Suspension alignment

[jkg2101]

Next I set the rear camber. On the Kirkham, this is easy. First measure with fastrax. I was positive 1 degree. At the rear suspension, when the car was delivered, the only loose rear suspension nuts were on the toe link and the upper heim joint/rod end at the rear carrier. (the rod end attaching the upper control arm to the rear hub carrier) All the others were tight, so I figured these shouldn’t be adjusted. To adjust the rear camber, (after jacking up car, placing jack stands, and removing rear tire) unbolt the rod end at the top of the rear upright and disconnect it from the upright. Then spin the rod end in or out to adjust camber, then re-attach to the upright. It takes longer to type these words than it takes to do it.

Then put the tire back on and lower the jack (after removing the jack stands). Remeasure camber with fastrax. It took me two times up and down to get a little more than 0.5 degree negative camber, which is what I wanted.

When it is where you want, you tighten the adjuster nut on the rod end.

As mentioned before, I put a piece of cardboard under the tire, and my floor is vinyl tile, so the tires will move with the weight of the car on them. So I can adjust toe while the car is on the ground. For camber, I have to jack up car, remove wheel, adjust camber, then put tire back on and lower car, each time. I also roll the car a little front to back to make sure nothing is binding from jacking up and down. So adjusting camber takes a few tries to get it just right. But not hard to do.

I found if I check camber when I first lower the car off the jack, and then check again after rolling car front and back a bit, there is a slight bit more negative camber after rolling. So I can’t trust the vinyl floor tile and cardboard to fully settle the suspension when coming off the jack.