Camber, Caster & Toe

Finally got the B on the road & got it tested - no problems. Got back home after a quick drive around, washed it & found a lovely windscreen crack.... Second windscreen. Anyway...

Took it to NTB to get aligned& after an hour the guy came out & said they can not adjust the camber or caster (camber is 2° low on both, caster is 0.5° low) but adjusted the toe for $79 (was hoping it would be a third since they only adjusted one.....)

Is there anyway to adjust the camber & caster ?

They indicate the camber should be between 0.8 & 1.3
They indicate the caster should be between 5.0 & 7.3

Thoughts ?

Thanks

Mark

Caster and camber are not adjustable as the car was built. There are ways around this, but modifications are necessary.

Most folks who race MGB's use a set of 2 degree negative camber lower A-arms (slightly longer than stock). Some combine these with offset upper bushings to fine tune the camber angle. I've also heard of some slotting the mounting holes in the shock mounts so that the shock (upper link) is moved to adjust camber. I don't think any of these modifications are recommended for street driven cars.

As far as caster, I've seen wedges recently that adjust the caster, but I don't have any information on these. Maybe someone on the forum has tried them???

How are all of your suspension components? Wear in the rubber components (or previous accident damage) could cause the measurements they gave you. And I agree, you got shafted on the price for a toe adjustment.

Overcharged and unprofessional. The toe is the only servicable adjustment on these cars and the alignment shop should have immediately saw this. Wear is the biggest cause of minor angle problems. Adjusting the toe in is a 10 minute job on an MGB. RAY

If you're going to do the toe in at home, my thought would be to arrange your rods or sticks such that they are based on the wheel rim vs the tire. Seems to me the wheels would be a truer basis point than tires. It wouldn't take much physical variation in a tire to throw off the toe in measurement since you're only looking for 1/8".

Steve

I'd happily pay $79 for a complete alignment analysis. It looks like they did their job. Mnay shops will charge you that, and not let you know the results! Any considerable differences (more than a half degree) from left to right can indicate a correctable problem, so its a valid test to do the full alignment, despite a lack of adjustments.

Yes, caster shims work. I shoot for 4.0, lower than original so that you get lighter feeling steering, but that also affects tracking. Higher caster settings will track very straight on the freeway, and it will center the sterring wheel very effectively when coming out of a corner. Lower settings will increase steering responsiveness and not center the wheel automatically coming out of a corner. 4.0 seems to be the setting most new car designers shoot for, although it has a lot to do with the etire steering geometry, not an independant figure you can just throw around.


Camber is adjustable as well, as desrcibed above. Negative camber is more stabile, pushing the bottom of the tires outboard. It also causes edge wear on the tires, shortening their life in street use. In race use, the increased lateral G's help eliminate that wear issue.

Last time I put tires on my daily driver they did a free 4 wheel alignment with a 4 tire purchase, and started talking some mumbo jumbo about cross camber. They said even though both side were within factory spec's the cross camber between them was too much and of course tried to sell me those adjustment bolts (and the labor to install them).
Theres no way I'd ever take my "b" in to any place like that, they don't see cars like these, and don't understand them. but still charge the normal price even though they cant do much with it, but of course I have access to a caster/camber guage so I do it myself. (though there is some validity to Jeff's thought's about it being a way to find big variences that might point to previous accident damage)