adjusting camber

[azruss]

My right tire has a nasty decamber. I got concerned about having an alignment shop work on it with all the horror stories, so took it on myself. loosen the 2 vertical chassis bolts to the crossmember. Loosened the big horizontal bolt. took a couple of big screwdrivers and pounded them between the body and cross member from below to separate the body channel from the crossmember. took a couple of large fender washers and cut slots in them. tapped them down into the gap surrounding the horizontal bolt. removed screwdrivers and tightened everything up. havent measured, but looks like it did the job. It did affect my hood gap slightly. took a couple of hours.

[TX82FIAT]

I like the method and agree that shops today are not really trained to adjust the camber on a car like ours. let me know how this method works out over time.

[azruss]

down to getting the suspension dialed in. right front has a helleva neg camber. Last night i put 1/8" of shims between the body and the cross member, figuring that would solve the problem. Far from it, although it helped alot! The unibody where the upper a-arm is attached looks very straight and undamaged. The bushings are old but not convinced they are shot. when i let the suspension drop, the upper arm should try to move out when i loosen the bolt. If I jack up on the bottom of the shock, it should try to move back in. I don't see any noticable movement telling me the bushings are not the problem. I only have 1/16" shims between the crossmember and the lower arm. If i remove those, it think i have solved 40% of the problem, but would have to live with the existing caster. I inspected the ball joints closely when i rebuilt the suspension and they were in good shape with no play. Not sure where to go from here. Will pull the suspension tomorrow to test bushing.

[fiat218]

Between mine and yours,we should be able to figure it out
Mine is neg on the passenger side.

[dmwhiteoak]

When I had my alignment done two years ago I had this same problem. The first shop Didnt have a clue to what I needed. It would not go to spec on the camber using the computer.Paid them 89.00 and left. My next stop was a frame shop that also does front end work and there I had luck. They put it on the frame rack and pulled it to where it needed to be. He also pulled a little more than what was needed and alighned the front. He said now the others would have no problem in the future getting it right. He Didnt use a computer just knowledge to get it right. Car has never been wrecked so I just assume it settled through the years or was Hap hazardley assembled from the factory. He said the specs were for a perfect world, I live and drive on east Texas roads and they are far from perfect. Take it to a good frame shop. The best 220.00 bucks you will ever spend.

[johndemar]

Russ, there's a frame-alignment shop on N 19 th Ave around Deer Valley that knew what they were doing. Can't remember the name, but on the west side of the street. I'll look up the paper work when I get home tomorrow and let you know.

[azruss]

Here are some pics of my current state of affairs. It appears that a shim has already been added to the PS as well as the bottom plate moved. Even after I added the shims, I'm still 1/4" off. I ordered new a-arms so will wait til next weekend to deal with this debacle.
My concern now is if i take the car to a frame shop, they will just pull that PS lower box channel out. At that point, the crossmember will no longer reach and will require modifying it again. What I am seeing is either the factory did a piss poor job on building the unibody or the front end has been replaced. When i crawl under the car and eye ball the alignment of the lower box frame with the back of the car, all looks kosher. My upper box tube has definitely been tweeked. But the upper a-arm connects to the body at the lower box tube, so the upper box tube should have no effect on any suspension geometry. When doing the bodywork there were no pounding marks on the front end or non factory welds.

[seabeelt]

That first picture looks like your car has been tweaked/ hit on the passenger side. Ther should not be any buckeling of the sheet metal like that above the battery box location and between the shock tower location.
R/

[fiat218]

look at my photo

passenger side, new control arm

as he said the bulge facing front, on driver and passenger side

[RRoller123]

correct. I think this contributes to the caster angle.

[fiat218]

i agree 100 percent,. i think my problems is solved

[FiatMac]

That first picture looks like your car has been tweaked/ hit on the passenger side. Ther should not be any buckeling of the sheet metal like that above the battery box location and between the shock tower location.
R/

Agreed except that it is the Air Filter box mount not the battery box in late model Spiders. Also the pictures of the cross member indicate that this is the OEM cross member for '79 and later Spiders. The horizontal shim is there to provide hood clearance for the taller 2 liter block. It was not a full width spacer. Also the indention in the passenger side lower frame member is the reason for the "shim" on the vertical section of the passenger side of the crossmember. Pre-'79 passenger frame rails did not have this indention, and their cross members do not have the shim.

[azruss]

like a complete newbie, i did my latest measurements without taking the car out and giving the suspension a chance to settle. When i did that, all my issues fell into place. DR is now a 1.1 degree positive camber. out of spec but now shimmable. PS side is now .44 degree positive. this is in spec for an unladen car. spent some time realigning the car. it still pulls a little. should go away with adjusting the DR camber to match. did not check caster. Took the car out for a lengthy spin. engine temp held steady. major improvements in handling and steering. took one corner very hard. the rear sway bar really kills as there was no plowing. I am experiencing some very loud and disturbing thuds. cant correlate with anything. It did start after the hard corner, so may be sway bar related. looks like tomorrow is under the car to check all the fasteners.
Checked the wheels when i got home. not quite to torque, but not the issue.