Morning all

Well once again I'm stumped. Trying to sort out camber, ride height etc for my Indy.

From various posts 100mm front and 120-125 rear seems a good starting point. Problem is my car at the front is at about 110 and my jack won't go underneath, I cant rotate the spring seats with the weight on the car.

So if I had the weight off the wheels and adjusted the spring seat how would I know whether I've achieved 100mm as I won't be able to lower the car because of jack clearance?

The same with camber, I need to remove weight from the wheels to remove the top ball joint to adjust but if camber is adjusted with the weight off surely it won't be the same when the front wheels are under load.

so I'm stumped as to how to proceed, what order to do things?

Any help much appreciated. Sods law it's the last couple of jobs that are causing me the most head scratching.

Cheers all
Nigel

how deep is your jack?

Use a different jack?
Use a hoist to lift front of car?
Use a plank of wood as a lever to lift front of car and trust mrs to stand on it?
Put wheels on planks of wood which gives extra ground clearance for existing jack to go under
Question - how are you going to change a punctureif the jack wont fit?

drive onto a couple of short planks so that the front is lifted up to give you and extra inch or two clearance so you can put your jack under

measurements are all relative so if you have -2 deg camber and you want -3 then when you lift up adjsut what youve got by -1 deg and then put it all back together and measure. if you get -1.5 then you know how much to adjsut on unloaded settings to get the resulting loaded settings

it's a clark trolley jack 135mm minimum. It's done everything fine so far and I don't really have the funds for an expensive jack.

it's a clark trolley jack 135mm minimum. It's done everything fine so far and I don't really have the funds for an expensive jack.

You have to measure it, jack it up, adjust it (guesstimate how much), put it back on the ground, roll/bounce it, remeasure and then start again! Use the difference between the first and second measurements and the amount you altered it to refine how much you adjust it the second time. Keep repeating (and checking the tracking/toe-in to see that that hasn't altered) then untill its right then ...start again!

enjoy!

adrian

My jack won't go under the nose of the car but will go under the wishbones. A small piece of wood between teh jack and the bone, just under the shock mount lifts the front of the car enough to put a block under the front tyre. The jack can then be removed and then used to lift the front of the car by the chassis, releasing the wheel / wheels. It's a bit long winded but it works.

I think most people have the same problem.
I wheel my car onto some wooden ramps then jack the car up, do any adjustments then roll it off the ramps. It is a bit of a pain doing this but it is the only way.

If it's a trolly jack you are using.
Take the wheels of it, that will lower the jack by a good inch or so

If it's a trolly jack you are using.
Take the wheels of it, that will lower the jack by a good inch or so


OOOOOps!!!
Dont know how that happened

[Edited on 9/9/08 by dogwood]

V8kid, I haven't seen a jack that's affordable that goes lower. Changing a puncture is another problem as I doubt I'll have planks of wood and the wife handy to stand on the end or an engine hoist

Surely other builders have experienced this problem? or is it another that only for some unknown reason affects me.

Take the wheels of the jack, that will lower it by a good inch or so

Sorry computer got hiccups

[Edited on 9/9/08 by dogwood]

If I take the wheels off the jack will it still be safe (stable side to side?)

Good idea if it's safe.

Thanks all, I considered jacking under a wishbone but didn't know if it was safe to do so and also was scared rigid I'd break something.

quote:

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Originally posted by jabbahutt
Thanks all, I considered jacking under a wishbone but didn't know if it was safe to do so and also was scared rigid I'd break something.

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I've got a trolley jack for major lifting, but I've also got a small ex-hatchback jack - usually found in the spare wheel well. It goes lower than the trolley jack and it was cheap.

quote:

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Originally posted by jabbahutt
V8kid, I haven't seen a jack that's affordable that goes lower. Changing a puncture is another problem as I doubt I'll have planks of wood and the wife handy to stand on the end or an engine hoist

Surely other builders have experienced this problem? or is it another that only for some unknown reason affects me.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by Humbug
I've got a trolley jack for major lifting, but I've also got a small ex-hatchback jack - usually found in the spare wheel well. It goes lower than the trolley jack and it was cheap.

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I have been toying with idea of a lifting beam --
A length of 50x50 2 or 2.5mm wall thickness to make a beam that goes right under the car.

At each end of the beam would have a bracket welded on to take a cheap bottle jack.

For additional stability the bottom of the bottle jacks can be tack welded on to a 300x300 3mm thick steel plate.

With two such beams and bigish bottle jacks you would get the car up a fair height then put stands uder the beams.

[Edited on 9/9/08 by britishtrident]

Low jacks aren't expensive - my Clarke 2 ton cheapy trolley jack go's down to 100mm , and if you remove the swivel bit , 90mm !
I think it was under £20