pmmboston

Got some great help to my questions when I was doing a steering rebuild.
Now I want to rebuild the rear suspension. I have an 1988 Camaro, 2.8 v6.
I plan to buy Moog springs 5665. But, what I just noticed is that my rear passenger side wheel is at least 3/4 inch out from the fender that the drivers side.
I think I should get Founders LCAs and Panhard Bar but my first question is do I need to get adjustable as I am not lowering the car. Will an adjustable panhard bar be needed to adjust the wheel to the fender?
Any and all advice is very much appreciated......Paul.....

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

The length of the panhard bar determines the position of the axle side to side. If you want to move the position of the axle then you need a panhard bar with adjustable length.

Single adjustable means you will have to remove it from the car every time you want to adjust it. Kind of counterproductive to what you're trying to accomplish. Double adjustable can be adjusted while still mounted to the vehicle. Smart money always buys the double adjustable panhard bar.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Don't use the fender as your reference.

It is not The Car. It is just a piece of trim stuck on somewhere out in space.

If you were levelling your house after it settled, would you use the levelness of the curtain rods as your reference for jacking its foundation? I don't think so. Same deal here.

The Car is where the control arms bolt to the "frame". THAT is what's supposed to be equal spacing.

Then if the fender thing bothers you, fix the body work.

I also suggest not using the tires as that part of the reference, either. A flat plate of some sort across the axle flange would make more sense. Wheels and tires can have variation, especially if not stock, or if they've been swapped. IROC and a bunch of the Firebird wheel variants have different offsets on the fronts & rears for example. If you have any of those, you may well have a front on one side and a rear on the other.

pmmboston

OK...Got it.

I'll check the measurements again using those references.

I'll also be buying a double adjustable panhard bar too.

Thanks. You guys know these vehicles....

Is it wise to buy adjustable rear control arms?

Paul
Boston

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Kinda depends on what you consider "wise"...

On the one hand, if the price is not too much different, it wouldn't make sense not too. On the other, about 99% of the time they'll end up at the stock length anyway. Soooo,,, ....

I have fixed ones on mine; the real simple poly/poly Lakewood ones. There's several that are very similar to them. A cheap and dependable design.

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

Sofa is correct.

Many members on this website, even members with high post counts, on many occassions have simply advised to drop a string from each fender and center the tires with the strings. If you care mainly about the car from a visual standpoint than this method should be sufficient. Doing that method, at best your rear end could be perfectly centered and at worst it could be off by something like 1.5". 1.5" over the length of the driveshaft is not that big of a deal as the U joints in the driveshaft should easily take up that angle.

I used to center my rear end this way until a few months ago I did a very thorough job on my car of setting up and aligning the entire drivetrain on my Camaro. I learned that at least on my application with the tires centered between the rear fenders the rearend was off center by 5/8" from the chassis centerline.

Here is where my writeup begins of aligning the drivetrain on my Camaro:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ml#post6162571

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

If you're interested in great handling then you might as well drop plumb-bob from the chassis pivot points and see if the car is reasonably in square in the first place. A car that doesn't start out being square is a lost cause if you want to be competitive.

It was years ago that I checked my car and I can't remember the acceptable limits but you can find it in suspension building books. I'm not a competitive driver but my car does very predictable things and that keeps me safer on the street when I'm being a bit rowdy.

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

The link I posted was to the portion of my build thread where I did just that! I also posted the factory illustrations of the chassis measuring points and the respective lengths with their allowable variances.