Can't let Mike G hog the limelight about camber. One or two degrees of
negative camber makes a big difference to sportingly driven road cars in
steering feel, turn in and tyre wear. BUT a critical thing you need to do
before you start mucking about is to make sure your cars substructure is
straight. Official BMC manuals have all the triangulations. If anyone's
read CCC from the UK you'll know just how far out of alignment the bodies
on even brand new cars are. Add to that the crash damage most Spridgets
have incurred (and I'll bet not many dollars were spent fixing them) and
you can have a real cocktail of angles. I know several cars that have a
negative camber trunnion on only one side to try and even things up. BMC/
Leyland cars were also assembled to tolerances consistent with "throw fit"
ie: you throw the body part at the car and weld it where it touches! Don't
forget that once you change camber you'll also need to adjust toe-in.
While you're there you may as well get your corner weights and roll centres
right as well. And the shimming on the rack mounts. Goes on and on
doesn't it? There are many good books and even computer programmes on the
subject but don't ask me where, it's years since I was in the industry.
Angela Hervey-Tennyson & Peter Westcott
Melbourne Australia
toobmany@bigpond.com
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