"Problem commonly associated with camber kit install..."
i would just like to take a moment of my boredom to explain a problem that occured with my cbsev when i installed my camber correction kit. this thread should help answer questions that i know would have eventually ended up being posted in here.
about a year ago, i installed a front end camber kit on my accord. i had the alignment shop set the camber at 0.0. as i was driving home from the aligment shop (after installing the kit), i noticed that the ride quality was dramatically decreased. it was a lot more stiffer. every time i would run over a bump or dip in the road, i would feel it 5X as hard. i would hear this hitting sound associated with running over the bumps. it sounded like something was bottoming out. it was a horrible ride.
the shop tried to feed me some b.s. about "the wheels now being more straight... and of course i'm going to feel the bumps more hard because i'm hitting them head on..." and blah, blah, blah... but i took the matter into my own hands.
after a few days of examination, my dad and i found out that my upper control arm was hitting the inside of my fender on each side that the camber was corrected.
you can clearly see that the tip of the control arm was giving that fender a good pounding whenever i encountered a nasty bump in the road
what had happened, was... whenever i brought those wheels from the /----\ stance to the |----| stance, the control arm was pulled more outwards. when the arm was pulled outwards, it also stood up straighter as well. if you think about it, the control arm position is going to change along with the wheels' position. if those wheels are sitting at an angle, the arm will also be sitting inside of that fender at more of an angle (allowing more travel room). but, if it's sitting straight up... it's much closer to the wall. and if you are sitting pretty low, that arm is going to bang that fender much more easily.
after creating this theory, i proceeded to first try and shave some edge off of each control arm. to do this, i used a dremel tool.
i thought that this would be the solution, but the problem still persisted.
finally, i had the alignment shop deliberately set the camber off -1.0 degree on each side... and i also raised the front end up 1/2". this combination gave me enough needed travel space for that upper control arm.
basically, this is a case of 'you can't have your cake and eat it to'. but in order to cure this problem, you will have to settle for this solution. you'll have plenty of c. arm travel space, and tread life won't be bad either.
i look at it this way: -1.0 degree is not too shabby as compared to the -3.2 degree camber that i was sportin' beforehand.
well, i hope that this FYI gave everyone some insight to this particular problem. feel free to add any additional questions or experiences, and i'm sure that me and the cb7 suspension mods will gladly answer.
i would just like to take a moment of my boredom to explain a problem that occured with my cbsev when i installed my camber correction kit. this thread should help answer questions that i know would have eventually ended up being posted in here.
about a year ago, i installed a front end camber kit on my accord. i had the alignment shop set the camber at 0.0. as i was driving home from the aligment shop (after installing the kit), i noticed that the ride quality was dramatically decreased. it was a lot more stiffer. every time i would run over a bump or dip in the road, i would feel it 5X as hard. i would hear this hitting sound associated with running over the bumps. it sounded like something was bottoming out. it was a horrible ride.
the shop tried to feed me some b.s. about "the wheels now being more straight... and of course i'm going to feel the bumps more hard because i'm hitting them head on..." and blah, blah, blah... but i took the matter into my own hands.
after a few days of examination, my dad and i found out that my upper control arm was hitting the inside of my fender on each side that the camber was corrected.
you can clearly see that the tip of the control arm was giving that fender a good pounding whenever i encountered a nasty bump in the road
what had happened, was... whenever i brought those wheels from the /----\ stance to the |----| stance, the control arm was pulled more outwards. when the arm was pulled outwards, it also stood up straighter as well. if you think about it, the control arm position is going to change along with the wheels' position. if those wheels are sitting at an angle, the arm will also be sitting inside of that fender at more of an angle (allowing more travel room). but, if it's sitting straight up... it's much closer to the wall. and if you are sitting pretty low, that arm is going to bang that fender much more easily.
after creating this theory, i proceeded to first try and shave some edge off of each control arm. to do this, i used a dremel tool.
i thought that this would be the solution, but the problem still persisted.
finally, i had the alignment shop deliberately set the camber off -1.0 degree on each side... and i also raised the front end up 1/2". this combination gave me enough needed travel space for that upper control arm.
basically, this is a case of 'you can't have your cake and eat it to'. but in order to cure this problem, you will have to settle for this solution. you'll have plenty of c. arm travel space, and tread life won't be bad either.
i look at it this way: -1.0 degree is not too shabby as compared to the -3.2 degree camber that i was sportin' beforehand.
well, i hope that this FYI gave everyone some insight to this particular problem. feel free to add any additional questions or experiences, and i'm sure that me and the cb7 suspension mods will gladly answer.
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