To all of you Pinto racers out there, i'm setting up my Bobcat to road race and wanted to find out the best and cheapest way to get negative camber. What tricks have you guys used to accomplish this?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
You will need to remove the upper control arms first. Then you will need to move the adjustment slots inboard about 1/2". The best way is with a right angle die grinder and a carbide cutter. All four(4) of the slots must be moved, and it does take time. The material there is several layers thick and there is no easy way to do this. Is this an autocross car or scca road racer? LOL.
Thanks very much for the instructions. I rescued this old Bobcat from going to the crusher and I'm building it into a 24 Hour of LeMons car. I think the 2.3 is bulletproof enough to go the distance and we are stripping every bit of weight we can out of the car but we need it to handle well.
1/2" extra in the slots will give you about 2 to 21/2 deg negative camber.
Some racers turn the upper a-arm shaft 90*, weld a large piece of angle inboard on the top of the spring cap (far enough in to give you more camber than you want), drill it so that the shaft bolts to it, then use normal u-shaped shims to get the alignment you want.
Clear as mud, right? :o
Mike
In case you have not seen the FAQ suspension thread, see link below. 77TurboPinto mentions moving the lower control arm inner mount point up 3/4" to improve roll center. I believe this would also increase the camber gain some. If this is correct, maybe you would not need so much static negative camber. Notice all the if's and maybe's above, I have not tried any of this and am not a racer.
http://www.fordpinto.com/index.php/topic,7913.msg46713.html#msg46713 (http://www.fordpinto.com/index.php/topic,7913.msg46713.html#msg46713)
Have fun at the LeMons.
Thanks everyone for all of the advice. I had an idea of how I was going to achieve neg camber but I wanted to hear from those with experience and more know how than me. I'll likely be asking more questions as we continue on through the build and I'll post pics after we get the floor repaired, motor installed, and off of the jack stands.
Thanks again!
If you are going to lower the front end either by shortening the stock springs or installing shorter aftermarket springs you might not have to do any mods. I'm running 2DEG Neg camber and all we had to do was slide the upper control arms in and align it. My 2 cents.
KCREGION SCCA MEMBER
What about just slotting the rear, and gaining more positive caster, thus giving more static camber gain, both negative on the outside, and positive on the inside tires? The car I just got was set up for circle track, and the right upper control arm was cut and welded shorter for left turns only. That's going to be changed for our road race endeavors.
(http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x265/375instroke/P2130391.jpg)
(http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x265/375instroke/P2210437.jpg)
(http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x265/375instroke/P2210448.jpg)
That is a DAMN nice car!!!! :drunk:
What we really need to know for our Chumpcar 24 hour road race pinto are some front end numbers. caster, camber, toe in/out. Not stock numbers but what do people RACE with? And yeah that car looks NIIIIICCCEEEE :hypno: