Fitting Whiteline Camber Bolts

[geetee]

Right - hope someone can verify that I'm not going mad.

I am going to be fitting some whiteline lowering springs and camber bolts this weekend.

As I understand it, the springs introduce more negative camber - hence the bolts.

If that's the case (looking at the fitting instructions linked below) am I right to think that I need to fit the bolts in the positive camber postion to counteract the effect of the springs?

And for those who have used these bolts before - did you put them in the upper or lower bolt position (only recommended for race application apparently) ?

http://www.mummachummas.co.uk/gtir/Camber_Bolts_Fitting.pdf


And the age old question...... what camber to run - I know it's down to preference and application but a starting point would be good....

Nissan OE
Front 0.45deg to -0.5deg
Rear 0.35 deg to -0.55deg

Whiteline
Front Road -1.5deg
Rear Road -1.25deg


So thinking of starting at -0.75deg or -1.00deg - sound about right?

Cheers
Graham

 

[campbellju]

Right - hope someone can verify that I'm not going mad.

I am going to be fitting some whiteline lowering springs and camber bolts this weekend.

As I understand it, the springs introduce more negative camber - hence the bolts.

If that's the case (looking at the fitting instructions linked below) am I right to think that I need to fit the bolts in the positive camber postion to counteract the effect of the springs?

And for those who have used these bolts before - did you put them in the upper or lower bolt position (only recommended for race application apparently) ?

http://www.mummachummas.co.uk/gtir/Camber_Bolts_Fitting.pdf


And the age old question...... what camber to run - I know it's down to preference and application but a starting point would be good....

Nissan OE
Front 0.45deg to -0.5deg
Rear 0.35 deg to -0.55deg

Whiteline
Front Road -1.5deg
Rear Road -1.25deg


So thinking of starting at -0.75deg or -1.00deg - sound about right?

Cheers
Graham

Use the top hole and put some upward pressure on the hub when you install them. Otherwise you will find the slack in the system can give you +ve camber even when they are set to max -ve.

I run -1.6degs front and -0.8 degs rear. IMO this is too hard core for a daily driver.

My starter for 10 settings would be around -0.75 to -1deg front and -0.25 to -0.5 degs rear. You might find some negative is dialled in by lowering the car and you only need to adjust the back up straight again?

The reasoning is simple in that your back will be more stable under braking and acceleration in a straight line but break away more easily under cornering. We're not talking power oversteer here but its just another way to shift the grip balance front to rear with out running silly different tyre pressures.

Setting up a car is a massive pain in the a**e and no garage will spend the time or effort on getting the angle accurate to within -0.1degs anyway unless they are either very skilled or very lucky. (Or don't give you the print out of the 4 wheel laser alignment after and just tell you what you want to here.)

If you drop your car, your toe will go out at the front and in at the back. This must be corrected. You will not notice any significant tyre wear using -1deg of camber on our cars but if your toe is out by -0.5degs your tyres will die in months.

Sorry, you didn't ask about toe did you ;-) . In short, unless you are prepared to mess around setting up the toe to with in 0.1degs either +ve or -ve then just ask the garage to make the wheels parrallel and they will be close enough unless you're some kind of anal handling geek like me :-D

Have fun,
Jim

 

[geetee]

Thanks Jim... I was hoping you'd reply

I didn't ask about toe because I'd already planned to get it toed in a tad, maybe a bit more as I do a lot of motorway miles and get a bit tired of wandering about over tar lines etc.

Still not clear on this one...
"If that's the case (looking at the fitting instructions linked below) am I right to think that I need to fit the bolts in the positive camber postion to counteract the effect of the springs?"

Do I fit the bolts in the neg or positive camber position given that I'm trying to dial out excessive negative camber?


Oooh... and also.... how long to let the springs settle in before getting it setup? Or is it a case of do it immediately then get it checked over a month or so later?


Luckily I have stumbled across a bit of a gem - my local Merit tyre are quite anal with their laser alignment and are always happy to have you poking about when they are doing the work and like their pretty printouts. I think it must make an interesting change from pushing rubber hoops on and off rims all day

Cheers
Graham

 

[tro||]

shame the bloody things will come undone and it will all be a waste of money.

the correct setting up procedure with whiteline camber bolts is.

get them in the handling kit even though you dont really want them.
place camber bolt on suitable surface
take picture of camber bolt
put picture of camber bolt on for sale thread or e-bay
when sold buy some k-mac camber bolts
fit k-mac camber bolts and be safe in the knowledge it was money well spent and they wont slip losing your settings



p.s when you see the k-mac bolts you'll understand the above ;-)

 

[geetee]

Thanks for that troll. Very useful.

 

[campbellju]

Sadly, trolly is right. I have a real love hate relationship with mine and if they lose camber one more time, I'll be following his installation procedure and slotting my rear struts too.

Camber bolt bitching aside though. A 40mm drop on the car will give you a 0.5-1.0deg increase in negative camber. You might find your fronts are in the right ball park and you just reduce the camber on the back for the reasons I last stated.

Quick aside: Rather than having a camber differential there's nothing wrong with pumping your tyres up more or stiffening your rear to achieve the same effect, its just that if you balance your camber more or less right for your driving style, you can then fiddle with tyre pressures and damper settings for fine tuning. If you go to extreme on any of these settings it can make the car a little one dimensional.

If you put the bolt in the top position and push the hub upwards during installation you'll get a range of +0.5 to -1.0. If you don't push the hub upwards you can get +2.0 to 0. I've never bothered with the bottom position because of that.

It can all get a bit random at times, slotting is easier to setup IMO and as long as you torque them up they don't move. You can't really torque the whitleine bolts up which comes back to what trolly is saying.

On

Like I said, good luck