Camber, Ride Height and Cross-Weight

[Dan3030]

Ok another dumb question. My car is (supposedly) setup for approx. 50/50 cross weight with a driver in the car. What I see upon measurement is that the passenger side ride height is about 1/2 inch higher than the driver's side. Additionally, and counterintuitively, the camber seems to be greater on the passenger side (from the dust collection on the tire).

 

Note - My wife was in the car with me, but not as I pulled it into the garage where "I think" I picked up the dust.

 

Is this looking normal to everyone? If not, any recommendations for what to have done and who to go to? I'm in Pennsylvania.

 

Thanks,

Dan

 

[TheDingo8MyBaby]

I wouldn't read too much into the dust on the tires. There are a lot of factors that can influence this, including tire wear and how level your floor is.

 

Your ride height may be affected by many things - including the lack of passenger weight as you pull into the garage. In order to get the cross weights even, the person cross-weighing the car may have added more ride height to the unloaded slide.

 

In other words - to really know if the setup is correct you would have them corner-weighed and aligned yourself.

[Dan3030]

How much camber does everyone run for a mix of street and track days?

[xcarguy]

I wouldn't read too much into the dust on the tires. There are a lot of factors that can influence this, including tire wear and how level your floor is . . .

 

May want to throw tire pressures in the mix as well.

[jlumba81]

The right fender looks a bit off compared to the left side. Don't suppose you have a bubble level to check directly on the wheel?

[MichaelD]

If your car is under 1,200 lbs you can use four UPS shipping scales (400 lbs ea)and make you own ramps.

[Dave W]

You can corner wt using bath scales. I was able to get two bath scales for less than $25.

You will have to fabricate a bridge that will span across both bath scales and is wide enough for your tire to set on the bridge. The bridge can be made from wood or steel, but the higher the bridge, the thicker the spacers will be required at each of the other three wheel leveling pads, so you can keep the working surface level.

First locate the car on your four level garage pads, with the appropriate shims. [There is NO short cut here] First, start on any corner with your bath scales and record the weight. Then move the scales one by one to the other front and rear pad areas. Compare RH side to LH side front and rear recorded weights. If the Suspension is light on corner turn up the spring and if heavy reduce the spring pressure on the shock. The difficult part is that raising or lower a single spring perch not only changes the wt on that wheel but will also affect the weight the opposite diagonal wheel besides the opposite wheel. It will probably take several tries to get the corner weights reasonable close to even. If you are set up with only the driver you will probably have to settle for a diagonal balance only Vs a side to side balance. After you have finished adjusting the spring perches go back and verify that the axel pan hard is close to horizontal. The panhard rod may need a slight adjustment with static wt included. Once the task is completed, wrap tape around the threads of each shock to prevent road damage that would make it difficult to adjust the shock at some later date. After the final spring adjustment I went back and rechecked all four corners and the weights where repeatable within 3 lbs using a bridge and bath scales for adjusting corner Wt.

Dave W

[drew...]

Dave,

Once you were finished with the corner weights did you check ride height at all four corners (level ground to frame near each wheel)? I have my car set-up at a 5" frame height, with driver, in the front corners and 5.75" in the rear but I have never corner weighted it. I am curious as to how well corner weight and ride height correlate with these cars.

Drew...

[Dave W]

Drew

I actually flat floored my seven first before going to corner wt'ing. I was within 18lbs using that process with a 5/8" rake. To be honest, my middle name is not Shumacker, I could not tell the difference between the two processes. Dave W

[BruceBe]

Drew

I actually flat floored my seven first before going to corner wt'ing. I was within 18lbs using that process with a 5/8" rake. To be honest, my middle name is not Shumacker, I could not tell the difference between the two processes. Dave W

 

Unless you jounce and un-bind the suspension each time you jack up the car (e.g. with turn-plates), your actual running weights and rake will be off.

[DeanG]

The problem with corner weighting is that unless the subject is a single seater either the weight is off or the car is level but not both. It offends my sensibilities but what can you do?

 

With a 7 the corner weight changes significantly if the owner enjoys too many buffets.

[Davemk1]

The problem with corner weighting is that unless the subject is a single seater either the weight is off or the car is level but not both. It offends my sensibilities but what can you do?

 

With a 7 the corner weight changes significantly if the owner enjoys too many buffets.

 

You are referring to side-to-side weight which can not be adjusted out using the coil over spring perches. One can however have a car with even ride heights and 50-50 corner weights but you will always end up heavy on the driver's side due to the weight of the driver.

 

dave