cjs4227

I just installed the 2005-09 Mustang GT Eibach Eibach Sport System Plus Suspension Kit. What do I need to do next to get it aligned properly, because all four wheel are bowing in ever so slightly. Keep In mind I this is the first time I have done a suspension.

Jazzer The Cat

Welcome to MF's

You are experiencing some negative camber up front, but there is no explanation for anything going on in this way out back, so is an optical illusion. ONLY the fronts will gain some tilt and this is due to the geometry of how the front wheels travel when moving upward, as if you were going over a bump.

This is best addressed via a set of CC (caster/camber) plates, but you don't "have" to do anything about it, really. They allow the front struts to be moved outward to compensate for the tilt they have after lowered. Leaving it this way will prematurely wear out the inside of your front tires, but improve your grip on the corners. My guess is you probably picked up 1~1.5° with your drop.

I am not as well versed in the S197, so talk to whoever you want to do an alignment and confirm you need these plates. I know the SN95 does, but cannot say for certain YOU do. If you do, this person can install them and adjust them to fit your driving needs.

Jazzer

cjs4227

Thank you I appreciate it. The guy I took it to said he couldnt get it perfectly aligned without c/c plates but said he got it going straight...lol. But thanks again for the feedback

Norm Peterson

If you can find a flat enough place to set up on, you can measure the cambers that you have using some really inexpensive equipment. I think $40 still buys a Harbor Freight digital angle finder, and they're not the only place.

Front camber goes a little over 1/2° more negative per inch that you lower the car. Factory spec is -0.75° (preferred), plus or minus 0.75° from there.

How hard you normally corner should be taken into account if you ever add camber plates. A mild to moderate driver can usually live with up to about -1° in this chassis, but if your driving looks a lot like Jazzer's avatar most of the time -1° won't be nearly enough.


Even though it is not easily corrected, it is entirely possible for your rear wheel cambers to not be precisely zero (rear cambers on the Malibu in my sig are -0.5°, and not because I did anything to make them that way). But I agree that there may be some optical effect going on as well.


Norm

Jazzer The Cat

Hey, Norm... good to see you drop in here

So... was the Malibu made with neg camber out back by design, or just "sagged" over time or what? I have been up to Griggs shoppe and seen some axles they have given the "neg camber treatement". Seems to me, they get 1*~2* via a LOT of work for their race cars.

Jazzer

Norm Peterson

Didn't see this new forum until recently, and I'm having trouble accessing MF.com from home as well.


It is not the original Malibu axle - I had to have it replaced while on the road. But it's been at -0.5° ever since early 1986.

I'd be very leery of more than about -1° total (vector sum, camber & toe) unless they were going to also include barrel splines on the axle shafts. The spline connections into the side gears can only put up with so much before they give up.


Norm

Jazzer The Cat

I have not seen exactly how they make them, but essentially cut the end of the tube off and "make" a new end for the bearing in which to fit. The axle is moved up for an increase in neg camber I figure as much as the tube will allow and seems to work for them. I think John has done this to his own Cobra and on many race cars. Seems like the axles would have an issue with the gears in the rear-end, but apparently not.

I am only guessing at the degree of camber gained, but is visibly noticeable for sure. I need to get up there soon for a "once over" of my system for maintenance and such, so will check it out further.

Jazzer

Norm Peterson

That's one of at least three possible methods. Just using (lots of) heat is another, and I would think that any over-the-road truck repair facility with alignment capability could manage to pull a degree of camber into an axle with ~3" tubing without breaking a sweat. My son just had the camber on his Kenworth corrected . . .

On the axle end cutting/shifting/rewelding method, I'm curious as to how they set the axis through the bearing to be at the desired camber - you can't just move the ends laterally or the shafts would be misaligned with their bearings at an angle of about whatever the camber was reset to. Seems you'd have to slice either the end stub or the tube off at the desired camber and then somehow make the offset distance consistent with that.


Norm

Norm Peterson

Out of focus, somewhat self-serving picture of what a -1.8° static camber setting ends up looking like when you're trying . . . if the rear wheel looks like the camber is slightly positive, that's mostly due to tire deflection letting the whole axle roll slightly (about a degree).




Norm

Jazzer The Cat

I am working on a 4th method via small graduated ramps. I will discuss the "available options" of negative camber for rear axle and place the appropriate one at the mathematically exact distance down the street. I call this the Dukes of Hazzard method and working toward and on-line patent as we speak.

Bo "Jazzer" Duke