Miata Mailing List: June 1997, Message #171
sponsored by



     



From: 	Bob Krueger <voodoo@miata.net>

Subject: Re: removing steering wheel...alignment

Date: 	Mon, 2 Jun 1997 19:29:11 -0500



At 09:56 -0800 6-2-97, Doc Wynne wrote:

> When I was on all stock suspension, I originally did the "Miq"

>alignment and while the car was quite a bit better, it didn't

>turn in well enough to suit me for autox. I ended up with the

>camber at -0.7 (all I could get) and 1/16" toe *out* on each

>side, but the caster would only go to +2.3 The car then turned in

>like it was wired, but it was very twitchy on the street. This is

>when I noticed how much the wheel was "off" on some roads.



There is an absolutely amazing amount of adjustment variability from car to

car in the Miata's front suspension. When I was on stock springs, shocks,

etc., I wanted to align to -1.0 camber in the front and -1.5 in the back.

Typically, alignment shops do the back first, so we went ahead and set up

the -1.5 no sweat. Then we got to the front and couldn't get anywhere near

where I wanted to go with the caster set at anything I thought was

reasonable. I finally settled for -0.9 camber at a caster setting on both

wheels of 4.5 degrees. Based on this setting, I made the tech go back and

redo the back to -1.3. This is why I like this guy. I ask for something

like that and he just says "OK" and does it.



But even though I was what I thought to be severely limited by the A-arms,

you were apparently even moreso.



Obviously, the new springs allowed for a lot more flexibility in my

settings, but even now I have to push to get 5.5 degrees of caster with

-1.5 camber. JT goes in there and pops out *6* degrees of caster with the

same camber no sweat! Pisses me off [g]! How does Mazda manage to get these

pieces so different? They're stamped parts, after all, so you'd think

they'd be fairly reproducible. If I made Voodoo Knobs with hole depths that

sloppy, I'd have pinched boots and half-inch gaps all over the place!



I don't autocross the car, thus the zero toe. I might tweak in a little

toe-out if I did race it. I know a guy who's pretty fast and he made marks

on the tie rod ends so that he can drive every day at zero toe and then set

a bit of toe-out when he gets to the track. When the race is over, it's a

quick turn of the wrench to get back to the marks and then drive home.

Interesting idea. I've ridden enough with my friends who do autocross to

know that I'm slow to pick up where the course goes at times. I could road

race, I suppose, if I didn't care about sheet metal damage. I can still

tell the difference between asphalt and grass. During fun runs, I'll really

try to concentrate as if I were driving, but we'll hit a gate or something

and I'll go "Whoa! Where the hell'd the cones go?" If I were driving, I'd

be doing donuts about that time. I guess I'd make a lousy professional

quarterback too. I'd be getting hit from all sides while I was still

looking for my secondary receivers. It's OK, though; just one of the

downsides of being an old fart. Better a blind old fart than dead.



------------------------------------

Voodoo Bob

Team Voodoo proprietor

San Diego Miata Club

Age & Treachery Racing, Ltd.

http://mmdshare.ucsd.edu/voodoo.html

------------------------------------