Problems with Alignment and Elephant Brace
 

Hi, I am having my 911 lowered and aligned by my local mechanic (specializes in Mercedes). In adjusting the front camber he found that the car was very negative. Right now he has one wheel to -3.6 deg. He was able to use my Elephant Racing Basic Strut brace to get it closer, but the chassis is so tweaked that in pushing the shock towers apart he ran out of adjustment thread.

I called Elephant and they said they are researching the problem for me. It seems that I need longer bolts or a longer bar.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

More likely that you have a bent strut.

The spindle is pressed onto the strut tube, and rosette welded in one spot on the back side. A pot hole can pretty easily bend the spindle on the strut tube, giving lots of negative camber.

On the alignment readings, it will show up as "included angle". If they are quite different left to right, then that's the proof.

If you look at the strut where the spindle meets the tube, you can usually see the witness marks where it is separating from the tube on the underside on the outer portion.

-3,5 degrees should be impossible. If it was from your chassis being off enough to have those readings, you'd have the hood overlapping the fenders!

Yeah, only one side is off. Will investigate the bent strut. Thanks so much for the advice Tyson!

What should I do if the strut is bent? Buy a new assembly? Is there anyone that reconditions them?

Sounds like a bent strut, hopefully, or the chassis is tweaked. But apart from that the strut brace should not be used to 'fix' an alignment problem. Fitted correctly the strut brace shouldn't really be exerting any pressure, either pulling the shock towers together or pushing them apart. I think that is why the triangulated one is more useful than just the single bar. I am not sure they do much on a street car except look cool. (I do have the Elephant triangulated one in my street only car ;-0 )

Elephant sells 3/4 neg ball joints. Perhaps the PO liked to turn one direction harder?