Recommended daily driver alignment specs anyone?

[thebluepotato]

Right now, my mini is on the road after a full rebuild and aligned via eyeball.  Have Hi-Lows/adjusta ride/rubber cones/GAZ/Adj lower arms/adj tie-rods and clearly the car is a bit twitchy on the road....I like to call it "overly sensitive like my first girlfriend."

By eye - I can definitely see some positive camber on the rears - I was told all minis from the factory came with some positive rear camber, but not sure.  Fronts have slightly negative camber and some tow in (again by eye).

Again, going to have it aligned at a local small shop who works on classics, but anyone have a favorite alignment spec for daily use - possibly slightly for aggressive driving?

In the Miata world (my other toy), we follow this alignment spec (some of you may know Miq's Alignment here) with some lovely negative camber:

    FRONT
    Caster +4.7 to +5.5 (what ever the maximum attained is)
    Camber -0.6 to -0.8 (this number varies with the caster)
    Toe 1/16" per side, or 1/8" _total toe out_

    REAR
    Caster not applicable, there is no adjustment possible
    Camber -1.1
    Toe 1/16" per side, or 1/8" _total toe in_ or zero

[MiniDave]

There are camber adjusters you can buy for the rear, I prefer the MiniSport design....they're very similar to the KAD, but about 1/3 the cost. However, they are fiddly and you need an alignment machine to get them right - they also allow you to set the toe in the rear.

As for Specs, this is what I use:
Front
1/2° negative camber
3 ° caster
.1° toe out

Rear
1/2° negative camber
.1° toe in

The explanation for the difference in toe goes something like this. You want the driven wheels to be very slightly toed out because as you apply power they tend to toe in (no idea why you would want toe out on the front of a rear drive Miata, most rear drive cars have toe in on the front). In the rear you want a very slight bit of toe in so the car will track properly - the back wants to follow the front. You don't need much on either end tho - the ideal is that all the wheels are pointing dead ahead when driving down the road to minimize tire wear and drive straight. If you drive heavily crowned roads you can vary the caster slightly side to side - no more than 1/2° - to compensate, so you could go 2 1/2° caster on the left and 3° on the right for our roads for example.

The tire size has a bit to do with how these cars drive too, as it was designed for 10" wheels, when you put bigger fatter wheels and tires on and/or change the offset of the wheels it affects how the car tracks - my car with 13" wheels and 175/50 series tires tramlines like crazy and can be a bit twitchy too - but I like the looks so I put up with it.

[Willie_B]

If you don't have a place to do the alignment yet, GTE in Chamblee have done mine in the past. If you call they will say no but took it anyway and they got it done.

[MiniDave]

Monday I'm going to see if the tire shop that fixed the flat on my blue Clubby can balance the tires on the Green Mini, I've got a funny wobble I just can't get rid of so I'm gonna see if they're any better at balancing these wheels than I am (I did them last on the school's balancer)

[thebluepotato]

Thanks guys for the recs....Willie - found a place on Fairground ST/Marietta (Weaver Tire) that did old Jag here (the mastermind behind my rebuild in fact, named Phillip) who said they do classics....and on their site, there is a 69 countryman pictured in customer cars....so hoping this does the job.  It is waaaaaaay too twitchy on the roads right now...not planted, but looks planted.