[T3] Camber Problems

Brent Bottolfson brent at bottolfson.net
Sun Sep 11 15:34:15 PDT 2011



On 9/11/11 12:58 PM, Jim Adney wrote:
> On 11 Sep 2011 at 9:46, Brent Bottolfson wrote:
>
>> I can spin the upper ball joint on the right side all the way around and
>> it doesn't really change the camber at all. The left side is at about 1*
>> positive but the right won't change from about 2.5* positive no matter
>> what I do.
> This is hard to believe. The ball joint stem should be off center so
> that you can see the body of the joint moving around as you turn the
> stem. If it really doesn't move, then it must mean that the ball
> joint is made wrong and doesn't have any offset machined into the
> stem.
>
> The other possibility is that the instrument you're using to measure
> the angle max's out at 2.5 deg and you're varying in a range that's
> somewhere above that. You could check that by rotating the bottom
> ball joint stem and see if that also produces no change.
I was using a magnetic angle finder, the kind that has a dangling 
pendulum type indicator.

Here's the update:

Today on my way home I picked up a digital magnetic level that's 
accurate to .1 degree.

On the right side the range of motion is 3.1 to 3.8 degrees, where on 
the left side the range is 1.6 to 2.4 degrees.  This is with the wheels 
off and the using the level against the face of the rotor.  I spun the 
rotor 180 degrees while checking to make sure these were the min and max 
limits.  They're both above spec WRT Bentley, but I'd expect that as 
they are totally unloaded.  Seems I should be able to get them equal in 
these conditions.  I did not re-calibrate the level between sides as I 
wanted to keep any error the same between sides.

I know the ball joints are good (they're new) and moving as they 
should.  Something else is going on that I can't get the sides equal.  
When I put the beam back together I followed the Bentley precisely and 
torqued everything to spec.

That's what's leaving me to think something is bent.

Thanks.
Brent
>
>



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