Alignment (or lack thereof) Problems....

[BKOMAR]

I will be attending the solo II in Salina, KS. this weekend and I wanted to get my car aligned prior. I have adjusted the ride height and fiddled with the front end so I thought it would be a good idea. I also have been having alot of shaking in the front end and I realized all of my sticky weights had come off one side. I realized this when cleaning and doing up the wheels with vaseline as I had read in an earlier post... what a difference!!! Anyway, I took the car to the MOST RESPECTED alignment shop in the area and they had the car for 3 hours and were unable to do ANYTHING! They couldn't get the rear aligned because they couldn't get the hex head bolts/adjusters to move... they couldn't get the jam nuts to loosen on the tie rods, and... they said the car was maxed out in the adjustment in the strut towers and they couldn't align that either. The camber was what I really wanted to get done because my tires are wearing unevenly on the inside. WTH??? is this car really THAT hard to align?? I plan on doing the turbo tie rods this winter but I am concerned about the camber adjustment problem. The car is pretty low... I have 40 series tires on 16" rims so I lowered to make it look at least "not funny" (I will not go with that low of profile tires next time) and the car looks really good and has a nice stance and is not unbearable. How else can I get more adjustment in the camber area? Any ideas? Brian

[Tyson Schmidt]

If you are autocrossing this car, why would you want more "positive" camber? Track and autocross guys all complain about not getting enough "negative" camber.

If you drive your car hard at the track and autocross, and have the alignment settings set up to complement one another, tire wear won't be a big issue. I have -2.5 degrees of camber up front and -3.0 in the rear of my '72 for autocross, and my Victoracers are worn evenly straight across the tread. (And they are nearly worn out after 1.5 seasons)

The issue the alignment shop is having with your car is likely rust. The adjusters are probably all frozen. These cars are tricky to align, but if you know some tricks, you can get all the adjustment you want.

Most alignment shops do not know the "racer's" tricks. They simply know how to get the numbers on the screen to turn green. Find a shop that knows Porsches specifically, or at least one that does race prep. You'll likely have to pay extra for them to disassemble the rear trailing arm bolts and eccentrics to free them up, and the tie-rods up front will likely require replacement or heroic doses of penetrant and flame to free them.

As for the front camber, many alignment guys don't realize that they need to chisel out the tar that the factory put on the upper strut mount in order to adjust it all the way. You have to get all of it out or it will hinder the movement. Another reason to find a more comprehensive alignment shop.

[BKOMAR]

Thanks Tyson, I assumed that I would have to go to a more knowlegeable shop. That will mean a 2.5 hour drive after I do the suspension mods this winter. I understand that I want negative camber for the autocross. The problem is this car is driven ~95 % on the street and back and forth to work. The current settings of ~neg 1 degree of camber are causing the tires to wear bad and exacerbating the bad wheel balance. The guy did say..." look at all this tar in here....am I supposed to scrape that out or what?" but after 3 hours of watching the mullet wearing, camaro driving, camel smoking guy (no joke, i thought my car was on fire!) "attempt" to align my car, I just got fed up and chocked it up to Friday the 13th. I will just go and have a good time tomorrow and worry about all this later...perhaps in the spring. Thanks for the input, Brian