README: Corner Balancing and Alignment

12171 Views 46 Replies 19 Participants Last post by kotetu, Oct 31, 2008

mrkeith

Discussion Starter · May 4, 2007

Dear Every Coil-Over-Driving Legend Owner--
You should corner-balance your Legend; otherwise you're not taking advantage of what your coil-overs were designed to do. Lowering is only a side effect, or perk, of installing coil-overs.

On with it! Believe me when I write that my Legend is difficult to align--so difficult that I've been turned away from a couple shops (including the dealership). Without a doubt, West End Alignment in Gardina, CA offers alignment and corner-balancing perfection, even for meticulous folks like myself. The guy is a suspension genius; he asks the right questions; his advice is solid. These words cannot describe how satisfied I am, or how my face hurts from grinning the entire two-hour drive home. For once, my Legend is as it should have been. It feels super agile and nimble on its toes.

The Legend about to be corner balanced:

My corner balance results:

The guy moved ~75lbs. of weight off the driver's front wheel, which roughly equates to removing a 400lb. guy out of the driver's seat. As you can see from the results above, relocating the battery to the passenger rear of the car (directly above the wheel) should almost perfectly left/right balance the coupe with me sitting in it.

My alignment is a perfect 1.5 degree camber on both front tires with 4.5 degrees caster and no toe (zero). Both rear tires are running 1.25 degrees of negative camber and 1/16 inches of toe in. I think this is a perfect track setup for a Legend. If you do not track your Legend, or drive aggressively, then run much less camber or you'll be roasting tires!

I wish that you guys could drive the before and after. If you have any questions about corner balancing or alignments, please ask. I can hopefully help. If you would like to schedule an appointment with West End, see below. I cannot recommend them high enough!

18008 S Vermont Ave
Gardena, CA 90248
(310) 808-9233

See you all at the Nationals tomorrow!

Cheers,
Keith

P.S.
Both the alignment and corner-balancing were done with me sitting in the car the entire time.

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2

1 - 20 of 47 Posts

kotetu

· #2 · May 4, 2007

cost? I'll have to get this done after I get the ksports in. Too bad they are not already in!

mrkeith

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 4, 2007

kotetu said:
cost? I'll have to get this done after I get the ksports in. Too bad they are not already in!

You had better be there in the TT tomorrow, or else!

He spent about 3.5/4 hours with me and the cost was $215.

k.

Disclaimer:
If anybody thinks to chime in with babble about $215 being a ripoff because mechanics should work for free, then I hope somebody e-punches you in the face for being an asshat.

kotetu

· #4 · May 4, 2007 (Edited)

$215 for a well aligned car is a good investment.

I notice you're still on those big heavy wheels! Nothing lighter/smaller for the track? I guess you have to have something pretty big to fit over those brakes though.

3565 with you in the car huh? sounds pretty light. did you pull out 160 pounds of stuff? like the rear seat and the contents of the trunk? I know the coupe weighs in a bit over 3500 from the factory, and I thought the autos weigh more than the manuals. I'm guessing you weigh about 160 or so, putting your coupe right at 3400 pounds. Were you on a half tank of gas?

edit: I forgot about that carbon fiber hood - how much does it save, I wonder?

kotetu

· #5 · May 4, 2007

I punched it up in Excel - ideally you want to move exactly 46 pounds from the front driver corner to the rear passenger corner. The stock battery weighs about 37 1/2 pounds.

The only other things I can think of in that corner are the battery tray and the windshield washer reservoir. If you pull those out you could be getting close to the perfect number.

Code:

relocatable weight					
46					
		1070	1068		
		714	713		
DC	1782			1783	PC
	50.0%			50.0%	

	F	2138	60.0%		
	R	1427	40.0%		


		1784	1781		
		50.0%	50.0%		
		L	R

another thing to consider is how much the extra wiring will weigh - I guess it would throw off the calculation a bit.

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KINGFABIAN

· #6 · May 4, 2007

If I had access to him , Id be there in a heartbeat. Around my parts Im lucky to even find someone that will do alignment on lowriders period.

kotetu

· #7 · May 4, 2007 (Edited)

I really wish I could make it - as of right now I have an appt to take my car in so I can start the process of fixing it.

