Suspension refresh DONE-need alignment suggestions

[ben parrish]

Thought I would share my winter project. Time had come to refresh the suspension and..while I was in there
I replaced all bushings, tie rod ends, ball joints, rebuilt the calipers, replaced the rotors, cleaned, sanded and painted the sway bars, A-arms, strut housings/spindle, belly pan, repaired a torn sway bar mount in the rear, cleaned up some surface rust under the battery and re-painted, cleaned up some surface rust in the drivers door jamb (everyone better pull up the threshold cover and look), replaced the pads and bled the brakes....shew!
On my first try, I got my torsion bars almost PERFECT...front was 24". A quick reindexing the front torsion bar cap and I set it at 25 1/2. Perfect.


So, today I decided to align the car and corner balance. A fellow pelican provided the corner scales. I was a little worried but decided to give it a try. My initial readings were toe out of just 1/8" too much on the front passengers side..easy fix. Caster was perfect. Can't believe the luck. The rear was a little differnt. Caster was in by 1/4" both sides...toe was positive by 3/16" on drivers side and 1/8" on passenger. I adjusted it and got it closer but I think I am going to take it to a shop to verify and adjust as needed.

On to corner balance: I had a little over 1/2 tank of gas and 200#'s in the drivers seat. A few turns on the drivers front adjustment gave me the following readings.
Drivers Front---------532
Passenger Front----544
Drivers Rear---------896
Passenger Rear----777
Total weight 2749#'s...minus gas and sand bags, I am at around 2500#'s...super happy.

My car is basically a street car although my street driving is mostly all great mountain roads with an agressive driver behind the wheel. Running 16x7 Fuchs all around. 1" spacers in the rear; 205 front, 255 rear Conti DW's.

When I take my car in, what should I shoot for on the specs. I don't want a darty steering wheel and would like to at least get 20k on the fronts and 10k on the rears. Suggestions please....
thanks,
Ben

[ben parrish]

I did a little searching but can't fine a firm solution...perhaps the alignment shop, who does a lot of mid 80's, will have suggestions.

[Hotwatermusic]

Kinda off topic here, but how are you fitting 255 width tires on a 7" Fuch?

[DaddyGlenn]

From a pdf I downloaded from www.raystrax.com, which doesn't seem to be up anymore.

Front Camber: 0 to -0.5'
Rear Camber: -0.5' to -1'
Castor: middle of range
Front Toe: -1/8"
Rear Toe: 0 to -1/8"

Those were his "Street" recommendations and the numbers I plan to use if I ever get the frickin' car back together....

[ben parrish]

whoops..I meant 225 on the rear.

[euro911sc]

Ray Scrugs specs are a good starting place. I might put the front camber range in .5 more: -.5' to -1' and the rear the same -1' to -1.5'. Absolutely - toe front and rear and Max castor. If you feel the front end is too heavy move your castor back toward the front of the car in small increments until you are happy. Reset the toe every move.

-Michael