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quick ? about alignment
quick ? about alignment hey guys an gals, i changed my lca's and phb yesterday to a rod/rod end.(badz's, madman style) anyhow the car now pulls slightly to the left. i waited at an alignment shop for 2 hrs just to get it on the lift and they dont have a stuby 15/16 wrench! needless to say i was pissed. anyhow i saw what it was reading. the rear (camber?) is out of whack slightly. by -.16 one side and + .17 on the other. so that tells me i got one lca a hair long and the other a hair short. my ? is approcimately how many threads do you thing i have to lengthen or shorten one of the rods?( im going to measure the tire in the well to see which one i want to move not that will change it much visually) any ideas? i want to do this and my asp pulley tonight. i may have the caster camber terms mixed up but you get the idea. thanks.
on a side note i was especting some noise and so far im very impressed at these units. no knocking sounds but you do feel the road more. very pleased.
hey trackbird, are your rod ends (if you know) the same size as the ones badz sells? just lineing up if i ever need replacements!
on a side note i was especting some noise and so far im very impressed at these units. no knocking sounds but you do feel the road more. very pleased.
hey trackbird, are your rod ends (if you know) the same size as the ones badz sells? just lineing up if i ever need replacements!
Staging Lane
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 72
Likes: 0
Hey - caster is how the axle is in relation to the wheel. if you look at a kingpin, it is how far forward or backward the kingpin is tilted. the camber is in and out. negative camber is when the tires are leaning towards the inside of the vhicle, and positive is when they are tilting out. I align Semi's so i cant tell you what your specs should be but you want your camber on the front tires to be to the positive on the left neg. on the right, and the caster to be a lower value on the left and higher on the right. that way your vehicle will run to the center of the road with the curvature, that will give you the most even tire wear, when matched up with the Hunter or Beeline or chevy specs. hope i cleared everything up for ya on alignment, maybe you will understand a bit more. but check with a chevy dealer to find out the specs for all four tires.
Mike
Mike
thanks for the reply. just for clarification im only talking about the rear axle. one side is more forward than the other. shouldnt they be = ? my car tracked perfectly straight b4 i changed my rear lca's. now it goes left slightly. which to me says that i have the passenger side a hairlong or the driver side to short. there of by .16 according to the shops alignment machine. i have rod ends and im curious how many threads it would@ take to move that much? not this bad of coarse but if you where above my car looking down on the axle it would look like this driver side \ passenger side when it should be like this - but how much can .16 be?
Staging Lane
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 72
Likes: 0
i work in fractions, not decimals. Machines usually have the option to run either or. this is what you do. on the left side of the right front tire. measure from the ground to the top, and cut it in half. put a mark with a white crayon on the tire. do the same thing on the right side of the rear pass rear tire. now if the driver side rear is is farther ahead than the pass rear the driver side distance will be shorter. what you want to do is move either the left side back or the right side forward. always turn a small amount then check cuz usually you go half way of what the total should be, then you should be right on. you are .01 of an inch off so it cant be that bad. do it till its close in measurements fron driver to pass. side, then have someone follow you down the street to see if it is dogtracking. i dont have an adj. PHB or new LCA's so i cant tell you how much it takes to move it a certain amount, but i can give you an easy way of setting it straight. hope this helped ya more. good luck
Mike
Mike
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 341
Likes: 0
From: oklahoma city
The LCA's and PHR have NOTHING to do with rear camber. Being a solid or live axle you are pretty much set on camber unless the tube is bent or the flange is bent. An adjustable pan hard rod centers the axle as you know and the more centered it is the better you're alignment will be. The front alignment is set in reference to the rear. As for more caster on the right side, I have no experience on my car for that, I just increased my caster by .75 degrees from max spec on both sides, with 0 camber. My car doesn't pull at all, except for road snakes sometimes. Ford was the only automaker that specified higher caster on the right and now GM does on their newer trucks. We use newer Hunter DSP machines at work for the last two years and I have been running different settings on my car at different times just to see which is better so far this is it. Best of all NO tire wear.Just my $.02 
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Staging Lane
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 72
Likes: 0
Yeah i was just trying to help him get his wheels equal lengths apart from side to side, i dont align cars, i align semis. cars are too much of a pain in the a**. oh and there is no axle in the front LOL..... the way i see it is if it goes straight after a wheel index and the readings are close and you have little to no tire wear, than it is good. hopefully we will see how his endeavour comes out.
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