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C6 Corvette ZR1 & Z06General info about GM’s Corvette Supercar, LS9 Corvette Technical Info, Performance Upgrades, Suspension Setup for Street or Track
I bought my Z06 and it came with the Pfadt Camber Kit. The car was used in HPDE events and the camber settings are aggressive. Visually I can see its probably 2+ degrees in the front, and not sure what in the rear.
I want less aggressive camber settings all around and would like to the PFADT Street Alignment Settings, but do not have the additional shims required to put into the A Arms in the front. I also dont have the correct shim for the rear to adjust the camber there either.
It looks like I have two options either put the car back to stock or reach out to PFADT for shims or an additional kit. I am looking for the cost effective sensible way to go around this.
I am not sure what I need from the dealer and what it would cost. Are there supposed to be washers on the top of the A-arm stock? The factory uses eccentric bolts, how are they sold and what are t he pieces i would need.
If any one can help with this I would appreciate it.
Does any know if its more economical to go back to stock? Or better to use the Pfadt camber kit? I went to the local Firestone and they were fussing about the shims.
I called the dealer and he told me that its ~$16ish for the Front Cam, no bolts and $53ish for the rear. I cant seem to find the part number for everything I would need to go back to stock to figure out that option.
If anyone has stock bolts or part of the kit where I can get my camber to be less aggressive. I am interested and please PM or respond here.
Does any know if its more economical to go back to stock? Or better to use the Pfadt camber kit? I went to the local Firestone and they were fussing about the shims.
I called the dealer and he told me that its ~$16ish for the Front Cam, no bolts and $53ish for the rear. I cant seem to find the part number for everything I would need to go back to stock to figure out that option.
If anyone has stock bolts or part of the kit where I can get my camber to be less aggressive. I am interested and please PM or respond here.
This isn't a big deal except for people who don't know what they are doing. Yes, it requires a little extra labor to adjust things but the principles are the same whether you have the stock cams/spacers for the UCAs or the Pfadt parts.
First, tell us exactly what you have installed. The Pfadt C6Z front plates have a Z cut into them. Take a look and see if that is what you have in the front. As far as the UCAs do you have studs with nuts holding the UCAs in place or do you have bolts?
In the front for aggressive alignments the Z is placed toward the inward side of the mounting point. For less aggressive alignments the Z is placed outward. You can easily change the camber to a much less aggressive setting by loosening the bolts, pulling the plates out of the slots and rotating them 180 degrees. As far as shims to use behind the UCAs any alignment shop should have those. They are not expensive. There are plenty of cars that still require shims placed behind the upper control arms so don't let some guy BS you that this is a strange setup. If their brains can't accept your car has plates Vs cams then they are not intelligent enough to work on your car.
In the rear Pfadt provided several plates to adjust LCA position. I swap these plates in and out when doing my own alignment and I use the stock GM spacers behind the UCAs along with extra shims if required. The plates came with 0 through 6 notches. The more notches the more aggressive the camber setting. Shims placed behind the UCAs allowed for further refinement.
I have all of the OEM C6/Z06 adjustment cams and bolts front and rear.
Interested in trading you for your PFADT parts. Call me so we can determine what parts you need.
404-867-5110
This isn't a big deal except for people who don't know what they are doing. Yes, it requires a little extra labor to adjust things but the principles are the same whether you have the stock cams/spacers for the UCAs or the Pfadt parts.
First, tell us exactly what you have installed. The Pfadt C6Z front plates have a Z cut into them. Take a look and see if that is what you have in the front. As far as the UCAs do you have studs with nuts holding the UCAs in place or do you have bolts?
In the front for aggressive alignments the Z is placed toward the inward side of the mounting point. For less aggressive alignments the Z is placed outward. You can easily change the camber to a much less aggressive setting by loosening the bolts, pulling the plates out of the slots and rotating them 180 degrees. As far as shims to use behind the UCAs any alignment shop should have those. They are not expensive. There are plenty of cars that still require shims placed behind the upper control arms so don't let some guy BS you that this is a strange setup. If their brains can't accept your car has plates Vs cams then they are not intelligent enough to work on your car.
In the rear Pfadt provided several plates to adjust LCA position. I swap these plates in and out when doing my own alignment and I use the stock GM spacers behind the UCAs along with extra shims if required. The plates came with 0 through 6 notches. The more notches the more aggressive the camber setting. Shims placed behind the UCAs allowed for further refinement.
Bill
Bill Thank you for responding. I was out of town and couldnt get back to this sooner, but wanted to take pics to best describe.
This is of the front control arm.
Front Drivers Upper Control Arm.
Shims on Upper Control Arm - Not sure if they are all the same thickness?
Bolt attaching lower control arm to cradle (Rear portion of Control Arm)
Bolt attaching lower control arm to cradle with measurement (Rear portion of Control Arm)
Lower Control Arm - Front Bolt
Lower Control Arm Front Bolt - from below
Upper control Arm - Front mount of upper control arm to car. Show 3 shims mounted before the bolt with no letter 'Z' Displayed on the front of either.
Upper control Arm - Upper control arm mount closest to the rear of the car. Looks like just one plate behind, reasonable thickness.
View from the rear of the car facing forward. Shows both lower control arm mounts. mount closest to the front of the car has orange pfadt alignment shim in place.
