Lone Star Alignment

BPWilliams · #1 (**permalink**) 06-27-2003, 09:14 AM

Hey Guys I thought I would post this on your club listing because of the number of Lone Star's in your area.

I am looking for some information on the Alignment for the Comp kit. I took it to the best place in Arizona, the one that does all of the race cars, SCCA, NASA, set-ups. They had to put 3/4" shims in the rear bolt to get the car in Alignment. I had to make SS shims because the inserts were slipping there were so many. Has anyone ran into this same condition? I have 10" rims, and 275's on the front. Tire wear is good, and the car handles good at the track (I think? only driven my car).

I have seen other shots of that front end with little, or no shims. Whats the deal? Thanks for any help.

Brian

mbishop · #2 (**permalink**) 06-27-2003, 09:44 AM

Brian,
I would give Dennis a call or email and ask him what is going on. I haven't had mine aligned as yet but I don't think it is any where that far out.
Where did you have to add the shims, on the lower arm or the top? The ones I've seen after alignment only need a few thousands on top. The SS spacers for the bottom can vary quite a bit I suppose.
I'm going up to Fort Worth next week and hope to drop by their shop to pick up some spacers for the panhard bar. I would be interested to here their response.

Mark

BPWilliams · #3 (**permalink**) 06-27-2003, 09:55 AM

The bottom control arms were fine, it was the tops that we had to shift quite a bit. I asked Lone Star foir the recomended settings, and made a set-up sheet so I could track the alignment at diffrent tracks. The Alignment shop (which I think is very good) said that they could not acheive a balance with the numbers that Dennis gave me. It was the Castor, and Camber that we had a hard time with. I think that with the wide tires we had to set the Camber at , or close to zero for tire wear. (I could be wrong?) Anyway the shims were placed at the top control arm, making it parallel with the frame, so whatever geometry was put into the car, we took it out. Confused????
Brian

CowtownCobra · #4 (**permalink**) 06-27-2003, 10:00 AM

Where are these shims at?Rear suspension

jwoodard · #5 (**permalink**) 06-27-2003, 10:08 AM

comp frame required no shims for alignment so I can't provide any insight. Sorry

Here's a couple shots of my front suspension during assembly and it looks exactly the same after alignment. Meaning no shims added.

http://home.flash.net/~jwoodard/Image08.jpg
http://home.flash.net/~jwoodard/Image07.jpg

BPWilliams · #6 (**permalink**) 06-27-2003, 01:07 PM

Hey Jim do you know what your car was aligned to? The specifications that we used were:
Toe = 0.06 to 0.08
Camber = 0 to -0.5
Castor = +3 to +6

We had to run zero Castor to get zero Camber, my alignment guy might be way out of wack??? (This was also a 4 wheel alignment?)
How are your tires running up front? Do you have good even wear? I think that I might take my car somewhere else to verify.
Thanks for the info,
Brian
P.S. Thanks for the web site, I used it a lot to build my car......

jwoodard · #7 (**permalink**) 06-27-2003, 05:22 PM

I'm sorry to say I don't know the alignment settings. At the time it was done I just took the car to the place Lone Star was using in Keller and had them do it. It's a 4 wheel alignment as well.

My tires are wearing very evenly and the car is very steady at all speeds.

392cobra · #8 (**permalink**) 06-27-2003, 05:56 PM

Brian,
The numbers I was given are:

Toe in - 1/8" +/- 3/32"
Camber - 1.5 degree +/- 1/2 degree
Caster + 4.5 degree +/- 1 degree

Hope this helps.

RockSnake · #9 (**permalink**) 06-28-2003, 12:39 PM

Contact Jeff Abbott at Lone Star. He has good street/comp specs. At the moment, I can't find them, or I'd post them. They're giving me great handling and tire wear. Also, it is normal for most of the spacers to be at the rear of the lower control arms.