What is the recommended alignment settings

[Chad97z]

What is the recommended alignment settings? I see the factory settings, but is that recommended for best handling?

Thanks!
Chad

[Chad97z]

I found this:

camber -0.50* left and right
caster 4.50* left 4.80* right
toe 0.03* left and right


camber -0.50* l and r
caster 4.50* l and 5.00* r
toe 0.03* total

[Eugenio_SS]

i'd say:
camber -0.5' for street is great. If you into handling and can get more negative camber, for all means go for it upto -1.0' but don't sacrifice caster.
caster: stay @ +4.5' (more will give you more camber when turning, but put strain on your power steering pump)
toe: you can go w/ 0"... a tiny bit of toe-out for faster steering response, or a tiny bit of toe-in for high speed stability. Note that toe kills tires.

[Eugenio_SS]

btw, the difference in the left vs right is to compensate for driver weight.
i'd ask the guy to do the final tuning of the alignment w/ you sitting in the car.

[Chad97z]

These were my results. I just installed a rack and pinion so it was off quite a bit but I thought the camber would have been more negative than -.8 orginally. Especially on the right side. The right side just looks like it leans in more on the passenger side than the drivers side..

I was getting a lot of inside wear on my tires. It looks like maybe I should have gone more closer to zero degrees than -.5. But they did exactly what I asked them to do. And it drives great. I just hope that -.5 will not wear on the inside of my tires.

[Steve L]

As Eugenio said, toe kills your tires. You should be fine with the -.5 camber if you are just playing on the street. I run -1.5 but do that because I autocross a lot. I see no visible signs of inside wear and have friends who run closer to -2...but THAT is getting a little TOO much camber and starts wearing excessively on the inside.

[mrr23]

the center boxes underneath the front readings are the differences from side to side. cross camber, cross caster, total toe. the next pair of boxes are for the rear. left and right. the single box underneath those are the differences left to right.

[Silver Streak]

This is mine from a couple weeks ago.. I need to bring it back in as they didn't keep the steeringwheel straight when they did it.. is there anything that should be fixed as well?

[mrr23]

so long as it's driving straight, it's fine. to me it looks like it should be drifting to the right. if so, either lower the caster on the left, or raise it on the right to where the cross caster is in the -0.30 to -0.40 range.

[Silver Streak]

ANd have you heard of the rear being off??

[mrr23]

yep. they are almost never in straight with the centerline of the vehicle from the factory. only way to correct it is with adjustable trailing arms. yours is about 1/8" turned to the right. really not that big of a deal.

[Eugenio_SS]

As Eugenio said, toe kills your tires. You should be fine with the -.5 camber if you are just playing on the street. I run -1.5 but do that because I autocross a lot. I see no visible signs of inside wear and have friends who run closer to -2...but THAT is getting a little TOO much camber and starts wearing excessively on the inside.

to add to the discussion, you can get more camber when turning with high caster. so you can stay @ -1.0 to -1.5 in camber and just get max caster. The only drawback of this is that you will eventually kill the stock power steering pump when autox-ing / road racing.

[Steve L]

to add to the discussion, you can get more camber when turning with high caster. so you can stay @ -1.0 to -1.5 in camber and just get max caster. The only drawback of this is that you will eventually kill the stock power steering pump when autox-ing / road racing.

Maybe that would help with my understeer problem, eh? I was thinking about a little larger sway bar in the rrear, but maybe just a better alignment will do wonders.

[Eugenio_SS]

Maybe that would help with my understeer problem, eh? I was thinking about a little larger sway bar in the rrear, but maybe just a better alignment will do wonders.

for your use, i'd max the castor and go from there before spending more $ on parts. the alignment might do the trick and you might be in a position that you'll actually get oversteer... if that happens, then actually reducing the rear bar @ that point will help... cause you got yourself more bite in the front... but that is speculation until we get there.

[Steve L]

Thanks for the advice...I will try that.

[Eugenio_SS]

another advice... driving not too hot going into the turn

[Steve L]

another advice... driving not too hot going into the turn

If one has 350 ponies, they should all get exercised equally, right?

[Eugenio_SS]

yes... but not all the time...
I have to treat my 510rw ponies equally as well or should i say... hehe
use your braking zones for what they are and don't overdo it in the turns... you end up scrubbing too much speed doing that, and get out of turn too slow because of the screw up... in the end, you are slower because you wanted to go too fast. It's better to brake more and go faster overall... then improve from there... without overdriving the car.

[Steve L]

I hear ya there. I know I go too hard into the curves and need to work on that. "Slow in, fast out" and smooth all the way through...yada yada yada. Easier said than done. Once I get my baby back on the road I can practice what I know to be true. Right now my T/A is down for the count.

[Eugenio_SS]

didn't mean to sound like nagging on the improving the skill-set... that's where the $ will be well spent. it takes practice and discipline to improve...