Sister alignment thread

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Fri Oct 10, 2003 7:49 pm

My car simply won't hold an alignment :twisted:

. I've had the car aligned 6 times since I've owned it. Granted 2 of those weren't totally neccesary, but about every other autox my car is pulling on the highway wearing the tires badly with vague handling. My car HAS been wrecked at sometime in the past but it's not a salvage title. I think this might have something to do with it as the subframe bolts don't stay torqued anymore. I just can't figure it out as nothing is apparently broken, cracked, or bent. Any help or advise may be useful. Other than buying a new car to autox, that's allready in the works.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Keep in mind that pulling is not caused by toe problems. It's only caused by camber or caster changes.

If you have had 6 alignments, what exactly is changing? The actual changing variable whould point exactly to what is the problem.

George Bright · **Posted:** Sat Oct 11, 2003 2:18 pm

I had a similar problem on my Datsun 510. When I ran slicks the bolts holding the steering box to the unibody kept getting loose. It turned out that I was slowly crushing the square section where the box mounted. I replaced the tubes that passed through the square section and the problem almost went away.

George Bright

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:49 pm

Rob, where are you getting your alignments done? A trip to Sturdivants to see Howard might be worth the money, for he'll not only tell you if there is something bent or out of whack, you'll also know you're getting a 'good' alignment which could be an issue in itself. - AB

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Sun Oct 12, 2003 10:23 pm

I doubt I'll be able to make the trip to sturdivants I'm in greenville not the triangle. The guy doing them for me is very repuatable. He knows FWD cars very well, he owns a 11.5 second RSX actually. I was just wondering if there was anything I might be missing. Heres what the alignment machine tells me. Started off at 1.3* camber 0 toe earlier, knocked it out at first laurenburg event. Took it back camber was the same toe way way off both sides. Realigned to normal. Ryan Holton and I bolted on my swaybar and new struts before the next event and so I got it lined up again, same as before. Knocked it out in Rocky Mount, took it back and camber was within .15 degrees of where it was toe way off. Added camber knocked it out again in Pungo VA toe out again on passenger side. Realigned again, and it was fine until laurinburg last week. was off on the way home, did NCAC this weekend, drive home now fine :roll:

. Here is what I know it is not. Ball joints, wheel bearings, steering rack(was recalled new one installed at dealer), end links. My thoughts on what it may be. Unibody or subframe due to afore mentioned crash?? Possibly bent an a-arm?? I want to get it right this time as I'm going to 2.5 degrees of camber front and 1.0 rear and want it to stay there.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Sun Oct 12, 2003 10:53 pm

-2.5 up front? That is probably way too much, especially for street tire class. How are you able to get that much up front? Crash bolts? Make sure they're legal for your car. Very few companies (Toyota might be the exception) have crash bolts in the factory manual. If they aren't in there, they are allowed in stock based class :shock:

- AB

Kevin Hoff · **Posted:** Mon Oct 13, 2003 12:53 pm

Why is -2.5 too much?

I'd _love_ to get that much on the WRX. It would let me run normal tire pressures instead of the insane 55+ psi.

--Kevin H.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Mon Oct 13, 2003 1:17 pm

WRX is a different beast than your normal front wheel drive car. In a car as light as Rob's or my Celica, anything above -2.0 just limits the amount of contact patch for the front wheels in a straight line. With no LSD, you tend to wear out the inside edge of the tires. The idea setup for perfect wear on my car is about -1.8, plus the car has much more overall grip with that setting.

Now, if I had 4 wheels instead of 1 powering the car, -2.5 may not be out of the question. - AB

Dan Ecclestone · **Posted:** Fri Oct 17, 2003 9:39 am

Rob,

Didn't you tell me at the last event you had some grinding work done to the holes that the camber bolts pass through, to increase your neg camber? Perhaps that could contribute to the problems you mentioned.

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:39 pm

Yeah I've reamed them out with a dremel tool. This is the crash repair for camber on all J-bodys, It's even in the appendix of the SCCA rule book. As long as you torque the bolts very very hard camber doesn't seem to change. Toe is what seems to be my problem but why??

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