So, the best company in the world (seriously), Whiteline, sold me some camber plates. By design you can adjust them for either max caster, or minimum camber. As I unwrapped them and I'm looking at the instructions I'm thinking, "Wait, that doesn't make sense... why not do this?!" So my question is, why didn't they give this option?! It seems logical to me! *** Disclaimer: If you know a lot about suspension, keep reading and you'll see what I'm talking about. Keep in mind these aren't installed and I'm making assumptions based off of what I think will work. And most importantly, with a stock diameter spring and camber plates, I realize the spring will contact the body of the car/inner strut tower BEFORE the plates will max out. To get full movement of any camber plates, smaller diameter springs are needed... So my hopes could be worthless if I hit the inner wall... But we'll see.*** Anyway... So, the instructions (narrated by me) read as follows: For maximum caster, it would look like this: Driver side: (Change in strut top position is indicated by a bad ass line. Dot is stock, end of line is hypothetical end result.) For maximum negative camber, it would look like this: Driver side: (Change in strut top position is indicated by a bad ass line. Dot is stock, end of line is hypothetical end result.) That's all great and fine; HOWEVER, the WL plates have an offset mounting position: (The yellow lines intersect at what would be a "stock" position within the tophat... The change in strut top position is indicated again by a bad ass line. Dot is stock, end of line is hypothetical end result.) Hmmmm... That DOES work and get me what I'm looking for, but I'm thinking, "why not switch the plates side to side, then rotate them 33 degrees?!" Why not this? I'll get a decrease in camber (good) and an increase in caster (good). Driver side: (Change in strut top position indicated by a bad ass line. Dot is stock, end of line is hypothetical end result.) Sure, the camber isn't adjustable by the plates... but the caster is. And positioning them this way nets me less camber than JUST using them in the "max caster" setting. And I still get the same caster change, but with a camber change as well! Why wouldn't I want this? Why did WL design them otherwise? Please discuss.
I will find the link later, but I was reading about this in another thread. Some said that an increase in negative camber at the strut top increases SAI, and increased SAI means you get a decrease in dynamic camber - as you turn the wheel. The same thread discussed how increased positive caster nets you increased dynamic negative camber - balancing out the negative effects of high SAI. From your pics though it looks like in both pic 1 and 2 that any adjustment would affect BOTH camber and caster. Pic 3 shows a scenario where only caster is adjustable. So just so I'm clear: Pic 1 & 2 show the "driver's side" plate and pic 3 shows the "passenger side" plate?
With how it's supposed to be setup, it seems as if you can either get a lot of camber OR a lot of caster... So, yeah, to get any change in camber you'd have to lose all caster. And so on... I'm just thinking that I can get both... The camber wouldn't be adjustable (up top) in the setting I want to run. Picture 3 shows a different plate, but it would be used on the driver's side instead of the "correct" plate to net both camber and caster. No, camber wouldn't be adjustable at the strut top, but as long as it's not past -1.8/-2ish I'm cool. I have no idea, but I can guarantee it's less than -1.5 up front and my toe is all janked up right now... I can tell you what I WANT to have... I'm getting her aligned after all this stuff goes in on Monday... I'd love it to get -1.8 front, 0 front toe, as much caster as possible, -1.5 rear, and +.2 rear toe out... Without the 6 speed and differentials it's not going to help any to have a perfect alignment anyway. The front wheels just spin and I get no rotation. :wtc:
You have that top picture on the wrong side. If placed correctly they will give you both maximum camber and caster.
That's what I'm saying... I don't. You'd think it's wrong, but that's really how they designed them. Check it out: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1146354 So after finding this thread and reading all 15 pages about these, it seems as if they CAN be rotated as I imagined, but it's pointless because the spring will hit the body and it'll be too much negative camber for daily driving. Using them in the "correct" position will either give full negative camber for autoX, or neutral camber with max caster for the street.
Yeah... That's why I got them. I'm just going to run them as designed and get it as close to my ideal as possible. With my big ass springs and struts I won't be able to get them too crazy anyway.