jrmotorsports55

Anyone have a problem with their rear cradle shifting, throwing the alignment out of whack? A few autocrossers in my area have been discussing this. I can understand it being a little off center from the factory, but it shouldn't move if torqued properly.

Jason

davidfarmer

it can't move unless the placement pins have been ground down, at least not enough to matter. This is a way to correct cross-camber (ie lots on one side, little or none on the other), but it requires either grinding the pins or opening up the alignment holes.

DALE C

I have never had one move that was tight but it is possible. We loosen the bolts and shift them side to side on the alignment rack all the time. The alignment pins are not a very tight fit that is why it is so important to align a car after any diveline work. They usually only move about .3-.4 degrees on the camber but that is enough to make a big toe change (what it takes away from one side it gives to another)

davidfarmer

I stand corrected, but I really don't think my NASA car's moved that much. It may vary from car to car.

Also, as he mentions, the THRUST ANGLE moves, which is toe relative to the centerline of the car.

JVetthead

When ever I drop a cradle for work (seem to be doing that alot this year) I drilled a 3/16 hole on the pad near the main bolt thru the cradle into the frame before loosening, for an allignment pin..
That way when I reassemble every thing I put a pin in this hole and everything lines up right where it was...

jrmotorsports55

Thanks for the replies. I am wondering if something was loose on the one car that had it happen to the point that the alignment pin sheared off.

Jason

TommyBoy72

FWIW, my cradle moved. I noticed the alignment seemed to be off and then I noticed suddenly my RR tire was more flush and my LF was slightly exposed. I'd guess about 3/8" movement. I tried to move the cradle myself recently but didn't know about the pins until a search on them a couple weeks ago. I'm going to check what happened and fix it and make a new pin and re-align.

jrmotorsports55

Gotcha. I do know that the car that this happened to does see A LOT of heavy auto-x use. Just wondering if this a a common occurance, or a rare one.

Thanks,

Jason

beerkat

the last time I had my car aligned we had to shift the rear cradle to get the camber I wanted. My front cradle is off a touch also but can get the alignment I want.

jrmotorsports55

Yeah, I know they aren't perfect from teh factory, I was just curious about it moving some.

Jason