[Tigers] 66 MK 1A Wheel Alignment

[Michael Wood]

Sorry, hit send before I answered about caster. No, you don't use the same shims that Rick sells for the a-arms. But, you can use pretty much any shim of the right size. You want positive caster. It helps not only with straight line stability and steering self-centering, but also helps with camber gain at lock. You just shim the back crossmember bolts to get where you need to be on caster. 

Also, correction: when I said "go positive" in compression in my first response, I didn't mean that the dynamic camber value is absolute positive, only that our suspension doesn't give the type of camber gain required to keep the tire tread flat as the sidewall flexes and rolls under cornering load.. 


-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Wood via Tigers <tigers at autox.team.net>
To: jmartiniii <jmartiniii at yahoo.com>; tigers <tigers at autox.team.net>
Sent: Wed, Mar 20, 2019 8:19 pm
Subject: Re: [Tigers] 66 MK 1A Wheel Alignment

Your baseline setup is what I've run on my car and generally recommend. If I could get a little more negative camber, I'd do it, but until I go to earlier Alpine upper A-arms, -1.25 is all I can get without the upper a-arms running into the fenderwells. As you've said, this alignment works well. As far as tire wear, it is aggressive toe settings (typically toe out to affect more "immediate" turn in) which kill tires, not the fairly benign -1.25 negative camber. I keep my toe at zero to 1/16" toe in, which helps with straight line tracking and promotes even front tire wear..

I'm really surprised that Dale specs such minimal negative camber...maybe that's why I beat him at SUNI on the autocross course? ;)

Seriously, negative 1/4 static is basically straight up. With the very poor camber curve of our cars, you'll go positive very quickly in compression. Are you sure that's what he suggests? I can understand his recommendation for very slight toe out for turn in/response reasons. Keeping it zero to very slight toe out won't necessarily be a tire killer, but (as you said), with the coarse tie rod end adjustment, you could end up with more than that...and then will have wear issues and likely "tramlining". I did the Tom Hall mod to get a more normal, fine thread adjustment with lock nuts which allows fine adjustment of toe.

I'd say, if it's not broke, don't fix it. Seems your current settings have served you well.

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Martin via Tigers <tigers at autox.team.net>
To: Tiger List Serve <tigers at autox.team.net>
Sent: Wed, Mar 20, 2019 6:42 pm
Subject: [Tigers] 66 MK 1A Wheel Alignment


Alignment Thoughts
Yes I am confused about which specs to take with me to thealignment shop.  Maybe the light bulbwill go on with your help.  Reported: We didn't pay inordinate attention to the factoryspecs when aligning my Tiger last time, but went with numbers which were moreconducive to performance. The set up has been:  Caster, as much as you can find reasonably, 3.75~.  Put in FIRST Camber -1.25~.  Toe 0-1/16 (kind of hard with the stock tie rod end set up,you either get 0 or 1/8 in or out).  These settings have worn tires evenly (yes, even with thecamber), made the car very autocross and open track friendly, and provided goodstraight line stability. Dale Says to use:  USETHESE Caster:  3-4degress   shims - put on no matter whatbut .1 or .06 or 1 of each?.  Positive or negative?
 Camber: ¼ neg  Toe:  0 to 1/16 out Factory:  
Castor:  3.5 Positive Camber: ½ Plus or minus ¼ positive  Toe In: 1/8” (3mm) Confusion:  SS shims.100” thick FS58 and .060” thick FS58M says they are for ‘camber’.  Are there castor shims as well or did I nottake good notes?  15” wheels on 205 x 50x15 tires – used mainly on the street with 4 hour trips so need good straightline stability.


_______________________________________________

tigers at autox.team.net

Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/tigers http://autox.team.net/archive

Unsubscribe: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/tigers/mwood24020@aol.com


_______________________________________________

tigers at autox.team.net

Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/tigers http://autox.team.net/archive

Unsubscribe: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/tigers/mwood24020@aol.com


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/tigers/attachments/20190321/37053434/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 55222 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/tigers/attachments/20190321/37053434/attachment-0001.png>