Adding/removing front camber. Silly question, I know..

[daftphunk]

Sup.

So honestly I think I would know this question already but I am perplexed right now.
The main question is: "Can you add or remove camber in the front (S14) without having camber plates?"

As far as I know, I thought you HAD to have camber plates in the front to adjust your camber. But please, correct me if I am wrong. I also know that if you have coil overs, the top mounting bolt on the strut may/can be slotted to add/remove camber in that sense.

I have a set of Fortune Auto series 500 coils and as far as I know, they aren't slotted on the top mounting point. I have thought about slotting them to add more front camber, just haven't gotten around to it.

Here is my concern though.

I just came from the alignment shop where my buddy does my alignments for me. He is knowledgable and will adjust my RUCAS, Toe Arms, etc. to my liking. Today he was really busy though and my steering wheel was off so I just took it in to get an alignment check. Toe, Caster, etc was all out of spec so he got it back into spec and what not.

However, my front driver side had camber measurements of -3*. My front passenger had a measurements of -4.5*. He quickly matched up them to be -3* and gave me my car and I was on my way home. When I got home I looked it all over and clearly the front passenger now poked out tons more and was literally 1mm clearance from fender to tire. Cool, but it rubs a lot, especially when turning. I didn't have this problem before the alignment obviously. The front driver has about 4mm clearance from fender to tire.

So I look under the hood and prior to the alignment my camber plates were maxed out. I checked them and... they are still maxed out. He didn't even touch them.

So what I am wondering is how did he remove 1.5* of camber in the front without touching my camber plates? And then besides that, why would I have the same amount of camber up front but have the fitment of my wheels completely different?

I need to remedy this solution. I mean the best thing I guess would be to call him but he's a busy guy and never answers his phone.

[ryandriftingfat]

Probably slotted upper bolt hole on coilover mount at the knuckle. Lots of coilovers come with that so you can throw camber at it without touching the camber plate. It's also where inexperienced alignment guys will immediately make adjustments not knowing that they can use the camber plate.

Also, get a fender roller.

[g2ic02]

is there a camber adjustment at the lower control arm to frame??? my car is in storage or i would check.

[ryandriftingfat]

No, the LCA's are static. Camber is adjusted at the upper mount hole.

[MeanS14]

If he messed with your toe and caster in the front to get them back to spec the camber will also change slightly. Now as far as it changing 1.5 degrees I doubt it. Keep in mind that there are numerous rubber bushings in the front (lca bushings, ball joints, etc..) and if they are worn differently from side to side you could have the coilovers adjusted them same but get completely different camber measurements

[Arireese]

maybe your car was hit before and has one s13 control arm and one s14.

[daftphunk]

^ I have one S13 tie rod and one S14 tie rod, but as far as I am concerned, they are basically the same. The control arms are both S14s.

I am just going to go ahead and adjust the coilover top mount I suppose. There's nothing else that I can think of that would adjust it that far out. It's a noticeable difference. Hoping that's all there is to it.

I am just going to assume that he adjusted the camber through the top hole.

Getting it back to where I want it, where it 'looks' to be the same as the driver side, why don't the numbers match up on paper?

[Goldeneye9mm]

camber adjustment bolt kits are available for almost every car on the planet. its a smaller bolt with a eccentric lobe like a cam shaft. they take the place of the upper and or lower knuckle bolts. here (http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/details/QQNissanQQ240SXQQEibachQQCamber_and_Alignment_KitQ Q19891998QQE27581250K.html?apwcid=P1135867996W43b3 f85c7ab9e&apwidXW8yxtr) is a set i found for your car in about 4 seconds on google. they are easy to install if you know anything about cars and understand geometry. anyone who works on cars for a living could have told you this and an alignment shop can set the camber for you. good luck sir. no offence but sometimes it's difficult to listen to you "hobby" guys talk about these things like hey are from another planet. and you have to set your alignment in order of caster, camber than toe otherwise you will be fighting you measurements back and forth forever.

[Perfect Balance]

Fortune Auto coilovers have a slotted upper mount. He probably adjusted it with that. 240s are frequently screwed up in some way, my car has never been wrecked but the right side is more flush even though the camber is the same on both sides.

Also, if you screw with your camber plates, you're going to screw up the alignment you just paid money to have done. Don't touch it.


EDIT: Did you tuck your harness on the driver side? Chances are the harness pushes on the fender and bulges the fender out a little bit at the top and it doesn't fit quite the same anymore. Mine did that a little bit and it bugs the hell out of me, the pass side is really flush but the driver's has a little gap. I even took the fender off and redid the harness to make it like it was with no luck. The damage was done.

[job4ac0wboy]

Alot of times i find cars that im aligning have equal amounts out like 1.5* split front camber so to correct you can shift the cradle side to side and correct the camber split. Cant say ive checked on a s chassis if you can do a cradle shift. Mine and all my friends have cam bolts and/or camber plates so no need to check. But in your case it would be worth looking into. You can probably get a better caster split aswell. It can shift if you hit a curn or someone before you hits a curb or whatever. Itll jack up your camber and your BJ's will be facing closer to the same way. You got the picture im sure. Im explaining too indepth.