mountainbiker2

I use a level and tape measure for my camber settings. 17" wheel. 1" of tilt is what degree? How did you come up with that answer?

thanks,
Steve A.

dbratten

David Farmer in his Alignment Guide says,

"If you don’t have a camber gauge, simply use a level (3’ is good) and a tape measure or ruler. Again, move level away from bulge, halfway from center-of-rim to rim-edge works fine on most cars.

Hold the top (for neg camber) or bottom away from the tire to get the level 'level'. Measure the distance you pulled away from tire. For a Corvette with 18” wheels, every 1” of lean is approx 3.0 deg, or 1/8” is approx 0.375 deg."

Better yet -- a friend picked up a 2' Digital Laser level at Sears on sale last week for @ $40. Hard to beat to check camber & caster in degrees, and shoot the thrust angle.

davidfarmer

that is approximate, but "close enough" You want the Inverse Sin of the "tilt" over the "diameter". If you are measuring at exactly 18", 1" of tilt is close to 3.18deg. Make sure you have your calculator in deg mode if doing your own calculations.

For a 17" wheel, you are looking at roughly 3.37deg for 1" of lean.

redtopz

I calculate camber using trigonometry. You have 1" camber over 17" of wheel length. The sine of the camber angle = the opposite length over the hypotenuse. In this case, the hypotenuse is very very close to the adjacent length of 17" because the opposite length is only 1". So if you take the arcsine of 1/17, you will get the camber angle. I don't have a scientific calculator right now, but it is close to 3.3 degrees.

dfinke23

werd

NV MY C5

I use a chassis level for camber

for toe:
http://www.smartracingproducts.com/p...e_settings.pdf

JDIllon

The Sears digital level works great and is very accurate! I have been using one on the car along with David Farmers instructions. JD

davidfarmer

For me, the reality is a level and tape are great for rough checks. A digital level is great if you are a perfectionist, but an old fashioned bubble gauge is best 95% of the time. It allows good precision without getting too hung up on the details. You can't feel 0.1degrees of variation. If you get your castor and toe close, and have decent tires, you will have a great driving car even if the camber varies a bit.

dbratten

I don't concern myself with too much precision and rather pick a spot to measure and then consistently measure from the same spot each time making relative changes. In this way tire diameter (or rather where on the tire I am measuring for toe, for instance) doesn't really enter into my calculations.

To move from street to race camber settings I swap five 1/8" shims in and out on the upper a-arm anyway so everything moves a lot. Toe rod typically requires 3.5-4 full rotations to reset.

I've found that my old "seat of the pants" can't feel much precision anymore so close enough is good enough.

Han Solo

I have the older Crafstman level with the Smart Tool angle finder in it. It's the same angle finder that is in the high price alignment gauges on the market. I think I got it for 15-20 bucks off ebay. I cut it down to tool box size for convenience. I cut a piece of pipe that fits inside the lips of my rims and hold the level against the pipe to read it. Debur the ends of the pipe and put a round of electrical tape on them to prevent scratches. You just have to subtract the reading from 90* for the actual value. Works great and very quick. Need to have the car on a level surface but I usually do it in my garage so it's not an issue. If I do it in the field I place it on the ground to check then on the cowl to see if the car is level.

Bill32

Exactly, I picked up the shorter one on sale for $30. I checked it in the shop against the Smart Camber ( even used their adapter), the readings were identical.