Using a level and a tape measure today I aligned my rear axle settings. I had reported the error in the steering wheel after the rear swap and know that I had to get it on a nice day. Today is a nice day and after about 6 tries the angles are to my satisfaction.

With the rear toe in at about 1/4 inch the car is in spec at about 0.7 degrees toe in. Using the MikeR adjustable camber bars I got the wheels at about 3/8th of an inch in at the top which is about -0.89 degrees camber. The measurements came from a trig table for the sine of an angle you know the old run over rise sine of the angle stuff.


Anyway with the toe back in spec the steering wheel is now back straight up and centered. WOOO WOOO better. Woody Procrastinator 3rd class.

 

only you would tackle this without an alignment rack...go work professor...

 

I've been trying to figure out how to align the rear myself. I'm installing the KMAC kit and I know no one around here will know how to adjust it... once again, this is when the language barrier really impedes my progress.

 

Its not hard. Rear camber. Put a level vertically on the centerline of the rear wheel and see how much the wheel is tilted in at the top. In my case the measurment was 3/8 inch. The level was about 24 " long( in length) so 3/8" divided by 24 is a number of 0.156. Looking up the 0.0156 on a sine table relates to an angle of 0.89 degrees. That tire was negative camber of about -.9 degrees.

Toe in, measure VERY CAREFULLY the tire treads on the front and back to see the width of the tire track. I go from one of the tire tread grooves to the same location on the other tire so that I can be consisitant. I got from my tires track at about 59 3/4 and 59 1/2 or a 1/4th of an inch of toe in.The tires were about 23 inches high so 1/4th divided by 23 in is 0.018 and the arcsine of the is about 0.62 degrees. The front should be narrower than the rear or else you have toe out.

This is a check up and not the end all of alignments. The camber is very reliable if you move the car straight into a flat concrete area. Dont back in. Of course you need to have adjustable rear bars like the ones I got from MikeR.

The toe is to get you right in the ball park because most rear swaps may have shifted the settings and in my case the steering wheel was out of alignment after the new rear was hung.

Woody, enjoy.

 

Woody, I am curious how you adjusted the rear toe. I didn't see anywhere to adjust. But also I see that the way our rear spindles are mounted, the less negative camber, the more toe in. The more you lengthen the camber arm, the more toe-in you get.

James

 

Here is the lengh of the OEM upper control arm. 11.75" I went back with the adjustable arms set at exactly 12" OC. Using a framing square, the rim is still so slightly at negative camber, not quite 0. I will drive it a few days before I decide to adjust either way.



James

 

There are adjustable links in front of the wheels on the outside, the bolt is eggcentric and by rotating it you get the wheel to toe in or out, I spray paint these links before changing them so that I have a start - reset point to rely upon.

The adjustment is on the outside edge of the car, far from the centerline of the car, just infront of the wheels, just infront of the the tire tread.

Woody

 

Ok thanks Woody. Next time I am in there I will look closer. James