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Posted by: DavidSweden Apr 30 2021, 02:25 PM

I had the wheels aligned the technician told me that he was unable to adjust the camber and caster to the required specification.
The car has 911 struts and a five stud conversion, the front of the car shows no sign of crash damage or distortion.

Any ideas what the problem could be and what do I need to check?

Posted by: Mark Henry Apr 30 2021, 04:23 PM

Your camber is fine aim for -1.5
You need more caster, trim the big and little holes on you strut mounts rearwards.

Mark where the strut mount is now and you should be able to figure out where to trim.
I'd like 7* caster but I could only manage 6.5 IIRC.
I do my own alignments, but just on my cars.

Somewhere there's a real good thread on alignment

Posted by: Retroracer Apr 30 2021, 05:46 PM

A picture of the top of the struts and how/where they sit in the cutout might help?

Also: do you know if the 911 struts were modified (dropped spindles for example)? The camber should be able to be pulled more neutral than the measurements show; perhaps a large blunt instrument (with some precise application) might persuade it...

Caster is affected by the overall rake of the vehicle; if the rear is too high compared to the front (front suspension set too low, for instance), you could see the caster being hard to pull in.

Curious.

- Tony

Posted by: Mark Henry Apr 30 2021, 06:12 PM

I agree you have to set the ride height, the alignment shop won't do that. Often you would see 914's doing a speed boat thing with the bow too high, you want the car so it sits level. Fronts are easy but to adjust the rear you really need shocks with adjustable perches. Once you get your alignment you can't fool with the ride height, you'd need to do it over again.

Posted by: SirAndy Apr 30 2021, 07:22 PM

Posted by: roblav1 Apr 30 2021, 07:34 PM

Ride height first (and rake). Your ride height might be a bit low in front. I was able to get right at 1 degree negative camber in front, which was my goal for street. Mark knows his stuff, and he likes 1.5. Close enough for a fun non daily driver. I also aim for maximum caster in front and got to 6.5. Again, Mark likes 7, but 6.5 is close enough. My experience in racing cars was that rake is the predominant factor in how a car handles, at least at the limit. Castor is more of a personal preference. So make sure your front ride height is set correctly, and weight balanced left to right (ARB disconnected). The last thing you want is the front control arm going past parallel with the road in full bounce.

Posted by: DavidSweden May 8 2021, 09:49 AM

Thanks for the help, here are some pics of the strut tops, does they show anything relevant? Drivers side on the right