Anyway, on further experimentation, Keith, I discovered that if you added 14 50 pound bags of rice to your trunk, you'd acheive truely prefect weight distribution: 50/50 front-rear, side-to-side, and corner. of course your car would also weigh 4275 pounds. :lol:

Code:

relocatable weight	ballast l/r rear	Total weight w/driver
47			355			4275
					
		1069	1068		
		1069	1069		
DC	2137			2138	PC
	50.0%			50.0%	

	F	2137	50.0%		
	R	2138	50.0%		


		2138	2137		
		50.0%	50.0%		
		L	R

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Thai.95LCoupe

· #8 · May 4, 2007

Word. An aligned auto period will do wonders on crisper handling. If anyone in Atlanta area wants corner balance alignment let me know. The shop I go to does an awsome job.

drewLegend

· #9 · May 5, 2007

Thai.95LCoupe said:
Word. An aligned auto period will do wonders on crisper handling. If anyone in Atlanta area wants corner balance alignment let me know. The shop I go to does an awsome job.

I'll be hitting you up about that ATL area shop once I get my Ksports installed and have some extra $.

502 MotorSports

· #10 · May 7, 2007

that's whats up

even distro for the win

FF Drifter

· #11 · May 11, 2007

Keith, just curious as to how you moved your battery to the trunk. I've been considering some weight-balancing for a while now but I'm still not sure as to how great the benefit is (esp. since I have yet to see track action in my Legend and the closest thing so far is local twisties). But of course, I'm interested in maximizing my car's handling potential =)

Also, is this something that can be done only with height-adjustable coilovers? My suspension adjusts damper levels only =/

mrkeith

Discussion Starter · #12 · May 11, 2007

FF Drifter said:
Keith, just curious as to how you moved your battery to the trunk. I've been considering some weight-balancing for a while now but I'm still not sure as to how great the benefit is (esp. since I have yet to see track action in my Legend and the closest thing so far is local twisties). But of course, I'm interested in maximizing my car's handling potential =)

Also, is this something that can be done only with height-adjustable coilovers? My suspension adjusts damper levels only =/

Ohhh, you won't be able to sensibly corner-balance your car without adjustable spring rates.

There are battery relocation kits for purchase online, but you should ask DV8 or anybody who's relocated theirs. I haven't started mine, yet. Let us know what you find out! I'm thinking that we could remove the storage container on the right and stuff a smallish battery there.

k.

JonnyBlaze

· #13 · May 11, 2007

There is a detailed article about corner balancing in the latest Modified Magazine. http://www.modified.com/

SickRick

· #14 · May 11, 2007

Originally Posted by Thai.95LCoupe View Post
Word. An aligned auto period will do wonders on crisper handling. If anyone in Atlanta area wants corner balance alignment let me know. The shop I go to does an awsome job.

Originally Posted by Coilover Boy I'll be hitting you up about that ATL area shop once I get my Ksports installed and have some extra $.

Yeah, +1....where are you at?

lgnd4u2nv

· #15 · May 14, 2007

mrkeith - do you have aftermarket ball joints to adjust your camber?

i tried to get my car aligned, and they said that the ride hight directly effects the camber, so with where my car sits right now, i have about -2.5 degrees in the front, and -1.75 in the rear.

i HATE it b/c i am eating up tires....so i need to find a solution soon. any help would be awesosme.

if you want to take the conversation to PM thats fine, or u can just post back here.

G Rahn

· #16 · May 17, 2007

mrkeith said:
Ohhh, you won't be able to sensibly corner-balance your car without adjustable spring rates

k.

The kSport coilovers are designed in such a way that the spring rate doesn't change when height adjusted, correct?

Volk Racing

· #17 · May 17, 2007

U Thant said:
The kSport coilovers are designed in such a way that the spring rate doesn't change when height adjusted, correct?

That's actually how it is with most coilovers. Especially the cheap ones like the sleeved Ground Control, Skunks... etc.

Blackend

· #18 · May 17, 2007

Volk Racing said:
That's actually how it is with most coilovers. Especially the cheap ones like the sleeved Ground Control, Skunks... etc.

Except for the JIC's for some reason. Their height adjustment compresses the spring. In looking at the Ksports, it's pretty easy to leave the spring alone - not sure why JIC engineered theirs that way.

mrkeith

Discussion Starter · #19 · May 17, 2007

Blackend said:
Except for the JIC's for some reason. Their height adjustment compresses the spring. In looking at the Ksports, it's pretty easy to leave the spring alone - not sure why JIC engineered theirs that way.

Ground Controls are not true coil-overs, and they do affect the spring pre-load as the height moves. I have not seen a shock-body adjustable Skunk either.

Most coil-overs do not adjust at the shock body; that's a relatively new design. JICs are the older style coil-overs; they've been out for years.

Side note:
Don't waste your money on the JICs unless you're just into having the stiffest riding Legend on Earth. The Ksports offer much more adjustability, the dampeners are softer, and handling doesn't seem adversely affected by either of these things. The only difference, and Brian thinks it may be tire-related, was that Brian's Ksport coupe understeers and I oversteer with JICs.

k.

aww-shiet

· #20 · May 17, 2007

keith you need some lighter wheels bro.

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