camber question

[lostforawhile]

I was wondering on these cars with a mild drop.like an inch and a half,why are we running camber kits? on a conventional suspension,the lower spring will cause negative camber,but these are double wishbone front and rear,the entire point of a double wishbone is that even when the spring and strut are under compression,the camber doesn't change. on a conventional suspension,theres only one ball joint and a pivot at the top of the strut,in other words the strut can move slightly,in that case as the spring is lowered the wheel tilts towards a negative camber,but on a double wishbone there are two ball joints so the wheel just moves upward on two pivots with no change in camber. thats why the camber is fixed on our cars,it's supposed to stay the same under all conditions. that keeps the tire patch in contact with the road all the time and prevents extreme negative camber. like the brochure said,these were the first front wheel drive cars sold in the US with double wishbone on all four corners. this was a suspension only found on the best sports cars in 1986. it was unheard of to put it in a front wheel drive car. lowing the car shouldn't change the camber. the only thing that changes it is part wear.

[A20A1]

I never ran a camber kit... but when I raised my car back up once..

Poof!

{}  H  {}
\       /

my tires looked like that

I'm hoping you'll recognize the head light and the H emblem

[Vanilla Sky]

you can't keep camber changes nonexistant. when you drop your car more than about an inch and a half, you need the camber kit because you have a bit of negative camber. the suspension geometry is such that when you're suspension is compressed, you have slight negative camber, so that when you're in a corner, your tread stays in contact with the road. without the change in camber through the suspension compression, you would lean onto the outsides of the tires, causing excessive wear on the outside of your tire and poor handlinge due to loss of contact patch. the camber kit will put your camber in spec when sitting at your new ride height.

[lostforawhile]

you can't keep camber changes nonexistant. when you drop your car more than about an inch and a half, you need the camber kit because you have a bit of negative camber. the suspension geometry is such that when you're suspension is compressed, you have slight negative camber, so that when you're in a corner, your tread stays in contact with the road. without the change in camber through the suspension compression, you would lean onto the outsides of the tires, causing excessive wear on the outside of your tire and poor handlinge due to loss of contact patch. the camber kit will put your camber in spec when sitting at your new ride height.

well what I was talking about was dropping it about an inch and a half. so a mild drop shouldn't make much difference.

[Vanilla Sky]

that's about where i'd get prelude arms. it's kind of on the threshold for a camber kit.

i'd drop the car then see where you're camber's spec'ed. i'd not worry if it were around a degree, give or take a half. a little extra tire wear, but you'll have a little better performance turning with the extra negative camber.

[lostforawhile]

what year were those off of anyway? I have a set here somewhere but I can't remember what year so I can order ball joints

[Vanilla Sky]

they are from the second gen prelude. very common in junkyards. i want to say it was like 1984 through 1987. could have been 1983. the junkyards here have a huge surplus of old preludes. usually twice as many as they have 3geez.

[Oldblueaccord]

The camber does change as the suspension compresses. You want it to. its called a camber curve. Mike hopefully will chime in since im not as qualified to answer you question as he is.

As far as why people do what they do I dunno. I think they follow others and dont think a problem thru or even really want to understand it. I run -2 degress on the frnt of mine and prolly at this time 10 degress negative in the rear as an experiment which Im baout to change to something along the lines of -2 rear as well.

[lostforawhile]

they are from the second gen prelude. very common in junkyards. i want to say it was like 1984 through 1987. could have been 1983. the junkyards here have a huge surplus of old preludes. usually twice as many as they have 3geez.

I found them,they were on the coffee table under a pile of junk,which is strange since i haven't messed with them in a couple of years. I'm spring cleaning at 2:00 am right now. I couldn't remember what year they had come off of. I found some civic parts too,1981-83 if anyone wants them. they have them.

[AZmike]

The question looks answered, but I figured another response wouldn't hurt.

For maximum grip you want the contact patch loaded evenly. When cornering there are two effects that the suspension geometry must compensate for to achieve this: the car's body will tend to roll and the lateral load deforms the tire so the outside shoulder can end up doing most of the work.

The geometry of upper and lower control arms is set to add camber as the suspension is compressed (camber curve mentioned above) to keep the tire closer to the correct angle as the outside suspension compresses and the inside suspension extends. Not only is camber added to compensate for the body roll, but also to help more evenly distribute the load on the deformed tire. Depending on how much camber is added for a given suspension compression, it is frequently necessary to set the suspension so there is a little negative camber at normal ride height (static camber) to get the tire closer to the correct camber when cornering (dynamic camber).

Depending on the desired handling characteristics you may not want maximum grip. A FWD autocross car may have a fair amount of negative camber in the front and very little in the rear so the car will understeer less as the expense of ultimate grip.

[TheWatcher]

well what I was talking about was dropping it about an inch and a half. so a mild drop shouldn't make much difference.

Some of us have to adjust the camber.

You can't pass recon here w/o a camber kit, to set everything back to stock specs when you drop your car/truck/suv.

No recon is illegal here, the police write you a ticket (automatic fine).

Peace.