On to the front alignment. This is what I’m up against regarding getting enough room to insert more shins at the rear to get more caster and camber.
The brown spot is where I have beaten the inner guard in, or tried to. It is right above the top of the rear mounting cup. In the end I resorted to grinding down the edge of the control arm slightly.
Indicative readings on the driver fide do far, I have about 1/4* positive camber and 1* positive caster. Hence the need to make room to move the rear top in with more shims. The front has plenty of room as the control arm axis splays out, allowing the arms to be swept rearward. If I can’t get enough caster with shimming I will look at shortening the front spacer tubes and tilting the entire crossmember. There are already a lot of shims in there. I’m pretty sure the bottom control arms are stamped HR but need to check this.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
getting my FB ute on the road
EK van on rotisserie
I grabbed a pack of 1/8” shims from Repco this arvo that will work in with the 1/16” and 1/32” ones I have. Definitely want a degree of negative camber at least, and more caster if I can.
FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie
getting my FB ute on the road
EK van on rotisserie
Best I can achieve driver side +1*10’ caster and -0*10’ camber. I will have to sacrifice some caster to get more camber and try and tilt the crossmember for more caster. Should be able to get another degree or two by doing that.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
getting my FB ute on the road
EK van on rotisserie
Lower control arms are stamped HR so that isn’t the issue. Ones on the ute are also HR stamped. I did discover that the other set I have for the van are not stamped HR though. I wonder why they were made shorter, and if there is a fix.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
getting my FB ute on the road
EK van on rotisserie
In my experience, the cause of tyre wear like you've shown here, is the car pulling to one side (to the left in your case). You have to provide steering input to make the car steer straight, leading to excessive slip angle and the characteristic "feathering" at the outside of the left front tyre. Positive camber does not in itself lead to this kind of wear.
You're doing your own front wheel alignment (kudos!). Set the front suspension up initially to the numbers you want. Then if the car tends to pull to one side, increase the caster on the side the car pulls toward (remove a thin shim from the front stack) and decrease the caster on the side the car pulls away from (insert the shim into the front stack) until the car steers straight. Removing and adding shims to the front stack has minimal effect on camber and toe-in.
Zero to +1/2 degree positive camber, +2 degrees caster should work well. You won't need much toe-in with +2 deg. caster.
Before I read any comments I’ll jot this down. Ready to roll at -1/2* camber both sides, +1.75* caster passenger side and +0.5*driver side. Checked the toe with string and left it at 2mm at most.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
getting my FB ute on the road
EK van on rotisserie
Test drive nicely but only went to 90. I will see if I can even up the caster though wasn’t pulling noticeably. If any thing slightly heavier turning right.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
getting my FB ute on the road
EK van on rotisserie
If you're scrubbing out the outside of both front tyres, it means too much toe-in. You mentioned 4 mm toe-in: that'd do it.
You might have to set the camber closer to zero in order to get more caster on the driver's side without the upper control arm touching the subframe. It's all a compromise though. If the car steers straight, that's the main thing.
Hi Clay,
Having fun no doubt !
I would pull the caster back on the passengers side to +1*, that will give you a slight compensation for the road camber as we talked about before.
If you have -1* camber then see if you get the toe to 1mm or even zero. Take the car for a spin, and see if wanders left to right. If not youv'e got one pretty good wheel alignment.
If it does want to go left and right then 1mm more toe and that would be it.
Chasing caster more than +1* on a HR front is not really required, unless you want to throw it into corners.
You will also find the tyres might still wear because the compound changes the lower the tread wear usually, or they will stay the same and wear as they have already done. As Rob says the toe will chew because the tyre is continually rolling under itself as it moves forward.
