Measuring Camber/Caster
 

What's the most popular method of measuring camber/caster? I was thinking of buying Longacre's gauge, which retails for about $130, but it looks like adapting it to the Z might be troublesome. They offer a universal magnetic one, but of course without steel wheels, this is pretty much useless. It looks like the best way would be to thread it on the spindle, but that might have to be custom. Has anyone used this?

Did a little more searching and found an intreging setup sold by Racer Parts Wholesale for a whopping $40. Fits any wheel up to 15", which luckily for me is good, but not for many of you.

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/images/rpw9500.jpg

Also, here's Longacre's:

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/images/78260.jpg

Long acre also makes the same attachment in addition to the gauge to measure off of the wheels. It is not expensive (about 40 bucks) and is nicer than what you have pictured. I have had one for years and it works well. Hoerr Racing Products sells the piece. www.hrpworld.com
Prowrench

check out.....
Smart racing products...........they have some really nice digital gauge set ups.

Even on my shoestring budget, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I bought the "el-cheapo" Racer Wholesale version I posted above. But I must say, I'm real happy with it. IMHO camber and caster do not have to be dead nuts on, only toe. With that said, it seems I've still been able to get accurate, repeatable readings.

Also, It appears that their advertisement wasn't entirely accurate. It looks mine will work on anything up to 17" in diameter.

Maybe it's just me, but since I've been messing around it, I was amazed to see a .25" change of rear toe affected the camber by as much as .5 degrees!

Phil

Ah, you must be using those offset bushings. I really don't like them because of this.

For camber I generally set it at home and then use the smart camber to change it when needed. I usually do this from tire temps but it rarely gets changed these days. I do a lot of ride height adjustments to balance the car and measure my tire circumerference to keep track of growth. That's far more important.

Cary

Actually I'm using Arizona Zcar's Chromoly arms, which have rod ends instead of the, eeeeek, offset bushings. Also, I have Ground Control's camber plates, which I'm real happy with. Now that I have the rear toe dialed in, I doubt it will be changed much, and that goes for the camber as well.

This brings a question I've been meaning to ask, bear with me. Just put the car on the scales, and my cross weight is off by about 40 lbs. What steps should I take to correct this, aside from physically moving parts.

Phil

See if this helps. http://www.grmotorsports.com/cornerweight.html

That article will give you the basics. Take a look at the Mark Ortiz info on setting corner weights at http://www.auto-ware.com/ubbthreads/...b=5&o=&fpart=1

It is really a lot better and is more or less the process that I use.

For overall chassis balance you use rake to set that. For just about any set of springs you can tune the car by rake. You may be nose or up tail down but you can get them to work. It's also very important if you have large fluctuations in temperature to make ride height changes. I do this a lot and now have enough notes I can keep the balance of the car throughout the day.

Cary

Thanks much, this helps tremedously. Guess I have to get my eyes checked...I'm regular Grassroots Motorsports subscriber!