Lotus Europa Forums > The Paddock

Protech damper setup

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Pfreen:
What is your front camber?

EuropaTC:
Hi there,

With just a quick scan through my notes I seem to have -0.8deg on one side, -0.9 on the other, measured on a bar set against the rim edges.  I think the difference is down to operator error, the Chinese made gauge or maybe the steering wasn't dead ahead, I honestly don't know for sure.   If I'm honest I'm not too bothered about it, the car has been like that for a while and I can't say I've noticed anything odd about handling or tyre wear.   

If you want to get back to zero then I've heard of modifying the top ball joints (hard work) or elongating the holes in the wishbones. From the knowledgebase I picked up that 3/16" elongation should give -1.5deg of camber, so you'd be looking at 1/8" of filing for -1deg. If you look in there for posts by Jay Mitchell, he's written a lot about the suspension mods he did on his car for auto-X.

Once you're happy with the alignment the usual trick is to weld washers in place both to strengthen the area and make sure you always set both sides to the same camber next time it's apart. In fact welding washers in place used to be the go-to bodge on old wishbones anyway  :)

Brian

BDA:
I can't see it in Brian's pictures, bur I'm willing to bet that his camber is adjustable. I have seen where people have slotted the lower A-arms and made different "washers" that fit in the A-arm that provide different camber settings. Beyond that, adjustable upper A-arms is probably you're best option if you want to run lower ride heights. You could, of course, fit adjustable lower or both adjustable upper and lower arms, but I think the added complexity is unwarranted (you'd need to concern yourself with caster).

What might be a secondary consideration is that the A-arms are purposefully designed to bend in an accident in order to try to save the frame. To that end, I changed only my top A-arms to adjustable units figuring that if I hit something, it would be more likely to impact the lower A-arms. I believe I have heard of the stock A-arms bending slightly such that it isn't apparent. This discussion will likely become moot in the not too distant future since the original A-arms are becoming more and more scarce.


My camber is -45'. Even that's in spec, I'll probably give my upper ball joint another turn the next time do an alignment which should get me to about -1° 8' because that's closer to the middle of the range (-30' to -1° 30').

Pfreen:
I see in the workshop manual that the spec for front camber is 0 deg +_30'.  My camber is -1.5 deg both sides.  I cannot adjust to less, only more negative camber.  What do you all  think?  I have not seen the spec that BDA states.  What issue should I expect if I leave it as is?

BDA:
I stand corrected. The front is 0° to +30'. The rear is -1° +/- 30'. Sorry for the confusion.

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