Upclose of front lower control arm mount with pfadt sham with grooves closer to the right pushing bottom of the lower control arm out?
Same Front lower control arm forward mount facing the front of the car.
Upper Control Arm has two washers behind each mounting point.
I can take pictures of whatever will help to provide the best guidance.
Bill while I understood there must be universal shim, I wasn't aware you could buy shims that resembled the pFadt ones outside of pFadt. That alone was an eye opener.
I agree with you that Firestone may not have the most knowledgable techs. I only used them because I wanted to pay for the lifetime alignment package in the event I get setup for the track in the future and can have the alignment adjusted by them. If someone can recommend a shop in the Maryland/D.C area it would be appreciated.
I can take pictures of whatever will help to provide the best guidance.
Bill while I understood there must be universal shim, I wasn't aware you could buy shims that resembled the pFadt ones outside of pFadt. That alone was an eye opener.
I agree with you that Firestone may not have the most knowledgable techs. I only used them because I wanted to pay for the lifetime alignment package in the event I get setup for the track in the future and can have the alignment adjusted by them. If someone can recommend a shop in the Maryland/D.C area it would be appreciated.
I got your PM, I have been on vacation traveling around the country so haven't been spending much time on the forum.
The pictures show me several things. Either you have a very old set of Pfadt front camber plates or they are not Pfadt. The Z I was talking about is in the plates not the shims.
This is a picture of my car with the Pfadt plates located with the Z inward to get the largest amount of negative camber available with these plates. As you can see the bolt is offcenter. When I rotate the plates on the bolt with the curved sides downward that places the Z to the outside and brings the camber without shims into the -1.5 region. Then by adding shims behind the UCAs I can get it all the way down to the Pdadt street alignment settings. It looks like you can do the same with yours, however, without the Z I can't say for sure they are Pfadt plates. Loosen the bolts one side of the car and see if they can be pulled out of the slots and rotated. Check to make sure the sharp corners on the plates will fit into the curved area of the slots and then tighten them down. If the sharp corners interfere with rotating the plates pull the plates out and use a file to round them off a little.
I use a 2 ft long crow bar, a 3 ft long crow bar and an 18 inch long Craftsman screw driver to move the LCA in, out and up/down so the plate can be reinserted into the slot.
It looks you have studs with nuts holding the front UCAs in place of the stock bolts so it is much easier to move shims around to adjust the camber caster.
In the rear you definitely have the Pfadt Z06 rear plates. Those plates are the ones used to achieve max negative rear camber. Do you have the remainder of the kit which includes plates with the 6 notches shown in your picture all the way down to zero notches?
From the picture it looks like the person who installed the camber plates didn't install the studs for the rear UCAs. It looks like you still have the stock bolts with two stock spacers (referred to as washers but they are really spacers) behind the UCA dog bones.
If you have the remainder of the Pfadt kit you could install plates with between 1 and 4 notches to get a stock rear alignment. I can get a good street alignment with a 1 notch plate on the passenger side and a 3 notch plate on the driver's side. The reason there is a difference is the cradle isn't quite centered on the frame. The adjustments you can do to set alignment compensate for any small misalignment in the cradle.
If you don't have the other plates then you will have to go back to the stock cams in the rear. However, you will only need to buy two of them rather than 6.
Messing around with the plates or swapping in stock cams will definitely change your toe settings quite a bit so if you decide to do some of this yourself you will need some way to measure toe and thrust angle. Toe plates with tape measures included can be purchased on eBay for about $60, a 2 ft long digital laser level can be used to measure camber, caster and thrust angle. Sears has one for about $60 and it can be used for household tasks as well.
We have a thread in the Autocrossing/Roadracing forum on alignment methods that has a lot of good suggestions on how to do this yourself.
I went to the local Firestone and they were fussing about the shims.
That's your first problem right there...find a legit suspension/alignment shop in your area. Plenty of people on here to point you in the right direction.
Originally Posted by Unreal
Contact Rich@Abel and he can set you up cheaply with all the factory stuff, or any discount parts dealer like Cultrag, etc.
Sounds like you just want to go back to stock...that would be my recommendation.
Bill - Thank you for taking the time to reply while you're on vacation. Again I am very thankful for the guidance.
As of right now I don't have the rest of the pFadt Kit. I could reach out to Afe/pFadt, forum classifieds or the previous owner to see if I can piece it together.
- Are the plates on the lower control arm the primary way to adjust camber? The front plates on the front lower control arm almost look to me to have the bolt hole dead center, but I will check to see it makes a difference flipping them 180. I think what i need is for that bolt to move closer to the cradle to bring the wheel upright and reduce the camber.
- Is the
[B]Lower Rear Control Arm/B]
So to return to a completely stock setup in the rear I would only have to replace the single bolts holding the orange plates with the stock eccentric cam bolt? Does someone have the part numbers of everything i would need. I think there is a bolt sleeve and cam (not really sure).
I will try and find out more about the tool. If it was up to me, I would just do the whole thing myself since its such a waste of time to go to a firestone kind of shop, explain what i want, and then go back and fourth on how to do it.
if anyone has pictures of what a stock setup looks like that might help me to compare, like what are the stock washers behind the front UCA look like.
07-31-2015, 12:44 PM
Pfadgt Camber kit back to stock
Sounds like you just want to go back to stock...that would be my recommendation. 