1 fast z Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 Yea so finally got the suspension all the way complete and the car back on the ground this last weekend. I got the Camber, and tow pretty close on my own with a good level style protracter, like within .2 Degrees. Tow was pretty dang close as well, within a 16th of a inch. So I go to sears with my buddy andy, who works there and we spend some time on the hunter computer alignment rack to get everything EXACTLY correct. We first set Rear camber, then tow. Then we proceed to Front Camber, which was perfect, then caste, which was off about .5 degrees, then we do front tow. So I got my car to these wanted specs: Front: Tow= .13Deg per side Caster=3 degrees Camber=1.1 degree REAR: Tow= .1 degree Camber=.7 degree Caster= Do I HAVE 4 wheel steering, LOL. Man My car used to be WAY out like DEGREES when the last time we checked it, but since we didnt have a way to adjust it with the stock suspension, couldnt do much about it, and the car used to dog track like CRAZY now, PERFECTLY straight down the road. NICE. The Arizona Controll arms are a MUST In my opinion. For 1200 bux for ALL four corners, its a must for sure in my books. Oh BTW, I did set ride height before anything, and I set it at 25.5" from the ground to the apex of the wheel well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 Why did you spend all that $$$ then dial in such a mild setup? Especially on caster which isn't a tire wearing angle and helps camber when you turn the wheels, it would have been a good idea to crank it up. The camber should close to double what you set it to for an aggressive street alignment IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 Oh BTW, I did set ride height before anything, and I set it at 25.5" from the ground to the apex of the wheel well. Use the bottom of the rocker panels for ride height measurements. The wheel wells can vary as much as 1" side to side on a 240Z. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 fast z Posted April 25, 2006 Author Share Posted April 25, 2006 I wanted the Tires to have the SAME clearence, therefore thats why I measured to wheel wells. Car looks DEAD level to the naked eye, so I think it will work good. Why didnt I put more caster or camber? Cause this car is driven about 20 thousand miles a year on the street. I dont want a car that is hard to steer (more caster) or a REALLY touchy steering wheel (more caster). I dont want to wear out a set of 800 dollar tires every two months (camber). PLUS I have the adjustable camber plates ALL the way to the positive position, that way when I run autocross events, etc, I can just slap the wheels all the way in at the top (negative), and it gives it 2.5 more degrees of negative camber. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 OK, that's a good answer. Actually its exactly what I did. I set the alignment where I wanted it on the street which was 1.8 degrees neg in front, 1.5 rear, 1/8" toe in front, 3/16" toe in rear, 5 degrees caster, then when I went to the track I had the camber plates so I could just adjust those in for the camber. I don't recall exactly how much adjustment the plates were good for, but it sounds like the AZC plates have more adjustment than the GC ones. Although I never set them up to the camber I wanted with the plates all the way up, which I assume you did. I still think you should add more caster though. It really helps turn in, and doesn't make the steering twitchy IMO. It will make it harder to turn though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 fast z Posted April 25, 2006 Author Share Posted April 25, 2006 Yea I made the camber adjustments down low, on the lower control arms, rather than the camber plates, camber plates are set in the POSITIVE psoition and then all I have to do is slam them in at the most negative position and it gives it about 2.5 degrees more camber. That way everything is easy to dial in at the track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olie05 Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 TOW = TOE speling is inportant two Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 Here's why its important to set ride height using something other then the wheel wells: Above is a front picture of the ROD, arguably one of the better handling 240Zs. Notice how the passenger side front fender and headlight bucket is lower then the driver's side. Although the chassis, frame rails, strut towers, rockers, etc. were straight, the car hit a wall in its previous life on the passenger front corner. The front inner fender sheet metal and upper frame horn from the strut tower to the radiator support was pushed down and wrinkled. It was repaired enough to get the front frame rail correct and the strut tower where is was supposed to be. Using the wheel well to measure ride height would make the passenger side of the car 1.33" too high and really affect the corner weights and balance. By measuring and adjusting ride height from the rockers the car had cross weights within a few pounds. The passenger front looked a little droopy but the car handled well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dasz33 Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 Thats exactly what my car looks like! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 Sounds like you are ready for the MSA autox. I'll have my pyrometer with me if you want to use it to further tune. When I put my car back together I set my height measuring between the fender openings and top wheel lip edge as I was more concerned with looks too as it's a street car first. It was pretty good considering. My corner weight was. This was with a 1/2 tank gas. LF 674 RF695 LR 588 RR614 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Baldwin Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 FWIW, the front wheel opening is SUPPOSED to be higher than the rear, it's a larger opening. With the rockers level, the top of the front opening will be higher. This is true for a lot of cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlderThanMe Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 ok so talking about alignment I want to increase caster with my stock compression rod just slightly. How thick of a washer am I looking for? I searched a little bit but did not find much. Could I just use fender washers or are they too thick? Thanks guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 That's some pretty serious thread jacking there olderthanme, but I'll give you a short answer. If you took it to an alignment shop they would have some shims to put in there. If you wanted to do it just use washers up to the point where the end of the rod only has one or two threads hanging out the nut on back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlderThanMe Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 sorry but I didn't want to start a new thread...an admin can delete that if you wish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 sorry but I didn't want to start a new thread...an admin can delete that if you wish. No, just this: Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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