Adjusting Camber

[nakomis0]

My new arms are camber adjustable I guess.

Any advice on adjusting these. My type of riding would be trails, XC, and dunes.

Is it the same idea as adjusting the toe in?

I'm still a ways away from installing my arms, (frames still being Pc'd) but I can't find any good posts on this so I thought I would ask.

[boogiechile]

camber is a relationship of the top to bottom ball joint with respect to how far out from the frame centerline each is. Moving either one of them in or out will change the amount that the tire leans in or out at the top. I guess from your sig that you have houser arms. Unless he has changed them they are drilled without threading for the top a arm. this makes it easy to adjust camber using the top joint since it can be done without loosening the joint from the spindle. turning the nuts on the joint to move it back and forth will adjust the camber and then it needs to be sufficiently tightened to lock the joint in place. You need some sort of device to measure the angle of the wheel, not the tire. A cheap angle finder with a magnetic base from sears will do the job if you dont have anything else but it is not real accurate. Cut a straight edge out of something that will lay across your rim and fit just inside the lip against the bead portion of the wheel. Place the angle finder flush against the straight edge. Position the straight edge exactly vertical. For trail riding I would run just a little negative, about 1 degree, 2 max. you do not need a lot of neg camber with rounded tires.

There is a good fairly good tutorial here. http://www.lsracing.com/installguides.php?step=4&igid=5

[nakomis0]

Thanks.

[beerock]

boogie chile I think he was talking about castor
notice his remark to toe in.

I could be wrong though, but here it is anyhow.

castor effects the way the atv turns and stability at speed

the more positive castor (the top ball joint is more forward then the bottom ball joint) the more stable the bike will be while going fast.

the more negative castor(the top ball joint is further back of the bottom ball joint)the quicker the bike will turn but it will be twitchy at high speed.

[Ralph]

camber is this,,,(front view of quad l resembles a tires negative camber= / \ , positive camber= \ / and neutral camber= l l

all i know is that negative camber is good for mx...

[AndrewRRR]

yep. Caster is the amount of rake front to back the front spindle has. Think of the old choppers that had the front wheel way out there, those had a ton of caster. It affects cornering and the lean and bump steer, but it's usually not adjustable on quads so no sense in worrying about it.

[nakomis0]

Now where do I start?

I'm looking at my a arms and I see the top a-arm isn't threaded, but has a bolt on each side so you can tighten it where you want it.

And the lower a-arm IS threaded with 1 bolt to lock it in place.

Now I'm thinking I need about 2-3" of neg. camber. So would I just screw the lower a-arm ball joint all the way on and just do all my adjusting from the top a-arm?

Someone also told me my a-arms are camber and castor adjustable, but I don't know.

[nakomis0]

Originally posted by nakomis0
Now where do I start?

I'm looking at my a arms and I see the top a-arm isn't threaded, but has a bolt on each side so you can tighten it where you want it.

And the lower a-arm IS threaded with 1 bolt to lock it in place.

Now I'm thinking I need about 2-3" of neg. camber. So would I just screw the lower a-arm ball joint all the way on and just do all my adjusting from the top a-arm?

Someone also told me my a-arms are camber and castor adjustable, but I don't know.

I'm still confused about where to start on that lower a-arm ball joint. That ones the pain in the arse to adjust because you have to remove it from the spindle to adjust it. Just wondering if I just screw it all the way in or.. whatever advice ya have on it.

I'm acctually going to go work on that thing today, and I might get to that part.

[AndrewRRR]

I wouldn't screw the bottom a-arms ball joints in all the way. That would probably limit the amount of neg camber you could have as the top ball joint is probably threaded so that when both top and bottom are threaded all the way in together it has 0 degrees. Just put the bottoms at halfway or so (put them the same on both sides) and start adjusting from the top ball joint. If you have an angle finder and a level or straight edge it will be easy, if you don't just get a tape measure and a ruler and do the math to find the angle. There is no perfect setting, you'll have to find what works best for how you ride and what type of terrain you ride.