hey guys, im trying to get the suspension set up on my zero, and i am struggling a little bit. i have spent the day doing various bits on the suspension, i have set the ride heights as per the company specification, of 145mm at the rear and 135 at the front.

the problem i have found(and im not sure if it is a problem or not!) is when i was ajusting the camber. with the car on the garage floor (i put a spirit level across to make sure it was horizontal. and all the tire pressures exactly the same, i measured using the magnetic camber guage on the inside of the brake disk. the drivers side was +1 degrees, so i popped the ball joint out, wound it in until i got a reading of -0.5 degrees) as you can see below :

the gauge says it is a positive reading, but because i have the gauge on the wrong side of the brake disk everything flips around, so positive is actaully negattive



the gauge mounted on the passenger side was adjusted to a similar camber angle as you can see below


however i decided to measure the exposed thread on the ball joint to the wishbone, to make sure each side was equal, however they are not, the picture below shows where i am measuring from using a set of calipers: this picture shows the drivers side : as you can see i measuring from the end of the threaded part of the ball joint casting, to the tip of the wishbone:



however on the passenger side the gap is much smaller



so the drivers side has a gap of 20mm and the passenger side has a gap of 15mm yet the camber angles each side are the same? the wishbones are the same length either side,

how does that work, where am i going wrong?

or does it not matter, as long as the camber is the same either side? i suppose it all depends how accuratley the chassis was made by GBSC

if any one has any tips for setting up the suspension please let me know, i have bought a gunson trackrite for trying to set the toe in, at the moment it looks like i have 0.5 toe in either side, does that sound correct?

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Hi, the gaps are not that important, it happens with cars like ours. Not sure regarding the toe setting, I do mine in mm's by measuring the wheels front and back, I settle for 1 to 2 mm toe in, which seems to suit my car. HTH Ray

That's good to know, I suppose it depends how well put together the chassis is, and how accurate the suspension mounting points are

how flat is your garage floor? if your garage floor isnt 100% perfectly flat and level those cheap gages are next to useless.

I would think if there's only 5mm difference ie 20mm-15mm its only 2.5mm each side so I would think its very good. Does seem like you have just about run out of adjustment though.

The garage floor is not perfect, but its not far off, I'm not sure how else I can do it to be honest! I'm going to make up but of box section that will sit across the flats of the wheel, rather than go off the brake disk,

get one of these. put a long straight level across the garage floor in front of the front wheels. sit this on top and zero it, you have now compensated for the floor being out and can measure off the discs or the wheels using a bar up against the wheel rim

then repeat for the rears.


http://www.axminster.co.uk/gemred-digital-bevel-box-prod564900/

So basically calibrate this device to the garage floor and then use this to set the camber? Sounds good! The rears can only be adjusted by camber shims.

I,m a bit tighter than that, I used 4 slabs, one for each corner then using sand packed them out until completely level to a spirit level, then stuck the car upon them.

Adjusters will never be a perfect match side to side, nothing to worry about.

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Originally posted by ashg
get one of these. put a long straight level across the garage floor in front of the front wheels. sit this on top and zero it, you have now compensated for the floor being out and can measure off the discs or the wheels using a bar up against the wheel rim

then repeat for the rears.


http://www.axminster.co.uk/gemred-digital-bevel-box-prod564900/

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5mm tolerance stack over an entire welded chassis and wishbone set is pretty damn good, thats like saying that each front wishbone, the entire front of the chassis, the inner and outer ball joints/bushes are only <0.5mm out each. I wouldn't worry at all.

Remember corner heights and driver & passenger weights have an effect on camber. Set the suspension up in its normally loaded stated ie with driver on board.

If the chassis isn't sitting parallel to the floor level in the transverse plane ( in simple terms if the chassis leans towards one side ) then you can't get a true reading of the cambers.

[Edited on 22/9/12 by britishtrident]