VX Coupe Wheel Alignment Figures

[Fingers]

I have had a quick search on the forum and can't find any info. What are the wheel alignment figures for a VX coupe, it's well over due.

[Gamma1]

Hi Fingers, your local wheel allignment shop should have the specs on his computer. Gerry 8)

[Fingers]

Unfortunately not, they didn't even have the details for my Alfa 155

[omicron]

From the drivers handbook for VX:

Front (unladen)
camber: 1 deg +- 20'
caster: 1 deg 25' +- 20'
toe-in: minus 2.5 to 1mm

Rear (unladen)
camber: minus 30' +- 20'
toe in: 2 to 5mm

[Fingers]

That's fantastic, thanks very much. Do you have any original VX coupe owners manuals for sale?

[omicron]

Sorry, no originals in stock. I've only got a copy myself.

Andrew

[Fingers]

That'd be a great resource to get on the forum somewhere, I've been looking for one for years and have just never even seen any evidence that they exist.

[Neil]

Had my VX coupe tracking set parallel on the advice of Chris at Betacar. The local garage had no info on file. The car runs straight and is fine in the corners, so it works for me. Hope it helps!

[Maigret]

Now that computer inventory systems are so common at auto retailers they just haven't bothered to put older or less common parts on the system. Last week I got an oil/filter combo and there was no listing for HPE 2000. Curiously they had a listing for the 1300 model which was never sold here. Fortunately I remembered the part no.

While they totally neglect Italian cars, British cars are well supported. For my Esprit I got Timing belt, Dist.cap & rotor plus carb kits off the shelf. This is in a town of 12000 and the nearest similar car is 1000km away.

I picked up a dealers workshop manual for the Beta off www.trademe.co.nz last month for $40 inc post. (~13GBP) Thanks for putting me onto that Gerry. I bumped into your other half last night. Tell Midge the clubs website is http://thepenguinclub.co.nz/

A useful one to try is www.manuals.co.nz
They ship worldwide and have a large selection of Manuals, Books and CD's


Graeme

[SubGothius]

I've sent a handy wheel-alignment spec reference chart to DJ for posting in the D/Ls section here at Lancisti.

I've gathered from that chart (and reading up on principles at Tire Rack (http://TireRack.com/)) that parallel (ie, zero-degree) front-wheel toe is only recommended when setting the alignment with the car fully laden and the engine driving the wheels, as you would under no real-world driving circumstance want the front wheels toed-in; this parallel setting will result in varying degrees of slight toe-out when the car is unladen, lightly-laden, or sitting at rest. Aside from that, the rear-wheel toe and all wheels' camber and caster should be permanently set on most Betas which have no ready provisions for those adjustments (except very early-series Betas with adjustable rear transverse links) nor would need such in any but the most extreme cases (eg, frame/unibody distortion, repair/replacement of suspension parts after an accident, etc. :!: ).

As a matter of general principle, FWD cars are usually aligned with some degree of toe-out (negative toe), as powering the driven wheels pulls their leading edges forward and inward (as the wheel tries to "drive around" the CV-joint and steering kingpin axes and distorts suspension bushes accordingly -- the reverse happens with RWD cars, which usually get front alignments with positive toe-in), thus reducing the effective toe and bringing the wheels closer to parallel while the car is actually underway on the road. Lesser toe-out (smaller negative toe, closer to parallel) will improve straight-line tracking and stability, which stability can be traded off for sharper turn-in response (say, for competition) by aligning with greater toe-out (larger negative toe). For most street-driving uses, aligning the front wheels to parallel-toe while fully-laden and driven should indeed be the way to go. ;)