1987 Fiero GT Front Camber Adjustment (Page 1/1)
Rightasrain DEC 05, 06:32 AM

Hi All,

I've searched the forum and the web and couldn't find a specific answer so I apologize in advance if this is something already known to all..

I'm trying to get some negative camber (negative 1) in the front of my 87 GT and the best I can do is 0 deg (neutral camber).

I've taken the bolts on the top ball joint out and saw that it has a round hole while the ball joint I have is adjustable. Can I slot the hole a bit with a file/dremmel to allow for some negative camber?

Cheers,
Ronen

[This message has been edited by Rightasrain (edited 12-05-2024).]

fieroguru DEC 05, 06:54 AM
Yes.
pmbrunelle DEC 05, 08:58 AM
On the upper control arm, the flat area where the ball joint installs stops being flat and becomes raised.



The raised area of sheetmetal stops you from shifting the ball joint further towards the middle of the car.

The slots in the Moog joint pretty much allow you to hit that limit, so there is not much point in slotting those holes any further.

There is also the large hole (where the ball and socket goes) in the control arm which can be a limiting factor, so pay attention to that as well.
Brian A DEC 06, 11:24 AM
I ran into the same problem when I lowered my 1987 GT by about 1 inch. All I could get was -0.7 degrees.

I also have slightly different adjustable (slotted) ball joints that what you have. I believe mine are from Rodney Dickman.

I ground the large round hole for the ball joint on the A-Arm to allow the ball joint to slide inward. As pmbrunelle mentioned, the ball joint also jams against the a-arm where it starts to rise. Tapering the bottom of the ball joint slightly where it interferes with the A-Arm gets you a lot of extra movement since the a-arm only "slowly" curves upward. Tapering the bottom is probably more than you need to do though actually.

After I did all that, I could get -3.5 degrees. I drove the car a bit before taking it in for another alignment. The -3.5 degrees camber had an undesirable impact on ride quality. Particularly, the car seemed to tramline and wander. In my opinion, -3.5 degrees is way too much.

Ultimately, I had the car set to the maximum camber Robert Wagoneer recommends in his book "High Performance Fieros" which is -1.7 degrees. The car handles well with this setting.

I was concerned for the removal of structural metal and the slotting of holes. After studying the configuration, it looks to me like the upper a-arm does not take road-force loads (which is all done by the lower control arm and spring assembly). The upper a-arm only takes tension loads to control wheel alignment. I have since taken my car out for Track Days and Autocross and have driven it extensively at speed and the ball-joint bolts have not slipped. (My shock mounts for a rear wheel HAVE slipped, but that is another story.)

[This message has been edited by Brian A (edited 12-06-2024).]