RE: Playing with camber

["Kaklikian, Gary" <Gary.Kaklikian@Compaq.com>]

I'd like -2 or -2.5 degrees in the front, since I also drive the car on the
street. I found this note in the archives and wonder if anyone can confirm
this solution. I think the message is from Jeffrey Goggin, but the email
address is obsolete.

I would assume by early 4000Q, he means 84, and by late probably 85-87. I
wonder also whether the additional caster (and its effect on the CV joints)
is a given or could be adjusted out? Can any of the alignment experts on the
list shed any light on this?

Gary Kaklikian
86 4kcstq
86 5kcstq 

>I don't know if the person referenced is me or not but I've >done exactly
what
>Huw suggests ... if you want to get the most negative camber >possible out
of a
>4k-based chassis, then you will want to use the early-style 
>control arms with late-style balljoints.  On the early cars, >the balljoint
mounting holes on the control arm are slotted; >on the later cars, the
balljoints are slotted and the
>control arms are not ... put them both together and -- voila! >-- you end
up with 2.5 degrees of negative camber (or
>slightly more!) on each side.

>Better still, thanks to the offset balljoint, you also get 
>about .6 degrees of extra caster but because you'll have 
>taken the plunge out of the inner CV joints, you'll pop the 
>left one if you don't make sure the motor mounts are in
>good shape.  We went through four or five of them (perhaps 
>even six?) before figuring out the problem and even then, we >had to fill
them up with Bondo (an old racer's trick; painted >black, you will never see
it) to make them stiff
>enough to prevent the motor from rocking under acceleration.

>This really caught my eye because since putting lowering 
>springs on my coupe aligning it has resulted in one ball 
>joint having to be all the way out, and not being quite far 
>enough out.

>This is because the 4k based suspsension doesn't have any 
>camber gain; as the strut compresses, negative camber is
>decreasing.  This is why a stiff a/r bar on these cars will 
>decrease understeer even though all the suspension books
>will tell you differently.  When the geometry sucks, 
>sometimes the best thing you can do is to keep the wheel 
>from moving too much, if at all...
>JG

-----Original Message-----
From: Thompson Smith [mailto:thompers@together.net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 7:52 AM
To: quattro@audifans.com
Cc: Kaklikian, Gary
Subject: Re: Playing with camber


Gary,

Keith Anderson setup his urq to have mega front camber using the stock
upper strut mount holes. Before the NER QCUSA '96 event out at Lime Rock
Park, he had cut and 'removed" some material on the lower struts where
the hub mounts and rewelding them in with -2.5 deg or so negative
camber. Seemed to give it a good squat and looked like it worked out on
the track well too. Total camber, if I can remember what Keith said, was
in the area of -4 deg or so using the stock upper strut mount holes.
Track car only _yes_!

-- 
Regards,

Thompson Smith        http://www.thompsonsmith.com/200.jpg
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1987 Porsche 944 / 1989 Audi quattro avant "S6"  GMR/PCA
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