I got my R aligned, and supposedly the camber was way negative, as was reset to spec. Is this possible?!? I thought R's did not have much (any?) stock camber adjustment.

I had it done on a new '04 model Hunter machine with the Type R settings in it, and I verified these. I got the before and after specs, which I compared to the Helms and to posts from HT about stock specs. I am on stock sus, and running 205/50-15's on 15x7 +43 Volk's. I do not have a camber kit (that I know of ).

I was having camber wear problems, and toe was off, but visually, the wheels had lots of negative camber. The before numbers were -1.3 camber front and rear. The after numbers were at the stock spec (don't have them in front of me at this writing, but -.5 or something? I'll look them up later and post). After adjustment, the wheels appear visually to have much less negative camber.

Just wondering WTF is going on (for my own understanding)? Do stock 98 R's have any camber adjustment? The shop only had the car for an hour, so there's a limit to what could have been done. I did not tell them going in what the problem was, just said 'it needs alignment, please set it to factory R spec'.

 

By adjusting the factory tie rods they were able to adjust the toe and there-by setting the Hype R back to factory camber settings. Adjusting Toe In/Out will always have an effect on Camber.

 

does your print out look anything close to mine?
http://img50.exs.cx/img50/5200/DSC01173.jpg

 

-1.3 deg. is not too much.

Mine is about -1 deg. after lowering it a bit.

 

There is an adjustment arm on the front of the rear LCA that will slide in or out. the excessive wear you are experiencing is due to toe, not camber. Yes if you adjust toe, it does have an effect on camber. You are also correct about no factory direct camber adjustments. If you run the correct toe, you will not have excessive wear on the inside of the tires. I run -1.7 on the rear,-1.0 in the front. car is dropped to a 5" ride height all the way around, corner weighted, and the tires wear perfectly flat due to the fact that I run 0-toe in the rear and 1/16" toe out in the front. BTW, I do my own alignments, which saves a ton o $$.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SlapSmak &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> BTW, I do my own alignments, which saves a ton o $$. </TD></TR></TABLE>

That exact? Wow.. impressive.. May I ask how?

 

Search for posts by SlapSmak (may have to search bodies). He posted this awhile ago, partly in one of my threads (search my previous alignment thread from a few weeks back if you cant find it).

Greased steel plates under each wheel basically. Good shiznit!

 

Well, i know that there's supposed to be some negative camber even stock. I think i read it in the owners manual. I don't remember the exact numbers but if someone could skim through the owners manual in the back, it is supposed to be a little negative. Anyone wanna verify?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EG-B20vtec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">By adjusting the factory tie rods they were able to adjust the toe and there-by setting the Hype R back to factory camber settings. Adjusting Toe In/Out will always have an effect on Camber. </TD></TR></TABLE>

No no no no no....

Camber effects toe, and it effects it quite significantly.
Changing toe cannot change your camber.
If it does, it is miniscule, and almost unmeasurable.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SlapSmak &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you run the correct toe, you will not have excessive wear on the inside of the tires.</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is the key insight. Toe is almost always the culprit for nasty tire wear from my experience. I run -1.5 degrees of camber in the front and -1.0 in the rear and with 0 toe all around I get excellent wear characteristics ran some PZeros for 15k and they were just fine until my alignment changed too much and killed a rear... too much curb-hopping at the track.

For street driving though you want at least a little toe in... makes the car dart less.


Modified by quick6 at 8:10 PM 8/4/2004

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bbasso &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">does your print out look anything close to mine?
http://img50.exs.cx/img50/5200/DSC01173.jpg</TD></TR></TABLE>

Digicam down at the moment. Sorry for the ghetto post, HT takes multiple spaces out so '.' used for space.

Front:
Actual...Before...Specified.............Helms (whatever Helms #'s mean)
Camber
L -0.7....-0.7.....-1.5 -- 0.5 deg......-0 deg 30' +/- 1 deg
R -1.0....-1.0

Caster
L .0.5....0.5........0.2 -- 2.2 deg.......1 deg 10' +/- 1 deg
R .0.2....0.2

Toe
L .0.00..-0.10...-0.04 -- 0.04"
R .0.00..-0.10

Turning Angle
......................-7.50 -- -3.50 deg

Cross Camber
0.3......0.3 deg
Cross Caster
0.3......0.3 deg
Total Toe
0.00....-0.20.......-0.08 -- 0.08 in........0 +/-2 (0 +/- 1/16)


Rear:
Actual...Before...Specified
Camber
L -1.0....-1.3.....-2.0 -- 0.0 deg......-0 deg 45' +0 deg 45' -1 deg 15'
R .0.2.....0.0

Toe
L .0.04..-0.14...-0.02 -- 0.08"
R .0.03..-0.19

Cross Camber
-1.3.....-1.3 deg

Total Toe
0.07.....-0.33......0.04 -- 0.16 in........2 +2/-1 (1/16 +/- 1/16)

Thrust Angle
0.02......0.04 deg


Notes:
Tires were hella 'camber' worn due to bad toe setting from previous alignment, and were swapped 'inside out' and 'side to side' to get some more life out of them. This no doubt caused challenges to the resetting of the alignment. It will have to be done again when I get new tires.

Yes, my front and rear toe were off, but was corrected and is now in spec.

Front and rear camber are not the same side-to-side (as many have reported similarly here on H-T).

Front camber was off, but now within spec.

Rear camber was off, and the right was not corrected well, in fact made worse to the positive (something must be bent). I could tell just by looking at the car from the rear it was wrong. I'll be taking it back - again, and having a discussion with the techs.

Front and Rear cross camber is 'in spec' however at 0.3 and -1.3 deg respectively, but the numbers do not ring true to me.

Cliff Notes:
The car is a bit fuct, but not too bad, and will need more going through, possible right front and right rear sus parts replacement, new tires, and another alignment to get it right.

WTF are the 98 Helms measurements?

(Whew! My fingers are now tired!)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chris N &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

No no no no no....

Camber effects toe, and it effects it quite significantly.
Changing toe cannot change your camber.
If it does, it is miniscule, and almost unmeasurable.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Dearest Ignorant Chris N,

Go outside and adjust your toe by adjusting the tie rod that allows your steering rack to turn your precious little Five lug hubs.

You will find that it GREATLY affects CAMBER and is measurable with the NAKED EYE! If you've never done these things then how would you know?

You will find that by making your tie rods significantly longer it will make your hole front suspension gain ENORMOUS amounts of positive CAMBER. And also making your R pigeon toed. Drive it around and listen to the tires squeel the entire time you drive.

This same exact trick is performed on movie cars during chase scenes so that the tires make rediculous amounts of exciting noises.