setting up camber and tracking

[sexybourbon 0]

I have an issue with the front suspension on my vr , after fitting the new coilovers and thinking all was well i had it four wheel aligned and all the dials on the computer screen came up greeen and was withing limits and the car ran straigh as an arrow

 

A couple of days later and i found that full lock to the left was stiff and closer inspection shows the tyre catching the wheel arch on full lock

 

Seems when you look from the front of the car the passenger side wheel was about 10 mm or there abouts poking out further than the drivers side so yesterday i took both wheels off and slackend the two bolts that secure the strut and pushed them both back the same amount and tightend the bolts back up

 

Now obviousley there is camber and i need to know what tool to buy so i can measure the camber and i also need to know if i need to move the rack across as i think thats whats causing one wheel to be further over on one side

The car still runs straight but the steering wheel has gone off to the left a bit , does it need putting on a four wheel align again

 

Im absolulty skint at the mo with an upcoming holiday and tax and mot and an ill pet to pay vets for so cant really afford 90 quid for a proper four wheel align this month

[Supercharged 2]

Was anything loose??

 

I think you need to take it back to where it was aligned - I had mine done 6 years ago now and everything done up tight and still perfect despite the awful state of our roads!

[GusPW 0]

if money is the issue then some kwik fits now have hunter 4 wheel alignment. Free check and about £40 to adjust. Only problem is you have to trust that the newly trained 4 wheel alignment guy knows what he's doing but at least they're not fitting parts.

 

took my girlfriends 206 there, they also put it up on screen in the waiting room so you can see them adjusting it.

[davidwort 0]

sounds like the track adjustment has been done unequal on the two track rods, so the car has more lock on one side, all you have done with the two strut bolts is affect the camber, not alter the tracking, which is probably fine anyway (i.e. parallel) as you've just had it done.

A spirit level with the car on level ground is easy to check camber, to make sure the car is level place a spirit level (2ft long builders level preferably) on equal height objects 2ft apart on top of the roof just behind the sunroof and the spirit level centrally (left/right) on them on the roof. On my garage floor which is slightly off level I used thin bits of ply to 'shim' my car to dead level placing them under the tyres.

Then using 2 equal length bolts (I checked them using a vernier caliper) to space the spirit level off the wheel rims, measure the camber angle with the wheels 'straight-ahead'.

with a bit of simple trigonometry I worked out my ideal camber of -1 degree, was about 7mm deflection from the dead upright of my spirit level, so to make things easier to measure I used two bolts to space my level off the rims, one 7mm longer than the other :)

Checking track is just as easy really, you wan't some thinnish brightly coloured cord/string or monofilament line, and just run lengths down either side of the car ensuring it is equal distance from the leading and trailing edge of front and rear wheel, move the steering wheel to line up one side correctly and the other front wheel should be correct too, if not then your rear toe is out (unlikely unless you bent your rear beam in a smash) or your front toe is off.

I've tried this at home and got the resulting alignment as near as damn-it as accurate as the four wheel alignment gauges, certainly good enough to avoid tyre wear until I had the chance to get it on the proper rig.

[sexybourbon 0]

Cheers for the replies . I think it was more the rack that has been moved across to the passenger side to much that was causing the tyre to catch the arch , nothing was loose but i couldnt get it to a four wheel align over the bank holiday so had to push the camber in to make it clear otherwise i would have just kept on ripping the tyre up

 

David im pretty clear on all those ways you have stated other than the wheel bolt bits , did you mean you took the wheel off and put two bolts in the wheel holes and ran a level off that to see how much the wheel was off

 

Is it best to center the rack first ? And how would i know if its central are they both the same size either side ? To the track rod ?

 

Is there any diagrams on how to set all this up , i think id understand it alot better if i could see it if you know what i mean

[Jim Bowen 1]

I did my camber with a small spirit level and used a big protractor to measure the angle needed to move the bubble a certain amount off centre. Then made both sides the same or matched them to the rear. Was a bit of a bodge but came out quite well.

[sexybourbon 0]

Would one of these be ok to use for a diy'er

This is the item number for ebay sorry i cant get a link on my phone

360662850441

I could set the camber with this and the once i have found out how to center the rack i can set the tracking using a method like david suggests

 

I thought maybe use some thick sea fishing line and wrap it round to axle stands front and back of the car to set the track correctly if it has moved at all

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

i used that ebay link thing before {its no good} , my m8 brought it but in the end we just pulled the wheel bearing housing/hub out as far as it can and tightend down, done this the same for both sides, thing is all our cars are lowerd and this effects the camber, the lower your car goes the more negative camber you get anyway,theres only so much camber adjustment you can make, i think the only thing you can do is get your car on level ground and get them the same for bot sides useing a spirit level,

 

now for tracking this method is ghetto but it worked a treat for me! and has actualy saved me from getting alinment, my car since i brought it allways wanted to turn right so driving in a straight line meant i had to hold the wheel at 11oclock , so logics telling me that a wheel or maybe both is turned right more then it should, with that i put the steering wheel in the straight position and then got the longest peice of 2x4" wood i could find was about 12ft long , smacked that against the front drivers side wheel and eyed it up against the body didnt look out of place so i went to the passenger side wheel and whhoooa! its damn obvious that this is the culprit!! so adjust this rod to bring the wheel straight "ish" and then test drive and make final adjustments as you see fit,

[davidwort 0]

David im pretty clear on all those ways you have stated other than the wheel bolt bits , did you mean you took the wheel off and put two bolts in the wheel holes and ran a level off that to see how much the wheel was off

 

Is it best to center the rack first ? And how would i know if its central are they both the same size either side ? To the track rod ?

