more camber bolts

[morepowerjoe]

Hey guys I lowered my car about an inch in the front and the alignment shop told me I'm maxed out on my camber. So they told me there is some kind of bolts that will give me more camber. Can someone please point me in the right direction as of what I need and where to get it from? Thanks

[Bee]

They are probably referring to something like these:

https://www.phastekperformance.com/2...mber-81280.htm

I do not have them on my car (although maybe I should), as I am lowered about 1.25".

[joekono]

I am lowering this year using these springs https://www.phastekperformance.com/D...410402001v.htm and was told to order these too:https://www.phastekperformance.com/2...mber-81280.htm, so Bee is correct.

[morepowerjoe]

Thanks guys I appreciate it. I ordered the ones you guys recommended.

[FasNuf]

Originally Posted by morepowerjoe

Hey guys I lowered my car about an inch in the front and the alignment shop told me I'm maxed out on my camber. So they told me there is some kind of bolts that will give me more camber. Can someone please point me in the right direction as of what I need and where to get it from? Thanks

Weird thing happened to me at the alignment shop after I lowered my car an inch with BMR springs. The shop owner told me I was maxed out on camber too. After being home a week or so, I noticed the camber looked off. The report said my front camber was -1.75 which is the max according to the factory service manual. The manual has my suspension listed as -1.00 for spec. After my car was up on my lift, I noticed the inner of my front tires worn.
The alignment shop had done the alignment since the tires were new. I photo copied the service manual page and went back to the shop explaining that the alignment was wearing my tires out and that I wanted him to do the alignment to the -1.00 spec. ( -1.75 was the Hunter racks spec he said) After I told him my front tires are $1000 to replace, (Toyo R888r) he rechecked the front and rears and adusted both to fall in line with the service manual. Strange, I thought they were maxed?

Now this is on my ZL1 suspension and my spec may not be your spec, but my point is the tech isn't always right,honest or diligent as was my case.

[morepowerjoe]

Originally Posted by FasNuf

Weird thing happened to me at the alignment shop after I lowered my car an inch with BMR springs. The shop owner told me I was maxed out on camber too. After being home a week or so, I noticed the camber looked off. The report said my front camber was -1.75 which is the max according to the factory service manual. The manual has my suspension listed as -1.00 for spec. After my car was up on my lift, I noticed the inner of my front tires worn.
The alignment shop had done the alignment since the tires were new. I photo copied the service manual page and went back to the shop explaining that the alignment was wearing my tires out and that I wanted him to do the alignment to the -1.00 spec. ( -1.75 was the Hunter racks spec he said) After I told him my front tires are $1000 to replace, (Toyo R888r) he rechecked the front and rears and adusted both to fall in line with the service manual. Strange, I thought they were maxed?

Now this is on my ZL1 suspension and my spec may not be your spec, but my point is the tech isn't always right,honest or diligent as was my case.

Thank you for sharing that I will be looking into it.

[cdb95z28]

Send those bolts back and find a new alignment shop.

[cdb95z28]

Send those bolts back and find a new alignment shop.

Those bolts are not a great way to obtain more camber. How much front camber are you looking to get? If you are looking for a reasonable amount of negative camber (less than -2.3*) then your alignment shop is clueless as to obtaining the desired #s. If you are only street driving, then -1 to -1.25* is all you need and GM made the front suspension easily adjusted to obtain this mild spec.

Here is a video to see how the knuckle and the strut interact to fine tune the front camber. While this video is of a Gen6 Camaro, the Gen5 is almost the same. The big difference is the two bolts that fasten the strut to the knuckle. On a Gen6 the bolts are splined, making the adjustment more difficult. So, IOW, the Gen5 is actually easier.





I do my own alignments. I had a Gen5 SS 1LE and currently have a '22 SS 1LE. I've done dozens of alignments between the two. A competent tech can fine tune the front camber without drama.

And if they can't figure out the front, they will be totally lost at the rear.

[morepowerjoe]

I'll post my specs in a bit.

[cdb95z28]

In the video above, you can see threads in the top of the aluminum knuckle. This is provided to insert a 10mmx1.5x30mm set screw or longer bolt. Here is a pic of an actual Gen5 knuckle with the adjuster bolt installed.




Procedure:
This can be done with the tires on the car and the car at static ride height. Like I said, a competent tech can figure out how to do this without jacking the car up and removing the tires.

-Insert the 10mmx1.5 adjuster screw or bolt into the knuckle and turn till lightly snug when the bolt contacts the strut.

- Use an air impact gun with an impact swivel 15/16" socket to loosen, not remove, the strut to knuckle bolts.

-Once the strut bolts are loose, you can turn the 10mmx1.5 adjuster screw to fine tune to your desired camber #. Turn the adjuster clockwise to reduce negative camber. Turn counterclockwise to increase negative camber. The knuckle will move closer or away from the strut when the adjuster is turned. This is how the camber is obtained. The knuckle will pivot off the bottom bolt and when we adjust with the weight of the car on that corner, it helps keep the strut loaded up into the knuckle.

-When desired camber is obtained, tighten the strut to knuckle bolts with the impact. Don't be afraid to tighten them good. Confirm the camber # stayed. Remove the adjuster bolt.

-After the entire car has been aligned, front and rear, the tech can then jack up the car and remove each front wheel to properly torque the strut to knuckle bolts. I do not have the proper torque # but they are a torque to angle (TTA) bolt spec. Not to be confused with torque to yield (TTY). TTY bolts are one time use. These bolts can be reused. Loosen one strut to knuckle nut at a time and torque to spec. By leaving the other bolt tight, this ensures the camber setting will not be lost.

Any change in front camber will change the front toe.


These cars demand symmetrical alignments, meaning the numbers, especially the toe #s, should match side to side. The tire demand perfection, otherwise the car will not drive a good as it can.

I mentioned the rear alignment. The rear is not easy to align. Any change to the rear toe will change the camber and vice versa. It sometimes is a chase to get both camber and toe where you want. The tech needs to be patient and smooth.

As always, do a search of the forums to find more detailed answers.
More info:

https://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=461123

[cdb95z28]

Also, search here about "timing the bushings". Any rubber bushing at the suspension pivot points will bind when the ride height has been changed. You must loosen each rubber bushing at ride height to the point that the suspension arm can be slightly wiggled. It has to be lose enough so the bushing finds a new neutral set point at ride height. Then retighten the suspension bolt. Torque to spec.

If not done, the ride will be bouncy and stiff because those rubber bushings are in a state of additional twist that is not accounted for in the damper tuning.

https://www.google.com/search?q=timi...7&dpr=0.9#ip=1

[morepowerjoe]

Well, I can't find my alignment specs they gave me at NTB. And yes I had it done at NTB. So before you tell me how bad the guys are there a woman actually done it, but she seemed very confident. She actually came out to explain to me why I needed those bolts. So I actually did a little before and after test of my own with my 2' level. Before I had the alignment done, I put the level on the tire and checked plum on both tires and it was way off on the driver's side because it actually had positive camber. Then after the alignment was done it was then negative. From what I can tell it's pretty spot on the same on both sides and from what I can remember from the NTB alignment print out was something like .25* out of spec on one wheel or something like that. One thing I did notice though is on the print out it said fe3 suspension and I believe I have the fe4 suspension. Don't really know if that's a problem or not but think it probably is. Because on my rpo label in the trunk I have a spot on there that says fe4 does that mean that I have fe4 suspension?

[FasNuf]

Here’s some info from the 2014 service manual so take it for what it is. Sorry it's sideways, it was straight in my photos. I have a few more pages I can upload if you wan to see them.

[morepowerjoe]

Thanks for that.