I am looking into buying a camber/caster gauge, without breaking the bank. So mainly I am looking at the longacre and Rebco ones. How much caster reading do I need cause some only go to +/-8. I was wondering what other people were using. I have spl front arms and kinetix rear arms so adjustment is no problem. I have already corner balanced my car as well. And can we get a alignment sticky. Jegs has some quantum one for like $45 looks cheap but sometimes its the simplest things that work great.

 

this sounds interesting... bump for you

 

Im unsure too but I want to know more

 

I'm looking for a gauge too.

But I'll forget about the castor reading. Now I'm maxed out at +9 degrees with my SPL arms and I don't see any reasons to change that back to OEM +8 degrees.

So it'll be camber only for me.

The reall difficulty is finding a Dunlop mount that would accomodate wheels larger than 17in. I want to avoid taking the wheels off all the time.

 

I used both the SmartCamber Dunlop style gauge and the Lonacre Billet gauge. Neither will work on all cars or wheels. The Dunlop styles are difficult to use unless there's a vertical edge on the wheels and the Longacre styles are difficult to use of there isn't a flat/normal hub or wheel center.

 

I just went outside I have all the wheels off on the z. If you leave the center caps off it looks like the longacre one is it. The center of the magnetic base is hollow to fit around spindle nuts or the on our cars the rear axle threads/nut. So has anyone used the longacre one on the Z does it work out that way.

 

Look at the Smart Camber Tools. I have been using the Smart Strings and the Smart Camber. They are made to be used in the garage or the track. A lot of the race teams use these tools. Very easy to use and very accurate.

 

That is correct. Remove the center caps and the magnet fits on the hub perfectly.
The only thing I don't like about the bubble gauge is that you have to correct for unlevel surfaces. The smartcamber has a way to compensate for this I believe. Every time I make changes at the track, I have to wait until I get home to my garage to get a truly repeatable setting. Luckily, I've marked my control arms so I rarely have to use the gauge any more.

 

if u have the money and you change camber all the time.



ftw.. i've used it before with the optional hands free pegs and its awesome.

 

TTT.

Still debating on what gauge to get...

 

Having used many different type of Camber/Caster guages for pro-racing they all have there plus and minus. Most pro-teams go back to the bubble gauges since the digital give you different readings all the time and ones that attach to the center hub since the outside of the wheel can get bent very easily. Also, they end up with the Center hub magnetic bubble guages since they are inexpensive and the guages do get lost/stollen/damaged.
It is far more important to spend your money on alignment tools for Toe than Caster/Camber and Smart Strings are great. Also, invest some money in a large level and some simple shims so that you can make sure your car is level when you align the car. Also, remember that if you corner wieght your car, your Alignment adjustments will affect your corner wieghts and your corner wieghts adjustment will affect your Camber/Caster/toe. So, I alway set up the car before going to track and start with ride hieght, cross wieghts, alignment, then do a fine adjustment on cross wieghts and finally alignment. And Alignments should always go Caster than Camber than Toe (yet the Z has no Caster adjustment and no front Camber adjustment unless you modify the car).

 

MoodDude,

What Rolex team do you work with? I'm guessing pit crew (based on your hands on experience)?

 

I worked with the ST team Roar Racing in the shop and in the pits. I set up the cars in both the shop and track. The cars I worked on set the fastest lap record for our class at both Luguna Seca (One team did do one faster lap, yet they where found cheating with boost) and Mid-Ohio (1/2 second/lap faster and the driver said he could of got 2 more seconds out of the car but since he was running 1st he wanted to save the car), our cars had to many other issues at Barber.

 

When Unitech installed my coilovers they had a really cool laser alignment tool that worked similarly to smart strings (but with laser beams replacing the strings). Setup was very fast and my car drove straight as an arrow afterwards. I'm sure the setup only cost a few thousand..

 

I'll take 2!!!

 

The first time I saw a cup car get corner balanced and aligned with the strings. I thought it was a joke, realized this was really happenning.

Kind of cool that they a dollar of string aligns a (whatever they cost) race car!

 

Bump for for any new thoughts/info.

How compatible is the SmartCamber with the 2003 17" rims, and the 2006 18" rims? I have a set of each.

 

Call me cheap but this is what I use for my race car setup. I've used both Smart and Longacre guages and they don't get me any better results than this does.



Craftsman 10 in. Digital LaserTrac® Level
Sears item# 00948292000 Mfr. model# 48292

Buy one of these and put 3" standoffs on it , and you have a digital camber gauge and laser thrust shooter for <$60. In fact I just saw it a Sears this past week for $39.99.

 

excuse my ignorance but whats the trade off between these setups and what shops pay tens of thousands for (ex hunter digital equipment). i understand that you cant take that other equipment with you, but is there a big sacrifice to accuracy?

 

I too am interested in this question. Im sure the methods listed above are adequately accurate, but some commentary from those with experience is always welcome! An additional question would be as follows: Can the alignment methods listed above suffice for street/daily driver alignments? It would be great to bring that function in-house, any only leave tire mounting/balancing to a trusted 3rd party.