Camber - Castor Gauge

[BiggestNizzy]

Does anyone have one I can borrow before I go and invest ?

[mac]

Nope - but if I was going to be spending cash on such an item I would go down the lines of an industrial digital inclinometer and a make up a suitable carrying frame using someone who worked in an engineering company


Much cheaper than paying over the odds from a "motorsport" supplier



mac

[BiggestNizzy]

Thats right up my street

next question with my new digital inclinometer how do you measure Castor ? camber is easy from reading various things online you turn the wheels to +20 degree's and -20 degree's but thats where it becomes very vauge

[pete]

Graeme in "Why pay someone when you can do it yourself, including fabricating all the bits and now tools from scratch shock horror."

Do you ever think that your Lotus ownership experience seems to be lacking a component, ie the bit where you get to actually drive the car?

[mckeann]

Thats right up my street

next question with my new digital inclinometer how do you measure Castor ? camber is easy from reading various things online you turn the wheels to +20 degree's and -20 degree's but thats where it becomes very vauge

Thats not how i measure camber. I just use a bit of string.

With castor, why not just make sure the shims are balanced side to side and leave it at that?? Pretty sure that you cant have too much castor on the elise anyway.

[BiggestNizzy]

As far as I can tell castor is generally unimportant all that matters is that it is balanced and you have the same on each side, as I am no F1 test driver I doubt I could tell the difference if it was a degree or so out

I like doing this stuff it apeals to my techy/pikey nature.


pete
I drive it - I break it - I fix it Just alot more than most people.

[ironside]

As far as I can tell castor is generally unimportant all that matters is that it is balanced and you have the same on each side, as I am no F1 test driver I doubt I could tell the difference if it was a degree or so out

I like doing this stuff it apeals to my techy/pikey nature.

Caster is what gives you self centering steering (and I suppose, as a result, feel/feedback?) afaik.

[BiggestNizzy]

As far as I can tell castor is generally unimportant all that matters is that it is balanced and you have the same on each side, as I am no F1 test driver I doubt I could tell the difference if it was a degree or so out

I like doing this stuff it apeals to my techy/pikey nature.

Caster is what gives you self centering steering (and I suppose, as a result, feel/feedback?) afaik.

yup it self centers the steering i think mine is a little unbalanced as it really feels crap

[fd]

I think it's more to do with high speed stability . . . if you go for a more aggressive camber and toe setup I think you need some more caster to keep things under control at high speed . . .

Fd

[BiggestNizzy]

I think it's more to do with high speed stability . . . if you go for a more aggressive camber and toe setup I think you need some more caster to keep things under control at high speed . . .

Fd

yup it gets twitchy at high speed, very un nerving

[Mikie711]

I bought one of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Inclinometer-Digi ... dZViewItem
and made a frame for measuring camber.

To measure castor, on the wishbones there are holes for checking if the ball joint is seated correctly. These are in the same place on both the upper and lower wishbones. Using some suitable sized bar (about 8mm IIRC) insert it in the holes and rest a straight edge against it with the inclinometer and deduct the reading from 90 to get your castor.

and all for £40

It looks like cheap tat but it's surprisingly quite good and a lot cheaper than the branded ones from the likes of Demon Thieves.

Mike

[BiggestNizzy]

Interesting, do you do that at full suspension travel ? or do you jack up the suspension ? as I am guessing you can't do it with the wheel attached.

& does anyone know off hand what the formula is for the camber shims ?

[Mikie711]

I used a small sissor jack under the lower ball joint and the disc off. No easy but really it was just out of curiousity that I did it when rebuilding my suspension. More interested in camber setting.