Can some one tell me the relevance of this?..........

Enclosed in this '73 I am building was this huge stack of registration papers and service receipts. It was serviced by one of our local Z shops.

Receipt dated 12/23/94 (in addition to brakes, t/c rod bushings, tires, etc.):

"Front Wheel Alignment: $50. NOTE: Crossmember is damaged, and car has been lowered. Alignment is not within spec. Customer refused work at this time.

Toe-in 1/8

Camber left -1 right -1/4

Caster 3 1/4"

Can someone translate this into driveablility for me? Is this serious? I have the engine out and really can't see any major deformations of the Xmember. It has a couple dents like someone ran into a ditch (with a big rock!). What I want to know is: how will this effect how the car handles? Crossmembers are easy enough to replace....

steve77

Regarding your "new" avatar---------:cross-eye :cross-eye

All right!! A butt man. Shake that booty. Victor.

Come ON! Answer the question!!!! DO I have to put #83 back on there to get a serious answer?

geeeeeeeez...Pay attention!

Question? What Question?

Oh, That question...........................Here's my answer: I don't know.

Now can we go back to watching the Butts wiggle?

Toe-in 1/8

--> This is fine. It will help you track straight. Any toe out is usually bad as the car has a tendency to wander. Any more than 1/8 toe in may cause excessive tire wear

Camber left -1 right -1/4

--> This is inconsequential for the most part. At least it is negative camber (top of tire leaning inward) which is better than positive camber. You may find that your left front tire may wear on the inside edge slightly faster than the right front -- or the right front may wear on the outside faster -- solution -- rotate tires every 3-5K.

Caster 3 1/4"

--> I'm not quite sure about this number -- as far as it being how far out of spec -- sorry.

What I don't understand is why toe-in numbers were noted. Is 0 not desireable? That would be easy to fix--even with a "lowered car with a damaged crossmember". Is 1/8 the usual setting?

Actually, since this is a car I am building for autocross (and I can't afford camber plates yet) meebee I could damage the right side of the X-member a little so I could get -1 on both sides???? Gotta find a curb to drive over.....

steve77

If this is primarily an autox car, a little toe out is preferred. 0 up to 1/8 inch out instead of in. This helps make the car turn-in quicker but on a street car, this makes it dartier and harder to drive because the wheels won't want to return to straight ahead on their own. You can experiment with more or less toe in/toe out and use your own judgement as to how you like it set. There are several different methods for making toe adjustments using just some jack stands, string and a tape measure. Do some searches on this or other boards and you should find the details.

On camber, again, if this is an autox car, you will no doubt want to lower the car significantly. Just lowering the car will add tons of camber. You might want to wait until after you have lowered the car to work on camber as you may want to reduce excessive negative camber after lowering. On my car, I added camber plates to just the rear in order to reduce the extreme negative camber that resulted from lowering. The fronts were OK without camber plates.

If you want to increase negative camber right now, before lowering and without the expense of camber plates, you can move the strut-top mounting holes inward and/or use camber bushings on the lower control arms.

--John

'73 FP 240Z