| Next we moved to the alignment of all
four wheels. Whenever lowering a vehicle it is necessary
to perform a 4-wheel alignment. This is not a suggestion
but a necessity! As you can see from this photo the rear
wheel now has excessive negative camber (the top of the
tire tilts in towards the center of the car). If the
vehicle were driven like this, the inside portion of
the tire would be bald in a very short time. This is
a common problem when lowering a vehicle, but it can
be corrected. |
 |
| These were the readings from the
alignment machine. At this time we concentrated on the
rear of
the vehicle. As you can see the camber was setting at –1.8
degrees on the left and the right was at –2.0 degrees
and the toe was too positive at +.14 degrees on the left
and +.12 degrees on the right. The camber should be set
at -.70 and the toe should be at +.10 per side for optimal
tire wear. |
|
| These are the kits that we
used to adjust the suspension for optimum tire wear and
ultimate performance. The 85600 is a rear toe adjusting
kit and the 81260 kits will adjust the camber on the
rear of the vehicle. |
 |
| Here we show the installation
of the 81260 EZ Cam XR. This is done by replacing the
upper bolt of the of knuckle to strut assembly. This
kit will give +/-1.75 degrees of camber change which
was more than enough in this case. The kit includes two
bolts and will cover both sides of the vehicle. |
 |
| With the EZ Cam XR’s
in both sides we were now ready to adjust the rear camber.
By turning the head of the bolt and watching the live
alignment readings we were able set the camber to the
preferred settings. |
 |
| Next we installed the Specialty
Products part number 85600 rear toe adjusting kit in
the rear cross member. This kit allows the rear toe to
be adjusted and fine tuned with standard tools and provides
for future adjustments as well. |
 |
| Next we removed the original
brackets from the control arm and replaced them with
the 73600-rear camber kit. All of this is done easiest
with the control arm out of the car and on the bench. |
 |
| Now, that’s what
the alignment readings should look like for this vehicle.
Camber is centered and even on both sides and toe was
adjusted to provide stability in the rear. The .01 thrust
angle will keep the rear wheels pointed straight with
the centerline of the car. The rear will now track straight. |
 |
| Now you can see how straight
the rear wheels are now that the car has been correctly
aligned. |
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