whats more "road worthy"? i have a shim kit for the rear but i read in a thread that there are camber washers you put behind the drum brake to push the bottom of the wheel out. which is better/more dependable? and what is the part number on the washers? any help or comments are apreciated.

 

to be honest i thought that the washers were the shims used to move it out

 

Neither is "Dependable" Think about it for a minute... stock you have a flat surface completely parallel to another flat surface held in place with 4 bolts. Next you loosen up this nice safe sturdy connection and then place one flat surface AT AN ANGLE buy inserting "foreign objects" ( washers or spacers) between the two surfaces then you TRY and make this angled surface stable by tightening the four bolts. Do you think the force from the bolts being tightened is spread evenly over the surface of the angled part. Nope the bolt hole end of the part will be BENT by the excess tightening needed to make the surface stable because only a small portion of the part will be in contact with the other surface because it's not flat like designed it's angled by the washers and will never be as stable as two flat surfaces will be. And you will have to crawl under the car every so often to re tighten the bolts because they are trying to hold together two uneven surfaces and they may even be BENT by the uneven application of force. Unsafe mod

 

The cornering force that a tire can develop is highly dependent on its angle relative to the road surface, and so wheel camber has a major effect on the road holding of a car. It's interesting to note that a tire develops its maximum cornering force at a negative camber angle. I dont mind if i bend a bolt, bolts are cheap. i never had problems with camber on a car before. actually, i think im going to make an aluminum wedge and machine around the top two bolts. holy crap!!! thanks for helping that idea claymore.

 

where did you get the shim kits?? i have seen them for the scions? i was just going to do the washer thing

 

I know these thread is old....but.


Kelso,
What did you end up doing for your rear camber? Washers? SPC shims?

Redrumm,
I am going to use my old Camber shims for the xB and see if they work.

 

We also use an Al wedge to get negative camber - maybe half degree - and its working very well. Its a good mod that works. Using lock washers and lock nuts doesn't need retightening on a wedge shim.

 

i actually didnt do anything to the rear. i couldnt get my front camber past -1.5 and the rear is already set at -1.5 so instead of making the camber higher in the rear (which is a big no no for fwd cars) i just left it alone. if a coilover comes out with an upper camber plate mount, i will go from there but as of right now, no one has made anything like that for the fit that didnt involve major fabrication.

 

scion one wont work from what i hear.

felix has some shims but they are like 300 bucks

 

i had some shims for a vw that would work but i have no idea where they are now.

 

dont you need a toe adjuster like the scions

 

I think you misunderstood. The shims go on the 4 bolts that fasten the spindle base plate to the axle plate. Not under the drum. Repeat not under the drum.
Its a tedious task because you have to calculate the shim thicknesses initially the measure the aligment camber and toe. Unless your ready to win the lottery expect to do this several times on each rear wheel to get the camber and toe correct.
Before doping any of this first make sure your axle is square with the front 'axle'. Sometimes thats asll it takes.
good luck.

Just what do these 'shim kits' look like? Are they different thickness washers or 'u' shims as used on Detroit vehicles? DO NOT USE 'U' shims, as they can fall out and the crash varmint will get you. 1" washers on the 4 bolts is quite safe as the base of the bolts between the two plates is all thats holding those plates at the correct angle. Even if you have shim washer kits expect to have to file them to correct thickness to get it right. In no case install shims that DO NOT 'circle' the bolts. They must &R by removing the bolt from the spindle backplate.

refering to our installation we used shim washers on ony 3 of the bolts to get the correct camber and toe. The 6 others varied from .038" to .088" thickness. DO NOT THINK THAT IS THE CORRECT WASHER THICKNESSES YOU NEED FOR YOUR CAR. Both ones we did had not only different thicknesses to each other but the 'zero washer one was in different bolt locations. That job is not for those with any hurry attitude nor shop math skills. Our shop time for the two sides was 5.5 hours for 2 machinist techs and that includes filing 5 washers for the 8 possible locations. For the last two 'fittings' we drove the cars for 7-8 miles before checking alignment. The initial ones we just rolled the cars back and forth a few times.
Again, be sure your axle is squared to the chassis before attempting toe and camber adjustments.

 

Er...doesn't SPC make camber shims for the rear? I swear I called them about it.

 

They do. I have a set. I ended up not using them.

I'll sell them to u (anyone actually).

 

shims are dangerous
use the Aeroover camber hub, gives you -3 degress