well I wrote a long desciptive post and then ie crashed and I lost it So here is the abridged version.

What do people recommend as a toe setting for the front of my 1600 that has about -2.5deg camber and +3.5deg caster, standard but lowered (fkd camber and caster) rear end, swaybars, locker and full slicks. Will be a track only alignment so not concerned too much with tyre wear.
cheers

This article has been around for years. Give some suggestions on alignment.

http://www.whiteline.com.au/images/arti ... _38(a).jpg
http://www.whiteline.com.au/images/arti ... _38(b).jpg

It suggests zero toe.

I have used these settings on my track car and it works well for me.....

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Race car 13B 1600 - since SOLD!
'13 M135i, Quaife LSD, tuned (380 hp)
'15 X5 xDrive 30d tow car
'02 Porsche 996 GT2 (600hp/480rw hp)

interesting read, would I be right is thinking that that front alignment would have to be done with the rear alignment in mind? ie. the settings suggested there for the front would not be optimal on my car where rear toe-out and camber are more extreme?

ok so I took it to wheel aligner and said what I wanted it to do, these are the results:

Front-
toe: -0.8mm
camber: -3deg
caster: LH+5.9deg, RH+5.1deg

Rear-
toe: -1.9mm
camber: -2.8deg

That's a fair whack of castor. I tried 6.3* on my track car but had to back it off to just under 5* to avoid castor wobble under braking. Should be good if it works on your car though

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Track car: 1970 1600 Sedan, L18
Gravel car: 1981 Bluebird Wagon, L20B

I'm so glad you said that! I think I have experienced this caster wobble, thought the car was gonna fall apart It has only happened twice and I have not been able to identify why it happened those times and not all the time. Any ideas?

It usually happened to me under light braking or when getting off the brakes, and sometimes a small bump at low speed was enough to start it. Hitting a small bump under braking was guaranteed to set it off. It's a resonant oscillation of the suspension & steering with many inter-related causes like ball joint & suspension bush slop, tie rod & drag link stiffness & probably steering box slop too. A common fix on jacked up 4x4's that suffer from it is to fit a steering damper. I didn't try to fix it, just backed off the castor & increased the camber instead

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Track car: 1970 1600 Sedan, L18
Gravel car: 1981 Bluebird Wagon, L20B

2.8degs neg on the rear seems like a lot ?
I'm planning on aiming for 0deg's or near enough at ride height as the old racecar always had problems hooking up from the start and just wanted to bag it up. The suspension gains camber pretty quickly on bump, so figured 0deg initial would be OK.
Would be interested to hear what other people reckon ?

The toe for both ends and the camber for the front seems to be on the money for the other numbers I've seen kickin' around.

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Happiness is watching the race.... in your rearview mirror

rear camber is because it is quite low (I think 35mm lower than the whiteline article recommends) and has no adjustment. I will endeavor to obtain a datsport arc one day.

I run around 4.5 degrees neg camber on the front, 3.5 caster and zero toe. Any more caster and I would have had to modify / cut the front guard as the tyre would foul it on the front , bottom corner of the guard (ie towards the front apron area).

Rear is 1.5 neg camber - acheived, like you, just by lowering as mine isn't adjustable either. I can't recall the toe setting for the rear.

Mine handles fairly well (I think so anyway) - does Wakefield in 1:20 with only 50kW, and datalogging at a few circuits shows I don't lack any corner speed compared to other (faster) cars. Only current issue I have is a tendency for the rear to break away quite suddenly, which I feel is due to the addition of a rear swaybar not long ago. This improved an understeer problem I had, but it doesn't seem as "controllable" at the limit (once the rear breaks away, it does so very quickly and is difficult to catch, previously it was more manageable).

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1970 ex Group A Rally P510
1971 P510
1972 180B SSS
1965 SP310 Fairlady
1966 SP311 Fairlady

haha yeh you can see in the pic I posted I have removed that pesky piece of front guard on mine. I have a rear swaybar fitted but I guess its an easy job to disconnect the links to compare with and without. I have softish rear springs (ie not datsport 1100lb jobs) so I figured a rear bar wouldnt go astray.

front toe should be at zero or up to 4mm total toe out depending on how turn in feels

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Jason
1600 Historic Touring Car

just got another alignment (specifically saying I wanted it to handle at wakefield) and they gave it 1.5mm toe in, is it going to be sh*t?

Probably wont turn in very well.

When getting an alignment you should be telling them what you want not leaving it to them (when it comes to a track car anyway ).

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Jason
1600 Historic Touring Car

1.9 toe in on the rear with -2.8 camber seems suss for a std rear.
what was the thrust angle?

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A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
www.datsport.com

"R.I.P. Baz. 29 April 2022. Thank you for all your contributions to the Datsun community over the years. You will be missed." - OZDAT