Front Camber & Tracking Settings

[blubayou]

Hi Guys,

Having never actually set up with any accuracy, the front (or rear) wheels of my Mk1V Spitfire in the 16 years I've had it, I thought I'd check it over as it does look odd side to side.

It is currently not showing any uneven tyre wear or odd traits, so it will be interesting to see what it is set to, one side has wishbone shims, one has none.

Armed with levels, plumbob, a 'Trakrite' & a fairly average garage floor to work from, I'm wondering what sort of settings I should be looking for.

Straight out of the manual or do modern tyres need different settings?

Car is a 1973 Spitfire, standard with 155 Avons.

Thanks in advance.

[Pete Lewis]

i woulld aim the trakrite as zero  to 30'  side slip  toe in  front and  rear (Max)

dont forget most manual specs are with 150 lbs on each seat

to check front to back just put a 6ft long straight timber or angle iron against the rear wheels above the load bulge and sight it down the sill line 

both sides want to visual the same  |-|   not  |-\  or /-/

Pete

[Clive]

Pete,  I am not optimistic about 6' lengths of straight timber!

I use some lengths of steel, sitting on bricks to clear the tyre bulge. Then a tape measure. I set everything to parallel, and it gives good handling. I fiddles about with a "string box" around the car. Set so parallel to teh rear wheels, which had been set parallel. Then checked the box sides were parallel, then saw how the front wheels were. Then kept adjusting until I was happy. Took a morning all in to do camber/castor/tracking. Included a bacon sarnie and a few cuppas.

 

Aim to have 1-2 degrees of negative camber on the front. 

[Pete Lewis]

You mean you cant get straight timber from ....W...kes   anymore !!!!

Pete

 

[JohnD]

I saw Pete use a Trakrite at a Twiddle Day this year, and liked it so much I bought one!    At worst, it will let you gt the two sides the same, but its better than that.

J.

[daverclasper]

Hi. Been tempted by the Trakrite, though no level floor to work from (have to do work in the street), though when car up on kerb it looks pretty level. Would this be ok just for tracking, rather than camber please?.

Thanks, Dave

[Pete Lewis]

It is best on a reasonable level floor but as one wheel is on the ground and one is on the slip plate the ground angle wont 

seriously have any effect on the side slip result 

In the past someone thought of getting two , which is pretty pointless,   one wheel has to grip the road so the plate shows the combined sideways drag you get from any toe in errors  and it   doesnt matter which side you place it 

Pete

[blubayou]

The original results are (with car unladen):

 

 Nearside 2' pos camber. 0.3' toe in

Offside 0' camber. 0.3' toe in

 

I have now moved the shims around so each side has 2 shims per lower wishbone. A quick measure suggests both sides are equal with 0' camber, but I haven't driven it yet so will retorque the bolts and try it out before reporting back.

 

 

 

[blubayou]

Adjusted & road tested:

Nearside 0' camber, 0.3' toe in

Offside 0' camber, 0.3 toe in

Full tank, no passengers.

 

Drives just fine, self centres nice, not too heavy, just like before really, but now looks more even side to side.

Camber set using homemade plumbline / trigonometry gauge, toe in using Trakrite, very to use.

Thanks for everyone's input, will keep an eye out for tyre wear & attempt the rear set up at some point.

 

Steve.

[SpitFire6]

Hi,

 Deleted a previous post after I reread.

Just received my Trakrite & a balance board. The board is a piece of synthetic rubber around the same size and thickness as the Trakrite. No chamfer, unlike the Trakrite.

Is it for the opposite wheel? Shame no ramp.

Cheers, Iain. 

[Pete Lewis]

I guess so, never had one or used any in all my years of checking geometry,

8 to 10 mm up or down makes no constructive changes 

Even flat floors for camber castor is take the sum of readings and halve for a result, the car has no idea on the road where flat is.

Dont forget to check the specs for being laden or not.  Makes a wild difference in results

Pete

[SpitFire6]

Hi Pete,

 The "Balance Board" is the shown below. Full of holes. Shame there is no ramp.

I just need to train my son how to position the two parts in front of the wheels.

He will need to be able to read the magnetic camber gauge as well!

Cheers,

Iain.

[Pete Lewis]

so is the idea to keep it level / equal when on the trakrite when checking camber ??

seems  pretty pointless when you look at the varying state of road camber  

i gave my Humber experimental dept  optical gear to Kevin to play with , if the lights go dim he's plugged it in 

all too much hassle for basic clues , my dunlop optical got loaned and never returned, and a weaver plate like the trakrite but weighed in at being portable meant two strong men also gone , we had a unilux optical for tracking 8 x4 trucks again so long to set up a plank and string got the clues in seconds .  isnt technology sometimes over played 

it far too easy to think checking a brick with micrometer is a sound idea  !!!!

have fun  

Pete