I purchased an ITA-prepped CRX in July and being the third owner... well, I don't know as much about the car as I would like.

I took the car to be professionally aligned today and was informed me that my left front wheel's camber was fixed at -3*, while the right front was adjusted to my requested -2*. The rears are both set at -1.25* as requested.

A friend and I are driving from Tucson, AZ to Monterey, CA to participate in the HPDE at LSR this coming Tuesday (11/30/04) and will not have the chance to balance the camber unless I do it myself.

My questions are three:
1) What sort of left-right asymmetry of camber, toe, or caster, if any, is safe?

2) I was warned that toe will change when camber is adjusted, so I would have to either eyeball the toe or set up something (awesome but time intensive) like this:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=811387

3) Should I try to correct it myself? I am concerned that mismatched toe may be worse than mismatched camber.

Your advice is much appreciated. I am very much an alignment noob, but I'm absolutely willing to learn tomorrow if this might be a safety, control, or driveability issue.

EDIT: Happy Thanksgiving!


Modified by Sterndotstern at 12:10 AM 11/25/2004

 

Sounds like a good setup for a track with mostly right turns.
Nothing wrong with that.

 

Toe will change if you adjust camber and unless you do have the tools to set it, any eyeball guess will be only that. I loaned my toe bar to a guy at a track day, who thought he had it "pretty close" after putting on some new parts. Turns out he had almost an inch of toe-in.

That degree difference in L/R camber won't be an issue at all in the real world. As far as safety goes, you can have things WAY asymmetrical and the car might pull under braking, but it's got to be a real mess before it becomes dangerous.

K

 

Did you set the alignment with you (or some weight) sitting in the driver seat? Makes a difference.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">who thought he had it "pretty close" after putting on some new parts. Turns out he had almost an inch of toe-in.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Damn. You should be able to eyeball within 1/16" or so.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
That degree difference in L/R camber won't be an issue at all in the real world.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

What exactly do you mean by "real world?" I'm going to be on track at Laguna driving the car at 9/10ths (after a couple sessions, at least ).

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by krshultz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Did you set the alignment with you (or some weight) sitting in the driver seat?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I didn't do the alignment. The shop (Alignment, Brake and Suspension in Tucson, AZ) routinely handles race cars, but I'm not sure if he put a weight in the seat or not.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Damn. You should be able to eyeball within 1/16" or so.</TD></TR></TABLE>

That would be very acceptable. What "eyeballing" straight edge would you use to get those kind of results? At hand, I've got a laser level, a tape measure, and lumber.

Can anyone give me an idea of how much pull under braking I could expect? Has anyone run unbalanced camber before?

Thanks for the responses, guys.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sterndotstern &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What "eyeballing" straight edge would you use to get those kind of results? At hand, I've got a laser level, a tape measure, and lumber.</TD></TR></TABLE>

None of the above. Just eyeball it

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sterndotstern &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can anyone give me an idea of how much pull under braking I could expect? Has anyone run unbalanced camber before?
Thanks for the responses, guys.</TD></TR></TABLE>

On some tracks, I'll run a left to right camber bias, and it has little braking effect on my ITR. The more heavily cambered tire will have slightly less contact patch and less braking grip, but once the weight is transferred forward while braking, the difference is minimal.

I've noticed that too much rear toe out, or a left to right front caster bias will make the car pull noticeably while braking.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Track rat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...once the weight is transferred forward while braking, the difference is minimal.

I've noticed that too much rear toe out, or a left to right front caster bias will make the car pull noticeably while braking.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Great, it sounds like I won't have to adjust camber before the trip. Thanks Track Rat!

The front and rear toe are currently neutral, as I really wanted a baseline alignment -- after all, the car's new to me. However, I'm scouring these boards and reading everything I can get my hands on about what settings work well, and more importantly, what effects I can expect from each change.