I tried a few tyre centres and garages today to just check and record what the tracking and camber is presently on my roadster. Most of them said that without the details in the computer database they could not do it as they would not know what to set for!

Despite me saying I did not want them to adjust anything, just record the details for me, it seemed to make little difference.

Have they lost the skill to read instruments, I managed to find one garage if I can get there for 08::30 in the morning, dependent on the road conditions.

Looks like I would have been better if I found a back street garage with the old tackle of lights and mirrors.

Adrian.

[Edited on 19-2-10 by AdrianH]

Thats the reason i bought my own, at £30 to adjust camber everytime i changed something it's too expensive, shame you are to far away otherwise i would have done it for you, keep an eye on ebay for a second hand set, if your playing with settings a lot it's worth having

Adrian,

I know it's a bit of a trek for you, but after this post, have you considered ProComp?

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=129660

Cheers,
James

The problem with most of the geometry systems, they are designed only to set production systems.

You input the vehicle, the data is uploaded and compared with the data from the wheel sensors. If you don't have the initial data, the system will stomp its feet and will not go to phase 2.

Bodyshops will have more advanced systems which can cope with single vehicles.

The so called four wheel laser tracking systems are really smoke and mirrors because on 99.999% of cars there is no way to establish an accurate vehicle centre line --- probably just as well because we would all start to realise how imprecisely made tintop bodyshells are.


Camber is the easiest thing on a car to measure all you need is a level floor and a spirit level and a bit of trig.
Even easier with a digital spirit level from Lidl

For toe-in get yourself a Gunson Trakrite

[Edited on 19/2/10 by britishtrident]

Hi All

My local car centre have been really helpful setting my Fury up. True, the machines are too clever so we tried to choose production cars to try and fool the machine to take a measurement. It wouldn't accept and MX5, my car was too light and too low but it was forgiving of a lotus elise. I know the setup would be different but the measurements could be made :-)

Thanks for some ideas.

britishtrident

I initially set up the cars camber using a laser line, trig and a home made jig. Only down side was and is my garage floor.

Used the same jig (x2) to try and set toe in. It was OK for IVA and self centring but would like to know how far out I am.



I will keep eyes out for gear, always nice to have.

Adrian

[Edited on 19-2-10 by AdrianH]

I made tracking and camber gauges from wood battens from B&Q or similar.
It doesn't even need any trig because the angles are small, so sinA = A and cosA = 1.
If you approximate 1 degree to 1" at 5 feet (actually 1" in 57.3" you have all you need; well OK, a hacksaw, some glue and a few screws & nails along with a spirit level.
John.

A small local garage garage with a Dunlop or Sealey optical or laser gauge if zeroed before use will give you very accurate readings of toe-in across an axle but not for individual wheels --- there is actually no truly accurate way to measure toe on individual wheels without a jig or F1 style measuring machine.

When using this type of gauge it is important to take a reading then roll the car forward or backwards by exactly half a tyre revolution and average the two readings to get rid of any inaccuracies caused by wheel run out.

Alternative buy a Trakrite for 55 quid or so which is also very accurate.


For camber setting you can get rid of inaccuaries caused by uneven floors by setting 4 slabs or large tiles on the floor so they are level at least accross the axle --- not ideal but it works