I want to do a "quickie" alignment, also want to make sure the shop knows how to use them okay.

When do I make the rod adjustment? and when do I use the cam? I am not entirely clear on how to use either... thanks in advance.

Also, one of the struts is a little wobbly in the bracket, I think this may just be because it's loose. Are they packed loose on one side from Van Steel? (Didn't feel like trying to tighten it tonight...)

-Steve

 

hey, steve! ordered mine monday so i hope to see them tomorrow or friday. i've heard good things about them so i'm skeptical but excited. let me know what you find out for yours. :cheers:

 

I sinched the cam down years ago and never touched it since. Use the rod rotation to make camber changes :)

 

I haven't installed mine yet (Saturday's the day!), but my understanding is that the function of the cam (at least in this application) is to match the half shaft angle, thus minimizing camber and toe-in change ('bump steer') through the total amount of wheel travel. Then adjust the rod length to set camber and tighten it all down. Any vette racers and/or suspension specialists want to chime in? Where are your cams set, George? The destructions I got from Dan at VanSteel say to set the cam in the middle for starters, but I'll see where that puts me when I bolt it up.

Hans

 

Below is the email I got from VBP when I asked virtually the same question. This echos what Wrencher said.
________________________________________ _______________________
From: tech@vettebrakes.com
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 4:19 PM
Subject: Re: Difference between "Smart Struts" and Racing Rod ends

In reply to your E-Mail
The cams adjust the camber change as the wheel moves up and down. the strut
rod adjust the actual initial camber setting.


Thank You for your inquiry
Robin Wilkie
Technical Advisor
Vette Brakes & Products, Inc.
robin@vettebrakes.com
Phone (727) 345-5292
----- Original Message -----
From:
To: <tech@vettebrakes.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2002 9:23 AM
Subject: Difference between "Smart Struts" and Racing Rod ends


I noticed that one can buy the Smart Struts w/ the cams and a multitude of
ends (urethane, heim joints, etc.), but I also notice that you offer a setup
w/out the cams and just a right and left hand thread for adjusting the
camber. My question is: Why would I want the cams on the Smart Struts? You
seem to market them as a "better" performance product than the other
setup...

 

Cool, so the deal is...

The rods should have an equal number of threads on each side, correct?

How do I know whata good amount of camber change is?

Thanks in advance.

-Steve

 

from what i have heard previously about S/S, the cam bolt on the new bracket no longer adjusts camber, i.e. in-and-out movement. what it does is adjust the strut rods in 'parallel' to the half shafts. the idea is the more angular, the more camber change you will get. that is, if the outer pick-up points have a greater distance relationship than the inner points, it will result in more camber change through suspension travel. there is a point where you still want to have some amount of camber change, however. if there is no camber change as the suspension goes into compression (as in hard cornering) then the wheel will remain in parallel with the car. this will load the outside toe of the tire harder and reduce the effective grip across the rest of the tire, resulting in less cornering force. you can compensate for this somewhat with your alignment specs but for the best wear, you probably should run more than about .5* negative camber. unless you have an ultra stiff suspension, your car will roll more than .5*. hell, look at my sig pic, that is a pretty stiff suspension with ~1.5* negative camber set and the rear tires are nearly vertical.
on S/S, all your camber adjustment is made by the adjustment of the rod ends and the DOM tubing. the cam bolt is adjusting this camber relationship but does not actually affect the camber itself.
when i install my set, i will set it to maintain a slight amount of camber change throughout the travel. you would not want to completely eliminate this if you like corners. drag racers may want to make them perfectly vertical so the tires stay square as the rear squats.
one more comment and this is to VB and, to a lesser extent, van steel. i'm trying these based on the recommendations of other people who swear by them but i remain skeptical. one thing i'm not skeptical about is the intentional misrepresentation of the benifits to the c-3 by the use of the c-2 as an example. in the VB catalog, they use a '63 as their example talking about 5-1/2* camber change through the suspensions travel. even in stock form, the c-3 suspension was revised to take advantage of newer tire technology and that example DOES NOT APPLY! i understand that the c-3 has a total camber change of about 4*, not nearly as radical (or sellable) as the 5.5* of the c-2. during my install, i will test before and after camber change on my '81 and report back. meanwhile dan or anyone from VB is welcome to set me straight.

 

clutchdust,

You are dead on. I've decided that I'm just going to use a spacer between my stock bracket and the mount to get the desired relationship with the halfshaft. One day, I'm going to take measurements and figure out how to get 1* of camber change through full travel.

I do think that the camber bars are easily worth every penny.

 

I hate to burst the bubble here, but we are all about making our cars perform better. So how does the smart struts make the car perform better?? Clutchdust is exactly right. Why lower the mounting point of the struts and get less negative camber under compression when you want MORE negative camber under compression in hard cornering.

This bracket is useless for me, thats why i never bothered to install mine. I bought it for the adjustment cams, removed the cams and set it aside.

Someone tell me i'm full of shi t

 

In the VIP article from Greenwood (located at http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/vip.pdf ), they talk about lowering the strut bracket in relation to the differential. The smart strut bracket incorporates this, in addition to the adjustable rods and poly rod ends... I couldn't argue the benefits of this mod to you, but if it is recommended by Greenwood, or Guldstrand, I would think it has some improvement over stock. I would think a spacer plate would also work to get the benefits...

 

Yes, the whole point of the smart struts is to change the rod geometry. Lowering the bracket has the same effect, but for some, ground clearance suffers. The SS are designed to maintain ground clearance and get the positive effect of shimming the bracket.

-Steve

 

Wrencher & all

I just went out and looked at mine. the inboard cam excentric is set at the lowest point. I do not have a magnetic bubble to tell if the the strut rod is the same down angle from the differential as the half shafts. So with a tape measure I measured the inboard and outboard length and they are nearly parallel.


If i turned the inboard cam it would bring the rod end closer to the diff. by nearly one inch.

Mine were set up years ago by a race shop. At the same time I went with HD trailing arms set to "Zero Toe" and my 420 LBS custom steel rear spring. So it's not a good example of mild street orientated suspensions