hueyhy

got my springs and struts and CC plates ready to install, will do it next week, and will get the alignment done after installation.
Just wanna get some ideas on how it should be aligned.
a little bit negative camber? how about caster? i guess zero toe is OK?
want to get good handling and cornering abilities. tire wear is the secondary consideration.

can you guys share the alignment of your cars?

Jazzer The Cat

If you would like an improvement in cornering, you can certainly add some camer over that of OEM specs. Hell, you can run several degrees of negative camber, but generally 1°~1.5° is about as far as most go for the street. Going a bit farther can improve your cornering, but will be that much harder on your tires. Caster is a nice improvement, but not sure about the amount of benefit on and S197 with OEM width wheels (assuming you are running OEM width wheels) If you are running wider aftermarket wheels up front, than some additional caster can be of much benefit, but depends on how much wider you are.

Take a look at all the Ford factory alignment specs ***HERE***

Jazzer

Just realized, one must be a member to see those specs

hueyhy

thanks. I'm now running 235mm tires. they are OEM tires from mustang GT.
I assume that after lowering, my camber will be negative. so I should install the CC plate the "street" way? (to compensate for the negative camber)
quotefrom my CC plate install guide)
Note* The J&M camber plate can be installed in a Street or Race setting, to install it in a street setting, install the plate so that the notch on the top of the plate is facing the engine bay. To install in a race setting install the notch facing the fender.

I will install the struts/springs/plates, and then drive to the alignment shop to ask him do the alignment.
So still need to know how to put the plates on. although I got the guide here, but not quite sure about the "street" or "racing" setting thing
http://www.americanmuscle.com/jm-4bo...9-install.html

Jazzer The Cat

The street race setting (although, I DETEST the idea of actually "street racing" ) is going to allow a more aggressive negative camber, I'm sure. Caster is a good thing on OEM tires/wheels in the pre-S197 cars, but not sure about yours.

If tire wear is of lower priority than cornering. go ahead and run -1.5° of it to improve your grip. You will pick up some negative camber, as you mentioned by lowering, but the CC pates will allow fine-tuning it along with maybe adding some caster.

Hopefully Norm will chime in, as he has mountains more knowledge than I and particularly, the S197

Jazzer

hueyhy

my questionis, do i install it the "street" way or "racing" way for a lowered vehicle?
the difference is, facing the notch on the plate to the engine bay or to the outside. that's totally two different directions.(you may see from the picture that, the plate is tilt)

i guess the "street" is to gain some positive camber, while "racing" is to have some negative camber adjustment?
So, for a stock spring, one may want use the "racing" setup to get negative camber. while for a lowered car which already have some negative camber, should i use "street" so that later I can adjust to get a appropriate camber setting?
not sure what the camber would be like after a 1.5 inches drop, and not sure if i'm going more negative or not.
the problem is, once it is installed, it is hard to reverse the direction of the plate, unless disassemble the strut from the car(which is a lot of labor money again)
anyone have experience with the caster/camber plates on lowered vehicles?

Norm Peterson

The preferred OE caster setting for the S197 is already at +7.1°, which seems adequate for most driving.

Including this . . .




In fairness, I was running camber a bit more negative than anything mentioned so far in this thread - it's my everyday setting, actually . . . which sort of demands normal cornering that is rather more aggressive than most folks' driving ever gets.

Factory preferred camber is -0.75° and the upper end of the range is -1.5°, so depending on how aggressive your cornering really is (not just what your wishful thinking would like you to believe), you'll probably want this at or somewhere beyond -1°.

I honestly don't remember what the toe was.


Norm

Norm Peterson

To answer the question about 'street camber', previous post notwithstanding, zero camber is the "least negative" end of the factory range. You don't want to be anywhere near that unless you're about the mildest driver on the planet. A MacStrut will go toward postive camber fast enough in a corner without giving it a head start.

What you might try is measuring the camber that you have right now (a digital angle finder good to 0.1° is entirely adequate for doing this). Camber will go negative at a little more than half a degree per inch of lowering. See where that could be expected to put you.

You can also measure the C-C plates to see what the eccentricity of the bolts is, and how long the slots are (which is the total range of adjustment). Compare that to the OE strut mounts (which I think have a little eccentricity of their own), You may have enough data to choose, particularly if the rough guess from lowering might put the camber out past -1.5° with the 'race' setting in the middle of the adjustment.


Norm

hueyhy

Thanks for the reply, Norm

very clear. and i am still not quite sure how the CC plate work.
how does the different orientation make effect on the camber angle?
Does it make an "offset" to the current angle? and the slot adjust around that value?

for example,assuming after lowering, the camber is negative 1.5 deg with OE mount.

if I put the CC plate the "race" way, what would the camber range be?
does it take some negative offset first (let's say, 1 degree, make it -2.5 now), and them we can use the slot to adjust back and forth, to get the camber angle between, say, -3.5 ~ -1.5 ?

and if i put the plate "street" way, it would add an positive offset (say, making it -0.5), and then adjustable between -1.5 to 0?

I may not have chance to measure the camber, from rough guess the camber would be close to -1~-1.5 after lowering, which i think is fine.
I am just afraid that putting the CC plates on will only allow me to go more negative if I put it "racing". i think i might be wrong. but not quite sure
if I am wrong, then i am happy to just put it the "racing" way. i would like to keep the camber angle around -1~-1.5, or more.

pandastang

I just bought suspension as well. went with lowering springs, shock/struts and those steeda hd mounts. I would also like some ideas in regards to any diff types of adjusting.

not sure if i needed cc plates, everywhere i read most ppl just worried about replacing the crap oem's

Norm Peterson

That's about how it works. The studs are offset with respect to where the strut shaft would be if there was no slots for camber adjustment. Install it one way and the strut shaft would end up being in closer to the inboard two bolts, rotate it 180° and the strut shaft would be closer to the outer two. The four chassis holes are fixed in position, so the strut shafts move relative to the chassis. This becomes a "rough adjustment", as it can only be at one setting or the other.

After that, you get to make a continuous fine-tuning adjustment over the range of the slot lengths.

(FWIW, +1° from your assumed -0.5 street center position would actually mean you could get +0.5° . . . yuck. no thanks).

To narrow it down to whether the 'race' orientation would allow enough adjustment in the positive direction to get where you want it for normal driving - or if the street setting allows anywhere near enough adjustment in the negative direction to suit the harder driving - you'd need to have all of the measurements and dimensions.


Norm