To recap. I couldn’t get the proper camber on my front wheels (to much
positive camber). I had taken my car to an alignment shop after I
rebuilt the suspension and installed new shocks. The alignment shop, who
were familiar with LBC’s, told right away that they would need more
shims to get the camber right. Even with all the shims I made up they
couldn’t get the lower wishbone out far enough because they ran out of
bolt. On the rear of the left wishbone I’ve got about 5/8” of shims.
I then turned to the list and, if you were tuned in you know that of
course I got some good suggestions. At first I thought it was the new
shocks I had installed since other than the trunions, they were the only
items replaced in the rebuild. This explanation was discounted by Ken
C. who also had an installed height of about 9 inches from bottom of the
bottom spring cup to the top of the top spring cup. Other responders
had me looking for things that would push the top of the suspension sub
assembly (turret) outward.
I tried to check on all the suggestions given to me. During this search
is when I was able to discover shims between the rubbered portion of the
engine mount and the bracket portion that bolts to the block. I removed
these and it did bring the camber to about 1/2 degree positive. But
that was still with the abundance of shims holding out the lower
wishbone. I was told to keep looking.
I then tried to do a fairly accurate job of measuring the distance
between the sub assemblies as indicated in the manual. The measurement
should be a tad under 26 inches but I was measuring ~26.5 inches. I
then found another shim under each of the inner sub assembly mounting
point. This would push the assemblies outward at the top. I removed
these shims and remeasured the above distance at 26 inches. I drove
around awhile and remeasured the camber at 0 degrees. This is fine but
I still need all those shims to get it and I can’t find anything else.
I guess I’m willing to live with this since I can’t find anything else,
but I might replace the shims with a wider plate to provide a little
more lateral support. I’m still a little suspect of the ride height of
my front end. I’ve got the original springs but the car looks so high
in front. I measure 7 1/8 inch on the driver side and 6 5/8 inch on the
passenger side from the edge of the wheel rim to the wheel arch at the
12 ‘o clock’ position.
I’ll be at Wheels and Wings in Osceola, WI next Saturday and I’ll be
measuring every GT6 and Spitfire suspension.
Thanks
Scott Swanberg, St. Paul, MN
‘67 GT6
‘72 Triumph Bonniville
‘75 Norton Commando
‘87 Alfa Romeo Milano
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