Rob

Sorry for the long post.

Background:
I just redid my suspension to Bilstein cup struts/shock and went full coilover with rear torsion bars removed.

I set the ride height a little lower than previous and took it in for an alignment. I took it to the local experts who have done great work for me before on other cars and they said no problem, they had the tool and did them regularly.

for the front I requested -1.5 camber, 3.0 caster, factory toe.

For the rear, I requested -1.0 camber, factory toe

I got a call saying the rear was too low to reach a -1 camber setting and that it would have to be raised some to meet that. I was kind of surprised by that, but said ok just raise the front accordingly to maintain the ride level.

I go and pick up the car and was shocked and how much they raised it. They claimed it needed to be raised that much and that the rear setting were at the max poss camber position.

Here is my question. when re-assembling the rear, I set the ride height adjustment eccentrics equal on both sides, but I don't remember were since I figured ride height would be set by the coilover. Could this have any effect on the rear camber setting range? I.E. does the ride height eccentric need to to be in the lowered position to allow enough camber adjustment on a lowered car? Or do I need to find a new alignment shop.

Thanks,
Rob

DanR

my car is pretty slammed for the track and mine is -2.3 on the rear

tconn

This doesn't sound right. With my rear coilovers, car lowered
I was running -1.5 camber in the rear.
Could it have been a clearance issue with the wheels and tires?

Lemming

With t-bars deleted my car will not go any more positive that -2 for camber without increasing ride height.

rlm328

Find another shop. My car is lowered (no TBs) on JICs and I am also getting -2.3 in the rear.

Rob

Thanks for the replies. I was only planning to run -1 in the rear since the car is really a street car. What I don't understand is why they would have to raise it heigher than I previously had it with the TBs and a -1 camber. I want to say my current ride height is factory height or taller.

So I am assuming either the ride height eccentric have some affect on camber adjustment range (i.e. the eccentrics need to be in the lowest ride height position to allow proper camber adjustment at lower ride heights) or the shop just messed up and didn't really know what they were doing.

aben8057

did you have it corner balanced as well?

Bill

I still have my T-Bars but my car is lowered.

My alignment is:

CAMBER
Front -1.5 deg
Rear -1.0 deg

CASTER
Set to max

RIDE HEIGHT
Front 24 1/2"
Rear 24 3/4"

If you measure from the ground (at the centerline of the wheel) to the fender arch.

The car has been corner balanced. Elephant Racing suspension bushings. Remember that corner balancing affects ride height, but it is better to have your car corner balanced than have perfectly equal ride height.

marky522

To get -1 they probably had to raise it because it was probably farther negative as in -2.5ish would be my guess.

Mark

Rob

The car was not corner balanced. I just checked the ride height they set the car to and measured as described it by Bill.

My car front: 25.25", rear 25.375" w/ 225/45-17 front and 255/40-17 rear tires. I had the ride height set to where the bottom of the door sill was parallel to the ground. Now it's 6" up front to the bottom of the metal sill and 6.5" in the rear.

hp18racer

I had to slot mine a little to get past -0.7. I'd suggest you look for another shop that does business with racers.

xsboost90

well this could be an offset issue as well. Ive noticed that early cars have a harder time getting the camber you need in the front, as well as the rear. My early car just was swapped to late suspension and when i took it in for alignment i had -4 in the rear! The fronts of a late car can also get much more camber stock than an early car. They had to raise the car to get it to -2.5 rear- im thinking you could run 1.5 rear and 2 front and be in a better place- this was always my street alignment till recently.

marky522

All i can say is i have done these alignments before, on my own personal car which is an early car, that has been lowered, and on a late car Knfeprtys which has been lowered. On my car, I can tell you for a fact that at 1" lowered all around I could not get my camber to -1, MAYBE -1.5 I run -2.5 all around and could probably get -3.5 if i wanted to. I dont remember what specs i used on Knfeprtys car, but i believe they were fairly close to stock. My post earlier was kinda vauge, and i hope this clears that post up.

M758

No. My 944 NA still uses t-bar and is very low. I have to work hard to get less than 2.5 deg of negative camber. However that seems to work reall well on my car. About the only way get les would be to completely loosen the 3 bolts that hold the trailing arm to the spring plate. Then move it around as best you can. Even then you need ot mess with toe at the same time. It is not an easy job.