more strut questions

[mainer]

So, I've changed my struts out. Not to bad of a job, the backs went really easy. The fronts would have been easy if the springs didn't have to be compressed. But I ran into no problems, I even made my own vw 524 tool out of a 9/16th socket on the milling machine.

As for the fronts I used everthing old but the strut it self. The strut "can"(where the strut slides into) has 2 holes on the bottom so it can be bloted to the car. The top hole is a perfect circle. The bottom is not. I assume this adjusts my camber, correct? How do I tell If I have put the struts back in the same way as they came out?

In my bentley it says that by removing the struts you will mess up the alinement, but I thought that alinement was if the tires were toe in or toe out. and the adjustment on the car will adjust the angle of the tire on the ground.

From the information I have gathered the bottom needs to be 3mm out from the top. I've been told to take a framing squar on a concrete floor, and put it up to the tire. Ihan measure the distances to the rim, the bottom should be 3mm more than the top. But IIRC 3mm is like nothing why would 3mm make that much difference? Should I just check and make sure that the bottom is out from the top? Or should I go and make it exactly 3mm difference?




Thanks Cooper
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Big Brother Forum

[moosiah]

Yes you ajust the camber w the bolt in the slotted hole ,,,, that bolt also has a offset  washer and a flat milled on it so that the other washer will stay alligned. you twist that bolt head back and forth w a wrench to ajust  camber before you tighten it......... but you knew that already , didn't you ?  just take it to a front end shop and pay them to set it ,,,,,,, they can do toe and camber at the same time and be done w it ...... they'll also tell you that your balljoints and tie rod ends are shot tooooo , but you already checked them allready too, right?
remember that your only talking about 1 - 1 1/2 degrees here. :wink:
and
changing camber changes toe , too........ If you marked the bolts before disassembly then you just line up the dots, IF all the parts are the same.  :roll:

[mainer]

Yes, i know that I should have done my balljoints and tie rod ends at the same time. But I didn't, and I'm not gonna do it for a while. I guess i'll have to take to somewhere and pay someone to do it.

Cooper
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Smoking Cessation Forum

[hillfolk'r]

its fairly easy to eyeball an alignment,  to get it to the shop,,,idoit all the time, heckmost of the time,iset it myself,and moniter tire wear for a few weeks,and adjust accordingly,,,,,for checking camber,, i just stand back like 20-30 feet from car,,car is on level area,,note the inward tilt of the top of the tires,,,adjust one to meet the other, for now,unless its way tilted in or out,try to get them straight up or close,,,,,,,1.5 degrees neg handles good, ,,have them set it at that  for an alignment,,but for eyeball,get them looking close,,or try  one of those round contractors angle finder guage thingees,, thats what iuse,,,,for toe,,,i jack up each side of car+paint a white stripe around the tire,then hold a scribe tight to the tread,and spin tire to make a reference line,,set the car on the ground,,shake it around so its settled,,,,i use a piece of 1/2 inch pipe,witha stud welded on one end,and a little strap with a screw in it for the other end,,its that cheap pipe strap stuff,plumbing supply,etc, make it soit can  slide ,but not easy,,then i lay under the car,and try to get the bar so its on the rearside of the tires,note measurement,slide the one end so points will meet the scribe marks,,then check at the front,,adjust accordingly,,set it for zero toe,,maybe like a little toe out,,,,,last time ihad an alignment done, one strut was like .3 degrees out,,and toe didnt take more than about a turn each side to get in spec at the most,,,really didnt even notice a big/ bettter difference in handling after it was done,i was that close,,,,you can get pretty close to a 30k machine that a monkey operates,with some hillfolk ingenuity and a brain!!!well,within a few ticks of perfect,,works for me