...

dedicated for 16" Fuchs? no
hands free? no
utilizing an off the shelf digital inclinometer? no
accuracy +- 0.2deg. yes

[axl911]

Thanks midnight911. Just in time too.

Your method/tool met my requirement: CHEAP!!!!!

Anyway, shouldn't you used ArcSine in your measurement? Because the wheel size is the hypotenuse of the triangle? The length of the string would be the adjacent, and the difference in measurement is the opposite side.

---
anthony

[midnight911]

axl911... Nooo, don't do that to me. please. it instantaneously reveals that I slacked off those math classes. I thought i was getting the right figures from the forumla but please do let me know if i'm doing it wrong. My goal was to have equal camber left and right so absolute angle for me was not that important. But i do want to make sure i have someone looking at what i do and make corrections if it's wrong.

what you say is correct.
wheel width = hypotenuse
diff in measure = opposite side
length of string = adjacent side (this value, i think, is not necessary to come up with the value for the angle)

what value was i getting?

[aston@ultrasw.c]

Thanks guys, I have used the plumb bob method and the set square and the laser!!

These methods work well if you measure carefully and if your math skills are sufficient

However, I will be rebuilding my suspension and I will need to make several measurements while making adjustments, hence the hands free no-calc requirement.

So I need some clever self-supporting bracketry ideas.

[axl911]

Originally Posted by midnight911

axl911... Nooo, don't do that to me. please. it instantaneously reveals that I slacked off those math classes. I thought i was getting the right figures from the forumla but please do let me know if i'm doing it wrong. My goal was to have equal camber left and right so absolute angle for me was not that important. But i do want to make sure i have someone looking at what i do and make corrections if it's wrong.

what you say is correct.
wheel width = hypotenuse
diff in measure = opposite side
length of string = adjacent side (this value, i think, is not necessary to come up with the value for the angle)

what value was i getting?

I didn't meant to make you look bad....your idea is the best. Mine involved straight edge, right angle, level, etc. which turned out didn't work as well.

Anyway, looking at the math (they drilled this into me when I was younger),

sine = opposite/hypotenuse --> measured diff / wheel width

tan = opposite/adjacent --> measured diff / string length

Using tangent would work, but you need to measure the length of string from edge of wheel to edge. But it's another thing to measure and introduces error.


To answer what values you are getting when using arctan ( measured diff / wheel wheel width). You are getting a slightly smaller camber angle than what you are supposed to get. Because the the wheel width, being the hypotenuse, is always > than the string length. But when you compare side to side, it is okay because in reality, you're just comparing the measured difference.

I ran out to the garage and used your method last night using a piece of thread and a heavy socket. I knew my side to side camber is almost the same since the difference between is very small. The calculator subsequently proved this.


---
anthony

[axl911]

Oh and another caution using levels with the bubble, make sure the level itself is right. I used a cheapie level /w bubble to measure camber first. It told me I have positive camber!!!! So I got another level and compared the two, and the bubbles pointed in opposite directions. Such is the life when you buy stuff from Harbor Freight.

The string method is good and pretty much fool proof, unless gravity is slanted where you live.

[avendlerdp]

Pardon the sideways photo but here is an iPod Touch running "Tilt Meter" checking the camber on my wife's VeeDub. iPod touch costs $200 but you can use it to play all your music and video too. "Tilt Meter" application costs $4.00. It also reads in radian and percent of slope in case you ever need that. It also can be zeroed out to account for an un-level floor.

Not hands free but it sure is instant and bizarrely accurate.

[Rob B]

Clever but how do you check caster with that string invention? Rob

[tsiegwart]

86.9 degrees?

So the the camber is -3.1? That's alot. Is the i-phone measuring accurately?

Here's a link to mine.

http://targa.shutterfly.com/267

It's pretty low tech, but close enough for home.

No camber gauge will measure toe in, a different tool needs to be built for that.

[Zeke]

This is from my 914 race car days. It's from the design de jour circa 2002. I probably can't remember how to use it. But, the principle was to use 32 TPI machine screws, one fixed and one loose. Each turn therefore was 1/32nd" from dead plumb. On this model, the screws are 16" apart for a 15" wheel.

Given the diameter of your wheel, a little trig on a scientific calculator would give you the degrees from plumb. Remember that the car has to be on level ground and at ride height with driver. One of you math guys can provide the formula.

Total cost for this is pretty cheap and you can check the car for level with the same device. Close enough.

[Zeke]

BTW, there was (or is) a way to determine castor if you can get your camber numbers at full lock left and right and know the total amount of degrees of the steering. Too complicated for me.