The Front - Camber & Caster

The driver's side had been changed.  Notice some of the the goop has been chiseled away.  But you have to get rid of it all to make most changes. 

Hint:  You chisel it off with a screwdriver & it breaks up easily. 

Btw that orange blob in the lower left is not rust 
but that great Porsche adhesive also found in the engine mat area.

In case you don't know the technique, you loosen the 3 Allen bolts & pry the strut - it moves in the round opening - side to side for camber & front to back for caster.  Car up on jack stands or on the ground, whatever.  A large screwdriver or a big dull chisel work well as pry bars.  Mark the current position with masking tape so you know where you started.  Pry out to decrease & in to increase camber- it will flop in when you loosen it initially which is why you need to mark your start position before you loosen the bolts.  To the front for less caster & to the back for more.  Reset the tape as you fine tune it.  You will have to drive it to settle after any changes.  Just rolling it doesn't seem to be enough.  If you've lowered it excessively (don't we all?) you will probably find yourself unable to get 0º camber.  It will be something negative.  Mine was minimum at - 0.693º or - 42' (that's negative 42 minutes) as it should be expressed.  Caster I set - as expertly as possible - in the middle for now.

You can expect to have to redo this several times as you get the hang of it.  But this is the easy one . . .

The Front - Toe

The only hard part about setting front toe is loosening the 'lock bolts' at each end of the tie rod.  Which way do they turn?  Will I screw up my ball joint if I reef on it too hard?  Etc etc.  Nobody tells you how it all works, they just say it's like a carbuncles (WTF?) & you will figure it out.  Something about reversed threads & I was an idiot for driving around with those pieces of trash & that I should just get the turbo tie rods anyway.  Gee, thanks everybody.

This adjustment is incredibly easy once you've gone through the 2 or 3 attempts to do it.  The key is to print out the diagram above & have it with you as you do the adjustments.  Because they act differently side to side (they're actually the same but your mind tells you they should be different), you can get messed up easily & dial in 1/2" of toe on one side & none on the other etc.  You can see the wheel moving (you did leave it on didn't you?)  if you watch carefully as you are doing it.  Just set your strings up accurately, measure carefully, loosen both sides, center steering wheel & dial away.  When you get this right, you feel it instantly on your 'settling' drive.  If you don't, do it again.  

Note:  This is also the method you use to center a steering wheel after you've thrown it out of whack for one reason or another.

The Rear - Toe & Camber & Toe & Camber . . .

First thing to remember:  The spring plate is under tension & will whack down if you undo & remove the 2 bolts on the trailing arm.  Ever seen a torsion bar?  Well, the springplate - at rest - is twisting that metal bar.  So have some respect.  Of course, the bolts will bind anyway unless you support the springplate with a jack.  You can & you must loosen them to allow the spring plate to move a little relative to the trailing arm.  That's what the toe & camber boltish-like things do.  They turn like cams & alter the angle of the spring plate to trailing arm in different planes.  

Second thing to remember:  Mark the current position on the spring plate & on the bolts - both camber & toe.  Not the nuts, because you turn them, but the bolt end itself.  Nail polish works well as above.  Also helpful to trace the curve on the trailing arm in pencil because that's where it shifts as you adjust so you can see the relative change in position.

Third thing to remember:  It really should be the first . . . but the toe & camber bolts adjust from the back (fiendish Teutons again) & this is where you need the 12mm, next-to-impossible to find, Allen wrench.  Hardware & general automotive stores all have 10mm.  Never a 12mm.  You can buy it online here: Tools-Plus.com.  So get it before you pull everything apart.  A socket head will not fit as far as I could figure out.  And that's only if you could find one to buy anyway.

The order of things:

1. With the rear completely lifted & the tire removed, loosen toe & camber bolts & the two bolts to the trailing arm.  Just break the torque basically.

2. Place a bottle jack under the corner of the springplate just below the lower trailing arm bolt.  It's very thin so it can take a time or two to get it right.  Jack up several inches to relieve the stress on the springplate bolts.

3. Now fully loosen all 4 bolts - 2 for trailing arm & camber & toe.  If any are super tough, they might be binding.  Play with the bottle jack height i.e.  release a bit for the camber bolt.

4. Make your rough toe adjustment.

5. Make your rough camber adjustment.

6. Torque toe & then camber nuts while you keep each from turning with the Allen wrench.  This may take a try or two.

7. Torque the trailing arm nuts.

8. Release bottle jack.

Then follow Mr. Scruggs & adjust to your heart's content.  Once again, you will have to raise & lower the car numerous times as you try to dial the figures you want which should be .5º (or 30') more than the front.  You can feel & see the wheel hub/trailing arm moving as you adjust it.

Last thing to remember:  Follow the torque specs carefully.  The eccentric & lock bolt require 181 ft/lbs or some crazy figure.  Good luck doing that at home in that tight space.  If it is not tight enough, it will fall to the lowest height position once you've run the car a bit.  Not good.  And it will throw your camber off on that wheel.  Also not a good thing, so tighten them.

Oh . . . and stop pointing & laughing at my dirty car.  I'm cleaning it bit by bit, but some of that crap is tough!

The Results

Weight Balancing - The Tripod Method

Now that you've eaten up countless hours of your free time playing with nuts rather than driving, it is time for the last hurtle:  How to corner balance without a weigh scale?  Well, you can't.  But . . . you can do the next best thing - the tripod method.

Note:  My setup is so good at the moment, I don't want to screw with it.  I'll get to the Tripod sooner or later, so check back in the fall . . .

For info on the Tripod Method until this lazy-ass author gets off his butt & does it, see:

Pelican Post: Home ride height and corner balance success story

Another: Corner Balancing, Weight Jacking, Tripod Method

Another: CORNER balanced - numbers from this...and the weight