Alignment

Hello all.... looking for a little help from the collective. Hydrasports coilovers, new outer tie rod ends (ball joints), a new steering rack and new bushings all around arrived today from VAS. Once its all installed we will need to get an alignment done. This is a road car (74), no race track for me. I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about alignment. Can anyone give me any advice/help? I'm sure the shop will be able to set it up to be neutral (?), but maybe a slight adjustment one way or the other can improve handling? I read about adjustments to camber and toe in, but I have no idea what it all means, except that my tires will wear unevenly if its out of alignment. As always... many thanks.

Doing the same...

I just went through an old book "how to make your car handle" had several tables found the Fiat X1/9 in the camber section. Just as a base:
Toe or tracking
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_(automotive)
Adjustable on both front and rear
Caster
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_angle
Not adjustable without special strut mounts or modify mounting holes... for a road car no need to adjust IMO
Camber
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camber_angle
With our strut setup this angle does not change, when car goes up or down. The kit you got has camber adjustment bolts so this can, and needs to, be adjusted if you lower the car.
Fiats had -2° of camber rear according to the chart I saw. That looks like the car is squating down if you lower it they will tilt in more. A little is good so when you corner as the body rolls the wheels would not have a positive camber or lift the inside of the contact area... I don't autocross or really even hard drive so I am going to have some of the negative camber adjusted out. I try to go to a frame shop vs a box store where they do it all. A good shop will be able to access the factory specs and advise you on what will work best for you. Hope this helped and good luck!
Regards

I'd set the ride height first, do rears first - make sure the rear control arms are no more than parallel with the ground (not pointing "up").

Then do the front and set the car level - this takes a while, since you'll need to take the tire off, and settle the spring/strut and suspension - or jack up the car, put a jack under the control arm and set the spring height there. This of course is much different than corner weighting, you just want it to sit low and level.

I would use 5/16" "zip" washers for the top bolts on the struts (buy new longer bolts if required). http://catalog.zipbolts.com/item/all-categories/extra-thick-flat-steel-washers-zip-inch-sizes/10315

Brafasco sells them - they're 8mm exact. You will tack weld the washers onto the struts after you align - why? if you remove any part of the suspension, you can easily put it back without hassle.


I'd set it to stock - the caster will increase because you've lowered it. I wouldn't set more negative camber than stock - more negative means you have less grip when straight line braking (on wide tires anyway). My car is set to stock, I have the settings at home - but I've got no more than -1.5 in the rears. My car handles amazingly well, you won't improve anything unless you're racing it anyway (then you need a pyrometer to actually know if you need more adjustments).

By changing to these struts, you will already be far ahead than any "performance tweaks" so no worries there.. than and your car will look really hot once it's sitting nice and low and even!

Just take it to a guy with a really good alignment rack

Here's my camber adjustment up front - zip washer installed:


Here's the rears - notice, the car is actually not sitting on the rack. This rack can lift the car by the suspension, meaning, no weight on the wheels to set the camber. It worked perfectly.You can see the zip washers up top - after setting, I tack welded them on



The alignment took 3 hours with me helping, but we got it perfect - make sure they center the steering wheel and check every joint before doing the alignment (and rubber bushes, including the track rod bushes).

Cheers and good luck!

Basically what Myron said...make sure the control arms are level (measured from the pivot bolt centre to the balljoint centre) and not angled up towards the wheel is as low as you can go without upsetting the geometry.

but...I would set the front with a tiny bit of negative camber (maybe 1/2 a degree) to dial out some of the initial understeer on turn in ... definitely tack weld washers on the top strut to hub mounting bolts, so you hold the alignment (looks like the struts have slotted top holes for adjustment)

SteveC

Thanks Steve,

I recall having my front camber to the "max" range, and for interests sake, I'll try to dig up the settings and post here for reference.

I started messing with wheel spacers, have 16mm on the rear, and 12.7mm on the front with CD91s.. at least that's what I calculated would work with the camber I have and 185/60/13s and not rub against the body/fenders. Feels alright. My car tracks nice and straight now.


I like how Bill's struts are slotted, I had to slot mine - I took a round file and slotted it - I couldn't believe how fast a file did it vs. a die grinder.


Good luck Bill! Post some pics of how she looks after, and I can't wait to see it in person! Cheers!

Thanks all....

This is all excellent advice. Now I need to find a shop that will work with me to get it right. Updates next week I hope....

+1 what Myron said

You can perform a good alignment at home with some simple inexpensive (home made) tools. If you're not comfortable with that find a shop that's willing to work with you. Don't settle for a setting "in range", get it right. I'll add a couple more suggestions to prepare:
- Make sure the tire pressures are set correctly.
- Make sure the car weighs what it will when you drive it, ie, weight of driver (plus passenger?), average amount of fuel, spare tire, etc, etc. Take the weights off of you barbell and set them in the seat to approximate your weight.
- Your spring rates will determine most of your settings. You are trying to make sure that the tires contact patch is maximized, it will change as the car corners and weight shifts. The stiffer the spring, the less the change. If you have stock springs the camber (and with it toe) will change more than if you have stiff springs. If you adjust your ride height so that the control arms are level with the ground the camber will go negative as the spring compresses. (draw out a paper model and see what the arc is) That's OK, as long as you have enough positive camber to begin with (remember maximize contact patch). If your control arms are not level - pointing down at the outside - you will gain positive camber as the weight transfers to that corner. (your paper model - the arc) Set your camber (which changes your toe) so that the tire is flat to the road (maximum contact patch) when you corner hard. You can actually measure how much movement you have by placing a zip tie around the strut shaft. To see how much travel you have at the strut all you have all you have to do is push the zip tie to the bottom of the strut rod, then go take some corners. The zip tie will be pushed up to the farthest the strut compresses so you can measure just what is going to happen to camber when you corner. To get you in the ballpark just set the static camber so that the tire is flat to the road at maximum compression. (you gain camber until the control arm is level to the ground, you loose camber as the control arm points up on the outside.) Once you have the static camber setting figured out set your toe. Don't worry too much about caster unless you can measure it. If you can measure it set it to spec - same on both sides.
Of course if you don't want to go to that much trouble, and have stock springs, and set your ride height so the control arms are level, add some positive camber, so the tires contact patch remains level to the ground as the strut compresses and you loose camber. Depending on your spring rate 1 1/2 to 2 degrees is a good starting point. Heavier springs, less static camber - 1 to 1 1/2 degrees.
- Toe settings are largely a matter of tire construction, driving style, spring rate, bushing compliance and personal preference. A good starting point is a little toe out 1/8" - 1/4" in front, and a little toe in - 1/8" or so in the rear.
- Then test and adjust as necessary.
- Have fun!

Oh, BTW - You have to realize that the camber settings for best performance will likely not bet the best setting for tire wear. It's very much a compromise.