 

No, all i meant was i used a couple of small 10 mm head bolts to sit on the wheel rim to space the vertical spirit level off the wheel or the tyre gets in the way.

To correctly centre the rack you really need the whole rack and track rods off the car and then there are specific measurements from rack end to track rod end centre line that should be set. In reality you should be able to get it pretty central by measuring the number of turns lock to lock and then adjusting both track rods as needed to get the wheels parallel. Straight ahead to lock either side should obviously be the same turns ofcthe wheel.

[sexybourbon 0]

Vw owner the only thing that would worry me about thhe method with a long olank would be that wood warps and if it had warped say 3mm in the middle that would send the end quit far out , but i see your method and how you did it

 

I thought maybe that was to good to be true , shame really as it looks at first glance like a cracking idea and relatively simple as you could set it wheile the wheel is off

 

David i get you now it was my mind making things to complicated , i think ill do it this way to set the camber equally but instead of doing it from the wheel can i use two very long wheel bolts through the hub with the wheel off set at the same amount of turns in and the put the level flat on to the bolts to see how far out i am , then with the wheel of i can adjust it to the right angle as im not to sure how id take a measurment with the wheel on an then adjust it with the wheel off

[Jim Bowen 1]

The problem i had doing mine, was i needed to remove wheel to adjust the camber on the shock bolts, but as you jack car up to remove the wheel, the camber all changes as the wheels hang down on the suspension. So i couldn't measure it with the wheels off. If that makes sense. i think that is correct and not me being daft

[sexybourbon 0]

No jim your correct iv just read a few things and its right i didnt think of that but yes the wheels change as you jack the car up so ideally , you need the strut bolts loose and the car supported and to jack the car up slightly until the camber is right and then nip the bolts up , or thats how i see it anyway ! Im not sure how you would fo it with all the weight on the car as you wouldnt be able to get at the strut bolts or move the camber

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

Vw owner the only thing that would worry me about thhe method with a long olank would be that wood warps and if it had warped say 3mm in the middle that would send the end quit far out , but i see your method and how you did it

 

I thought maybe that was to good to be true , shame really as it looks at first glance like a cracking idea and relatively simple as you could set it wheile the wheel is off

 

i know what you mean about warping/bowed wood but most of the timbers i have lying around are prety straight {if you put them on 2" edge not on the 4" side} but remember were not looking for mm accuracy here we just want to know which side is at fault so we can slowly adjust it then drive it to note its improvment or if its made it worse in which case reverse what you have done, were not actualy measureing anything off the timber its the actual driving thats telling us "more turns" or " reverse turns" you just need to know which side to start from , its taken about 5mm -8mm of track rod thread to change my steering from 11 to 11.55 clock , i can do a no hander and track straight so thats good enough for me not to pay a visit to get wheel alignment ;) ill make the final few track rod turns next time its jacked up...

Edited May 30, 2013 by VW_OwneR_85

[davidwort 0]

No jim your correct iv just read a few things and its right i didnt think of that but yes the wheels change as you jack the car up so ideally , you need the strut bolts loose and the car supported and to jack the car up slightly until the camber is right and then nip the bolts up , or thats how i see it anyway ! Im not sure how you would fo it with all the weight on the car as you wouldnt be able to get at the strut bolts or move the camber

 

just trial and error, I measure camber, jack up, loosen strut bolts, adjust, tighten and lower, measure again.

you soon work out how much movement when jacked up adjusts the camber when the weight is back on the wheels, measure the camber with the car jacked up (jack it the same height each time), camber alteration when jacked has about the same effect as when lowered again, so just move the top edge of the wheel in/out by the required amount to adjust the amount of angle you need to change.

It usually takes me a few goes to get it spot on and don't forget that altering the track will affect camber so best to do track first.

Providing your track is parallel, then if you get one side of your camber slightly off the car will drift one way or the other, finding a dead flat road is the hardest thing though, most have their own camber for drainage.

[fonzooorooo 10]

I've used a magnetic bubble gauge from Frost Restoration for years on all our cars.

 

You CAN do it with the car jacked up, but you need to support the car and the hub (and might need a mate to sit on the top of the slam panel(!) ... i'll explain:

 

Make a note of the centre height of the hub, and a note of the ride height of the car (where you measure to doesn't matter - it just needs to be repeatable.)

 

1: Jack up car, remove wheel.

 

2: The car will now be too high, so lower it a smidge on the jack.

 

3:Jack/chock/whatever under the hub (the further outboard you do it, the better) to get the hub centre sitting at the same height as it did when the wheel was on.

 

4: Lower the car on the jack till the ride height is the same as it was when you started. ... This is where you may need the mate to sit on the front, as depending on your suspension choices, the car may not be heavy enough to compress the spring far enough to get to ride height. (sounds weird, but will make sense when you're doing it!)

 

5: Set camber. (being careful not to knock your jack/chocks out from under the hub!) The reading on the gauge will be the same as when the wheel's back on.

 

6: Raise car, remove jack from under the hub, refit wheel, lower car, bask in a glow of excellence.

[sexybourbon 0]

Cheers bud i see wat you mean thats an ok way of doing it a actually , i can see the logik there

I never ordered one of those camber tools in the end infact i have t had chen e to look at it yet but thankfully it doesent seem to be harming the tyres and i only have to driv it on a weekend wich is good

[vw rule 19]

I adjusted my camber with a small spirit level attached to a straight piece of wood,

the wood is 500mm (1/2 a meter) long and about 10mm thick and 20mm wide.

 

I've had it double checked at my mates garage with his proper gauges,

and it's 100% bang on so the spirit level and piece of wood works perfectly.

 

But make sure you check and adjust tracking and camber / caster on flat level ground,

or you may get false readings.

 

 

Si