Please help, I read all the posts and came to the conclusion there is no CORRECT spec. It's a matter of taste.

We need an Alignments for Dummys guide. My head is spinning

Well, can somebody please help me. I will give my history,

2000 Convertible with Runflats and lowered 1.5" all around. I still have the original runflats and the inside edge on the fronts is showing cloth at 23,000 miles. I never had it realigned after I lowered it.

I am switching to NON-Runflat Kumho MX stock sizes and need to get aligned.
I assume I need a more Z06 like spec as compared to the stock (RUNFLAT spec)


I want the following characteristics and good wear
Front
Steering straight to be tight and track straight regardless of road ruts.
Steering corners to be responsive but not twitchy

Rear
Set for MAXIMUM straight line acceleration

I have specs from everywhere including the document from Vettbrakes. Unfortunately I cant compare them to the Stock settings because they are different scales of measurement.

 

Chuckster, assuming I'm not mixing this up (big assumption there :lol: ), the inside edge of your tires is wearing more because of negative camber. Negative camber is good for the (road) race track, but not the best for average street driving. It's my understanding that the Z06 alignment specs call for even more negative camber than the coupe, the factory's assumption being the Z06 is set up "out of the box" for racing. Lowering your car may have "increased" the negative camber on the suspension. Caster adjustments will affect the self-centering aspect of the car's steering, but will also impact on the steering's responsiveness. I couldn't begin to address the settings for the rear wheels- don't have a clue. As you discerned, there is no one perfect setting that addresses all the different driving needs/styles.

 

Chuckster, you haven't mentioned track racing or drag racing so I assume that your car is only driven on the regular streets. Also, if your car is lowered 1.5" any regular allignment shop will have a problem getting your car on the allignment rack let alone alligning it properly.

The developers of the Corvette have thousands of hours of development time in the suspension settings of your Corvette, and the allignment specifications for you car are the best overall settings for regular road driving. Why not try setting your allignment to these factory specifications. :) They just might work for you.

The inside edge of your front tires is waring more than the rest of the tire because there is probably too much negative camber AND the toe could also be too positive or too negative. Since you haven't commented on the present steering or turning characterists, it's hard to say much about possible toe or caster settings problems. :)

Jim

 

Wam and Jim are booth right, after I lowered my Z06 to the max it changed the neg camber from -.75 to a whopping -1.5 and I too had cord on the inside of my F1s but I also raced a lot and loved the extra neg camber, just get the stock coupe alingment done and you'll be happy.

 

-.25 degrees negative camber up front
0 degrees in the rear (or as close as possible)

0 toe all around


=)

 

I had this same problem on my car last week when I took it in. It was a major pain in the butt. My car is slammed and it took a good hor to get it on the lift. Then they couldn't get the alignment guides to mount on my rims because there was not enough lip. I had my Dad drive one of his C5;s over and swapped rims on the alignment rack. After all that the sensors on the front rims would not work because the car was to low. They could not make contact. It was a bitc but they finally got it done. Kaley

 

You can't have it all...I mean good wear, good tracking in the ruts and straightline stability.

For good wear you need hard rubber tires that are oriented flat to the road surface and have no toe in toe out/ camber in camber out...of course this will handle like your moms Studebaker.

If you don't want it to track in the ruts, then just put on real narrow tires...but try not to spin them.

If you want good straightline stability, then dial in a lot of toe in and push the caster up to that of a "chopper" bike. Of couse the tires will wear out quickly and the car won't take a set when you turn in.

However, a very good compromise might be:

FRONT: .5 degrees negative camber; negative 1/16 toe; 7 degrees caster.
REAR: .25 degrees negative camber; Negative 1/8 toe

Stock tire sizes.
Tire pressures: FRONT: 29 degrees cold. REAR: 33 degrees cold.

If you want more cornering performance and are worried about wearing the inside edge...why not just give it more negative camber (neg 1 degree front; neg .5 degree rear) and merely dismount the tires and re-mount them on the opposite side rims when the inside edge starts to wear? Hasn't anyone else thought of this?? You can run the **** out of the inside edge and then transfer it to the outside edge of the opposite rim after 10,000+ hard miles. Hell, it'll be unlikly that the outside edge ever even touches the ground with this aggressive alignment setting, let alone wears. It'll cost you 80.00, but the cornering performance is really quite an awsome offset to the price. It's a whole lot better than throwing away a set of fronts that are worn on the inside edge, but still 1/2 tread on the rest of the casing. Just keep them spinning the same direction, bad edge facing out. You can have your cake and eat it too. sj

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