ccj

My 2002 Z06 is at a reputable shop in the Seattle area to get an updated (IE more aggressive alignment).

Stock control arms, bushings and camber adjustment.

The shop is saying that they can ONLY dial in about -.7 on the driver side rear, but they can get upwards of -1.9 on the passenger side rear. Car has never been of course (on the track) never been in accident and has only seen really minor curbing (ie no cheese grater type).

1. Is there any part of type of damage that can cause this issue?
2. Could the car just be limited by the oem alighmnent adjustments? Ie factory tolerances or so on?
3. Bushings are stock, 13k street and track miles Total on the car. Could worn bushings be contributing to this?

TIA.

wallyman424

I'd say its a combo of the bushings and the subframe shifting.

If the car is still street driven, -.7 should be fine. You don't want too much camber in the rears anyway.

Bill Dearborn

Its hard to say for sure but the -1.9 seems a little large on the passenger side if you don't have camber plates. The capabilities vary from car to car. I can get about -1.0 to -1.3 on each side on my Z whereas I could only get about -.8 to -.9 on my 97. If the one side is lower than the other then you could get a larger variation from side to side. Same thing can happen on the front as well. With camber plates on the front of my Z I have about a half a degree difference in max negative camber from side to side. One thing you should have them check are the control arm bushings to make sure one of the control arms hasn't slipped on its bushings.

Bill

ccj

The car is only moderately street driven, ie: 5k a year or less. Street tire wear isn't a huge concern for me.

The intent was to dial in more front and rear camber to make better use of my current track tires (315 30 18 NT-01's all the way around) where I am only using the outside 2" of the front tires. In addition a forum member is sending me some race slick scrubs that are definitely looking for more camber. I was looking for -2.5 f, -1.6 r.

At this point they put it back to -1.5f, -.7 rear and I will probably just pick the car up and decide what I want to do for future reference.

naschmitz

After installing a camber kit in my buddies' 2002 Z06 we saw the same thing.

My 2006 C6 had cross camber issues in the rear after I installed a camber kit, but after I corner weighted it the ride height adjustments made it go away.

ccj

Well that's not very encouraging I was hoping a camber kit would solve the issue. Hmm.

meldog21

My Pfadt kit solved it on my C5 Z06. I have plenty of adjustment available front and rear. I am at -1.5 f, -1.0 r for 98% street driving and the occasional trackday.

I don't know how far the rear will go but without shims up front I was over -3. My camber plates and shims are not equal side to side. Brandon at Krause racing told me that is typical for Corvettes. He said that if you want your camber plates to be the same side to side you need to spend another $100K and buy a Porsche. Uhhhh, no thanks. I'll stick with my uneven adjustments and keep kicking the crap out of the P cars at the track with my $25K car.

I will admit to being passed by a GT2 this past weekend at a trackday. Whatever. The guy was a good driver and his car costs $200K. Good for him.

Dog

gkmccready

For the rear search for posts about shifting the rear subframe. Something about removing the "centering pins" that don't always centre things. At least then you can get even camber adjustments side-to-side.

0Randy@DRM

Have them loosen the four Crandle bolts and jack that crandle over. If the nuts are old throw them away one at a time. You don't need to remove the crandle. Just loosen it up a bit. If it's really bad you can start shaving material off the pin, to further the jacking effect.

Randy

longdaddy

take it to speedware, cantrell, or fordahl motorsports, they will align the car correctly for the track or figure out conclusively what the issue is. you should be able to get a lot more than -0.7 on the rear. I have -1.3, everything is stock on beat up bushings.

GrantB

You might need to enlarge some bits on the frame. I tried shifting my cradle without doing so with a wench, and it just ended up sliding the jack stands across the floor.

I can only get -1.0 on stock bolts. How much more adjustment do the shim kits usually allow?

gkmccready

I get -1.6deg in the rear with a 5" ride height to the jacking puck holes with the HardbarUSA camber plates. I'd actually like a little less...

AU N EGL

I just took my GM Camber plates off and went back to the stock adjusters temporally.

-1.5* on each rear side. I got -1.9 on the left and -1.6 on the right. and settled on -1.5 for both rear.

Front was -3.0 now back to stock bolts at -2.0

I thought on the rear, that under normal conditions that left rear camber could always be adjusted for more then the right?

ccj

The shop used the alignment rack to review the location of the rear subframe, and it came up within factory specs. They also inspected the bushings to make sure they weren't squeezing out and reviewed the control arms, and other movable parts to confirm that everything was okay and not bent or cracked. They came up with nothing.

I typically have TC Motorsports (successful Grand AM Mustang Challenge team) or Speedware do this kind of work on my car. In this case the car was at Speedware. I've got another two days on the NT-01's, so I am thinking I will address the camber again with a camber kit from Pfadt or Hardbar.

I'd be curious to know more about your set-up longdaddy as our cars are similar and we have met before. My car is the silver Z at Proformance events with the stoptechs (the younger guy).

jordan@pfadtracing

It sounds to me like your subframe is out of sorts, when ever I hear factory specs it makes me cringe. The factory has such a wide range that it is far from perfect and it is the same with alignments.

Carlo at TC Motorsports is great and he can get you our camber kit and install it as well. The benefit to the camber kit is you lock in your lower C-Arm position with a fixed plate where as the factory eccentric can and will slip at some point while running sticky tires on the track.

Please feel free to call or email us anytime! We're always happy to help and answer technical questions. Have a great day.

Kind regards,

longdaddy

ah I thought you are one of the silver vettes

My car may be a little lower than yours, I have the car lowered about 3/4" from stock ride height which may be why I can get more camber.

my setup is all stock as far as suspension goes, Cantrell does my alignments - you can call or email him for ideas.

dvandentop

any help on this rear issue as i am having the same problem my guy only got -1.5 rear on my RR and -.03 on my left rear. he said that is all the further he could get it to move

anything i can do at home to adjust then have him recheck it after i make some adjustment, i have poly bushings and stock ride height and bilstein shocks

longdaddy

I would take the wheels off, load suspension with two jacks under the lower control arms and start comparing control arm mounting points on both sides.

ccj

I bought the pfadt camber kit and brought it down to the shop that typically does my alighnments.

With the camber kit installed they were still not able to get the rear adjusted. They ended up moving the rear subframe between 1/8" - 3/32". If your having the same issue, I would suggest discussing this with your alignment shop.

Thanks to Randy, Jordan and others for suggesting the rear subframe alignment.

JVetthead

If you want MAX equal camber front or rear you have to center the cradles.. With car on jack stands on the frame not the cradle, crank in max camber on adjusters or camber plates, loosen the 4 nuts securing cradle to frame and pry cradle to side with LEAST camber, tighten nuts, put car back on LEVEL floor and check camber - repeat untill even. Pain in the but but if you want perfection thats what it takes..
I even drilled small locater holes thru cradle and frame so its position is repeatable as much as I am dropping cradles for repairs....