VetteDrmr

Hope the title wasn't too confusing, camber shims was the only thing my brain could come up with this morning.

A while back there was a post about putting some shims under the upper control arms, getting a street alignment done, then pulling the shims out and resetting the toe for an event.

This sounds attractive to me for autocross, since the car spends a lot of time cruising on the street. A few DEs, but mostly autox. So far I've been running RA-1s or V700s, with a compromise setup that's worked OK so far with my street tires. One flip a little past halfway through the tread life of the tire (both autox and street) and I end up with a pretty evenly worn tire.

Next year I'm going to step up to real R rubber (got some Hoosier scrubs right now, will probably try some V710s once I go through these). With these tires I think I'm going to need more negative camber than my street tires will be happy with.

So, would this shim setup work for me? And what other details do I need to take care of? For example, a dumb question: how do you mark the toe rods to set from street to autox and back?

TIA, and have a good one,
Mike

davidfarmer

You can do it that way, but the upper nutserts aren't very strong, and there's a decent chance you'll strip one. I'd much rather see you get a good intermediate alignment (good for track and street) and leave it alone.

Toe cannot be marked on the tie rods, but you will need to learn to measure it, then count how many "flats" it takes to adjust back and forth. A "flat" is 1/6 of a turn, or one flat side of the bolt.

You can download my DIY guide if you want to learn to measure this stuff for yourself. Again, unless you are comfortable with all of this, I would set it and forget it.

http://www.davidfarmerstuff.com/align.pdf

dbratten

You may be referring to this one:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...79&postcount=3

It should. But as David cautions be aware that the nutsert retaining the upper bolts (that then become studs if using the camber kit) can break. Once you've installed the studs, don't get overzealous tightening the nuts. I hit them with a butterfly 3/8" air ratchet set to a lower than max torque (which I haven't checked.)

I've found that if I measure a n/16" difference in toe from the front to back of the wheel it equates to roughly n flats on each side (i.e., 11/16" difference equals 11 flats per side rotation needed to bring toe back to original setting.) I say roughly as the difference in the measurement depends on where you take your measurements. The farther out from the axle centerline you go the greater the difference becomes. Pick a uniform spot to take your measurements and stick with it. This is close enough in most cases to not have to measure each time you switch from street to race to street settings. But you will want to check it periodically with tapes as David's guide shows.

--Dan

VetteDrmr

David,

Thanks for the info. I've already downloaded your alignment file, although my brain hasn't made sense of it enough yet for me to try it. I understand the concept of "flats", but don't know how many flats it takes to make a given change (thanks, dbratten, for giving me some kind of idea). I'm assuming you'd split the number of flats you want to put into or take out of the toe between left and right (i.e. 1 flat = 1/16" total toe, not 1 flat per side = 1/16" total toe). Is that correct?

David, also I'm running a pretty good compromise between the RA-1/V700s and my street tires. Will Hoosier/V710s be happy with that compromise, assuming I get them flipped to keep things balanced? Or will the shoulders wear so badly that they'll cord before I ever wear the center of the tire?

Thanks again, and have a good one,
Mike