Zaskar

After having Torque Arm, rear LCA Arms, LCA re location brackets, Pan Hard, KYB air ADJ shocks replaced, the car handles like crap.

Car was lowered prior to replacing these parts and handled good except it lost rear traction. I have better traction now but, the car pulls to the right and ride is very harsh. I took it in for an alignment and they said it was way out.

After alignment it still pulls to the right, not as bad, but the alignment has no warranty due to suspension modifications. What do I do, find a shop that knows what their doing? I live near PHX AZ. Suggestions please?

Happy 4th!

ZForce1

Really sounds like the alignment shop doesn't know what they are doing. I have had nothing but bad experiences with alignment shops during the past 15 yrs. I ended up doing it myself. Even with suspension mods, there is no reason the car cannot be aligned properly. I have Strano lowering springs and BMR 1" lowering A arms (with 1/2" spacer to not slam it) and it handles beautifully. I used this as a starting point:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/suspensio...alignment.html

You could at least verify where things are at without trying to adjust anything first. Get a couple of tape measures and something like angle stock to cut slits in for the ends of the tape measures and see where toe in is at. Beats spending $80 over and over because alignment shops are retards.

You couldn't have anything damaged or bent anywhere I'm assuming?

Zaskar

Hi Zforce1, im pretty sure nothing is bent or broke, car was perfect before these parts were installed. Thanks for the links.

The print out he gave me has my right front Camber at -0.2 degrees and the Caster at 5.4 degrees... all the other numbers are green. Do you know if that's enough to cause handling or tire wear issues?

MyFirstLS1

iTrader: (8)

caster won't cause tire wear and normally won't cause a pull unless they are greatly different from side to side. But those are very incomplete numbers you menitoned.

Also alot of times they can modify the specified values and it would say it on the printout.

That being said most places won't do our camber alignments since its not as simple as turning a bolt.

How are the tires ? they can cause a pull themselves when alignment values are in spec.

You can swap from side to side and test that

Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

how about some specs on the parts you swapped, like are they solid poly bushings in the control arms and stuff like that, did the alignment shop adjust the pinion angle (since you got an adjustable torque arm).

Sounds like you did a bunch to the rear end and didn't touch the front between when it handled good and when it went to crap, if you didn't wait till the weight of the car was on the suspension before final tightening of the control arms (assuming solid poly bushings) you could have excessive binding occurring in the control arms (hence the reason I ask for specs). caster and camber can't be adjusted on the rear of these cars so I'm not understanding why you would go in for an alignment after only messing with the rear suspension. That said you need to compare the front driver to passenger caster and camber, they should be fairly close to each other, also keep in mind if you had a bad alignment before that caused bad tire wear then even after correcting the alignment the tires have been "shaved" by the bad front end alignment and even with a good alignment won't track straight because of what the bad alignment did (like if you didn't get the front end aligned after lowering it).

do you have a copy of the print out from the alignment you can scan in and post here?

Wheelman916

I thought rear LCA relocation brackets were bad for handling? Maybe BMR or Sam can chime in, but I swear LCA relo was specific for straight line traction.

leadfoot4

iTrader: (1)

I put a set of those on my lowered car a number of years ago, and IMHO, the handling didn't suffer.

With respect to the OP, if you installed adjustable LCAs on the back of your car, were they adjusted so the rear toe is "zero"? If not, and the rear axle is "skewed" more than .2-.3*, which is about what the production variance is when the cars are "stock", that could be causing your issues.

5_litre_eater

I've heard this mentioned, too, but UMI installed them on Jerry's autocross demo car. So they can't be all bad for handling.

Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

NOT if your LOWERED like the OP says the car already was, in the case of a lowered car they restore the proper angle to the lower control arms, having the arms at the wrong angle is what effects handling.

ideally you want the lower control arm to sit level, drag racers use them on stock height cars to make the axle side of the control arm sit lower, this works to reduce "squat" on launching. but anything to far from level either way will effect handling.

Zaskar

I got a so called 4 wheel alignment at another shop, just noticed the right rear tire sticks out farther then the left, about an inch! Before the alignment it was centered but handled a lot worse. I read an adjustable PHB can center this, but mine doesn't look adjustable, how do I tell?

Zaskar

I have no idea, I hope this was adjusted when alignment was done. Leadfoot: The car had really poor traction, the relocation brackets work to bring traction back...

BD3511

I had a UMI PHB on my rear and when I lowered it and redid everything I had more issues than time magazine. Adjustable will have a nut on the actual bar. I ended up having to take off my UMI PHB and got a UMI adjustable and it seemed to fix that stick out thing your talking about. Also ended up getting an adjustable torque arm and rear relocation brackets and everything evened up when properly aligned. Adjustable PHB 110.99 well worth it.

leadfoot4

iTrader: (1)

That is correct.



Doing a wheel alignment on a solid rear axle car like a Camaro/Firebird, should not affect the centering of the rear axle....unless you do indeed have an adjustable PHB, and somebody at the alignment shop fooled with it, but didn't know what they were doing. OR, they were messing with the length of your LCAs, (you did say they were adjustable, right?) got them messed up, THEN tried to adjust the PHB to get it right....which they didn't.


Let's step back a bit. What kind of LCAs did you install? Also, if you could post the alignment settings, that would be helpful. The shop did give you a print-out, I hope???

Zaskar

I took the car back to the shop, and today a guy was there there that new what he was doing. The car goes straight forever and fun to drive again

You know, the guy the other day was all focused on the left LCA I bet your right. No, they did not give me a print out. I do not know hat kind they are, everything is adjustable .

Thanks for the help

Zaskar

LOL sounded like what I was experiencing... I never thought these rear end parts could make the car handle so poorly if not adjusted correctly.

I drove lowered with no relocation brackets for several months and was very bummed with no traction...

BD3511

The rear end on these car's isn't that good. I'm taking everyone's advice and doing the winter project Strange rear end. I did my rebuild to get my car through the summer i'm sure it'll eventually crap out again. And as far as suspension, man doesn't it get super expensive as each component has to come out lol.