Hi Guys
I want to put some neg camber in the front of my ute and was wandering if anyone can tell me how far the strut top would have to move to achieve a degree change in camber ? Once I know this I can work out how to do it.
Thanks
Bob

download the competition suspension manual ... it give a pretty good detailed description of what to do and what you'll achieve

i just downloaded that as very interested in modding the suspension. there are no "blueprints" that i could find thou, with the measurements

get some s13 camber plates, fit and boom, adjustable camber.
They fit in the 1200's 180 degrees what they are meant to fit the s13 so you only get about 2 degrees or so depending on what ones you get but can easily be machined for more. I paid 120 i think for some second hand cusco ones that were in good cond.

Not so fast.
The S13 camber plates are flat while the 1200 top mount is raised above the top of the strut tower.
This means that when you fit the camber plates, the top of the spring now sits lower down in relation to the strut tower than before. Since the wheel can't go down, the body must therefore come up & the front of the vehicle sits higher than it did before.

I tried this trick & was caught out when I rebuilt my front end recently.

The fix for me will be coilovers which will allow the spring to sit lower down the strut leg & the small diameter of these springs will fit between the tyre & the strut while the stock ones wont. [I was going to lower the spring seats, but that's a no go too]
All steering rod ends, ball joints & steering/suspension bushes are now of the urethane type.
I currently run a half degree negative camber. That's stage one.

The second stage will be tied to the fitting of the A15 with the Ute crossmember, the S13 brakes, the coilovers, the Ute rear end, & reset rear springs.

Thankyou o wise and learned Dodgeman. So I wasn't the first one to get caught out.
I have ended up with what I now know are S13 camber plates,Stanza balljoints and have a ute which sits up at the front about 20 mm more than i want. I have got 1 degree neg camber.Next step now will be to slot camber plates to get more adjustment. Is it feasable to get some 20mm blocks made up and sit these on the strut tower and then mount camber plates on top of these ?
Also How much neg camber is the optimum for sprint meetings ,lapdashes etc ?
Thanks
Bob

Bob,how long is a piece of string?There is no optimum or theoreticle set of numbers to make a car go round corners.Ther are dozens of issues that must be addressed before any educated guess on front end settings can be made,spring rates and types,corner weights,sway bars,un sprung weights,tyre type,shocks,suspension type,etc,but most importantly,how does your car handle now and with what done already.I along with all the other competition experianced racers on this site would be more than happy to assist with your question ,but we gotta know more!

Here's the no-dollar way to get negative camber, advised by Datsun:



Camber Modification

Hi Bert
Thanks for the reply.
We have only started messing around with the ute recently. I have a rallying background (about 25 years ago) and spent 12 years racing gokarts. I'm one of those old pricks with enough knowledge to be dangerous.We have only had the ute to one sprint meeting with recaps(a long and horrible story).
It handled reasonably neutral but not a lot of tyre grip with 2 bags of cement (40kg) over the back axle.
We want it to point in better. The new toyo R888s will help .
We want to muck around with it ourselves a bit and get a starting point. The standard line for front end settings seems to be "Throw in a couple degrees of neg camber and a ####load of castor".
So how much is a couple of degrees and is a ####load the same as 3 poofteenths ?
Thanks
Bob

s13 camber tops may raise the car by 20mm but 2 deg neg camber and also rotating them 90 deg for castor adjustment too is worth the trade off if your going t lower the car anyway.

Realistically i set mine up for 1.5 neg camber front and some castor as 1200 front ends stock havent got any adjustment, still need some more castor though. Competition manual castor mods seem to be the solution with the castor adjustment in the tops