Dragonhealer (ghetto rear camber)

[Advancedynamix]

I'm jealous of those Festiva engraved plates. That's sweet.

[skeeters_keeper]

thats a sweet toe plate! Did you engrave that yourself?

Yea i did.
I made the plate out of .100" al sheet metal.

[FestYboy]

More like 1/32-1/16" total. A full degree would be way too much.

[chrisofna]

Yeah, but make sure you know what is the vehicle centerline if the stub axle at the desired ride height. Like Dragonhealer said, as the beam rotates, the alignment changes. You must set the camber and toe for the desired beam angle. It's hard to get it right with 1 try. I've dedicated hundreds of hours to dialing in the rear on my cars.
These cars are unstable with toe out in the rear (probably why Rosie is "darty" unloaded). It is important to understand that negative camber turns into toe out as the beam droops. As the beam compresses the negative camber turns into toe in. It's best to set the car up with a hair of toe in at the desired ride height.

What would you consider a hair of toe-in, if you don't mind me asking? Like 1 degree?

[dliverance]

I need to wrap my brain around this so I can camber the rear.

[ryanprins13]

charlie is the expert here, but I use a simple set of toe plates to check toe and a level for camber... just make sure you're parked on a level surface!

thats a sweet toe plate! Did you engrave that yourself?

[Festiver]

It's really easy Maurice. Once you do it, you'll wonder why you ever paid a shop to do it.

Charlie how do you accurately find toe there's the tape measure trick but that's never perfect string doesn't work because it's based off the rear so you cant adjust the rear so how?

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[Advancedynamix]

I'd love to learn how to do it.

I know you can't really do much with caster on these cars with the stock components. But would a caster adjustment be of any benefit if it could be done?
I know I wouldn't dare to adjust caster without power steering unless I had arms like arnie in the 80's

It's really easy Maurice. Once you do it, you'll wonder why you ever paid a shop to do it.

[Advancedynamix]

Charlie, I know you have made custom camber/toe plates for your Festys. Using the left wheel as the example, do you have the thick part of the plate go from about the 2 o'clock position to the 7 o'clock? Or is that a racing trade secret?

I keep no secrets with the setup on these cars.
The clocking of the taper is completely dependant on the angle of the spacer plate and the angle of the beam. If your car has a festiva beam and is lowered about 3" then a 3.5 degree spacer should sit at about the 1 O-clock position assuming that the top rear bolt hole is 12 O clock. This is very generic and may not actually work on your car. This is why I do not sell these parts to the general public. If this is done wrong, it could result in toe out in the rear (and/or unequal toe settings), which is dangerous on the street in these cars. They spin like tops under mid corner braking.

[moz]

I'd love to learn how to do it.

I know you can't really do much with caster on these cars with the stock components. But would a caster adjustment be of any benefit if it could be done?
I know I wouldn't dare to adjust caster without power steering unless I had arms like arnie in the 80's

[TominMO]

Charlie, I know you have made custom camber/toe plates for your Festys. Using the left wheel as the example, do you have the thick part of the plate go from about the 2 o'clock position to the 7 o'clock? Or is that a racing trade secret?

[Advancedynamix]

Camber and toe adjust together. You don't want uneven camber or toe, as it will cause the car to pull to one side. I do my own alignments just like Nate (skeeters_keeper) described. Less than the cost of an alignment (at most shops) for all the tools to do it yourself. I've fixed a bunch of bad alignments, that were done with state of the art equipment, with my simple tools. We've set up race cars with this stuff for decades, so I know I can trust it.

[TominMO]

Yeah, but make sure you know what is the vehicle centerline if the stub axle at the desired ride height. Like Dragonhealer said, as the beam rotates, the alignment changes. You must set the camber and toe for the desired beam angle. It's hard to get it right with 1 try. I've dedicated hundreds of hours to dialing in the rear on my cars.
These cars are unstable with toe out in the rear (probably why Rosie is "darty" unloaded). It is important to understand that negative camber turns into toe out as the beam droops. As the beam compresses the negative camber turns into toe in. It's best to set the car up with a hair of toe in at the desired ride height.

It sounds to me like you could just put the thick end of the camber plate at the rear position, if you just wanted to toe it in a little, and weren't concerned with neg. camber. Would that be a reasonable thing to do?

[skeeters_keeper]

charlie is the expert here, but I use a simple set of toe plates to check toe and a level for camber... just make sure you're parked on a level surface!

[moz]

Is there a reliable way of doing a wheel alignment without all the fancy equipment?