[FC] alignment
Chris & Bill Strickland
lechevrier at earthlink.net
Sat Mar 17 16:01:12 EST 2007
Since everyone has an opinion, and what would a Corvair list be worth
without a variety of opinions to choose from, here's mine
Dale has given some good values, but,
A good front end tech should be able to move caster and camber jointly,
saving time in getting to those awkward dag nabbed nuts (pulling that
air duct on the right side ahead of time is a good place to start along
with a liberal doses of your favorite aerosol lubricant and letting it
soak -- or dropping the front end out and doing a full restoration on
the upper a-arm bolts). Caster values are NOT some absolute cast in
stone number -- generally two or three degrees positive are just fine as
long as both sides are nearly the same (except for vehicles designed for
negative caster, like some old Monte Carlos @ -7, etc.)
I like to run radials straight up and down (zero camber) and straight
ahead (zero toe in) unless tire wear or undesirable handling is
observed and attributed to these settings (generally, it is something
else causing it, but sometimes curing the symptom is easier than curing
the cause).
Camber and toe are typically tire wear adjustments (not counting that a
Corvair is not typical) while caster is a touchy-feely thing, BUT any
one of these being radically off or significantly differing side-to-side
can become a handling and or safety issue.
Shocks -- I've always liked the old Gabriel Adjustable-E's, even though
you had to take things apart to install them.. A 95 van is relatively
heavy with a higher roll center (than say a rotary powered Spridget) and
you need good stiff shocks to autocross it. If you are worried about the
performance of high end shocks, maybe you need a degree and a half of
negative rear camber, also. A cut-off wheel on a die grinder is also a
nice way to cut springs down.
Also, it's much easier to use a die grinder to enlarge the lower control
arm shock holes than an air chisel.
Drive On!
Bill Strickland
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