Volvo RWD 140-160 Forum

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Alignment specs 140-160

Hello all,
I will be taking my 71 145 in for an alignment now that it is back on the road and I wanted to get the vast and brilliant advice from the board about setting the car up "other-than-stock." I have John Parker’s progressive springs in front, single rate in the rear, IPD bars, newer FWD 17" Volvo rims, and 225/45-17 tires on the car. I like to drive with a little extra “spirit” and will be taking the car to PIR and SIR for fun and educational track days in the future. So should I deviate from the stock alignments settings to improve turn-in and cornering with out sacrificing straight line tracking and tire wear? If so what would those numbers be?
What so all of you think?
Wayne








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Alignment specs 140-160

I'm running -1.5 camber & +2.5 castor. Can't recall the toe settings, but it's not much. Doesn't scrub tyres, and handling is "lively" without being "twitchy".

Standard specs are for 0 to +0.5 camber = GODAWFUL !!








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Alignment specs 140-160

I would suggest the following numbers as a good starting point for "spirited" driving.

Camber: -0.5 to -1.0 degrees
Caster: +2.0 to +3.0 degrees
Toe-in: 1/16"

The negative camber will provide additional "stick" at the front end, without literally peeling the rubber off the inside of the tires as you do the daily commute. That's not to say you can forget tire rotation... invest a few bucks in a tire depth guage if you don't already have one, and keep a close eye on wear.

The additional positive caster will generate more negative camber on the outside wheel, especially in lower speed (sharper) turns, with only a little additional steering effort. The positive caster also tends to stabilize the car on the straight bits.

I tend to believe that toe-in is mostly personal preference... more about how the car feels than how it actually corners... but suffice to say that for most cars (street or race, for that matter) I like fairly small toe numbers, be they in OR out. IMO, someone that's running a whole load of toe-in or toe-out (1/8" or more) and claiming it makes the car "handle better", is most likely compensating for some other problem in alignment, tires, or setup.

For calibration purposes, I can tell you the numbers above are actually quite conservative, depending on your perspective. On the ITB 142E racecar, I'm running -3.25 camber, +4.0 caster, and 1/32" toe-in. This is with stock suspension geometry, but Hoosier racing radials, 675 lb/in front springs, a 1.375" front bar and very stiff Carrera shocks. Extensive tire temperature data and tire wear patterns (not to mention laptimes!), tell us we must be very close to ideal for that particular car and driver.

Gary L.
--
1971 142E ITB racer, 1973 1800ES, 2002 S60 T5








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Alignment specs 140-160

I use to run similar caster & camber on my racer but with 10mm of toe out. I think the amount of toe you run depends mostly on how much extra track your non standard rims provide. The rims I had added 80mm to the track so I guess 10mm toe out corrected the toe out on turn problem of increasing track.








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Alignment specs 140-160

My GUESS is that it wouldn't be very much different from what the manual says.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!








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Alignment specs 140-160

I can't think of the stock numbers off the top of my head, but more caster and more camber never really hurts...

This is the guide I originally took a look see at when I took my 142 in those years ago.

VClassics alignment article

I ended up going with 1 degree neg. camber, and don't remember the caster, but I think I had the toe set to 1/16" in, or so. I find the article to be a little conservative, considering some of the numbers cars run today. I think the article covers it, but more caster will give the car more camber when the wheels are turned, thus improving handling, while also making the car want to return to straight ahead more, at the expense of parking lot speeds having increased steering effort. I think those are the basics anyway. With my 142 I haven't noticed much wear on the inside of the tires due to the -1 deg. of camber, but then again, I haven't had the same set of wheels/tires on the car for more than maybe 5000mi at a time.

I just got my 240 aligned, and ended up going with zero toe, but I think that was a bit drastic because the car is used daily, and not really going to be tracked often, if at all. It now requires your hands to be on the wheel all the time, not very relaxing...

Oh, and please let me know when you plan on making it down to PIR... :-D My 142 might be back together and able to come out and play too. Not with a new motor yet though...







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