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Subject:Re: Kingpin inclination spec for Vanagons?
From:DaveC
Date:Wed, 1 Aug 2001 23:34:50 -0700

None of these.

It is the angle at which a line drawn through the ball joints /
steering knuckles meets the road surface.

Dave

-=-=-=-

>From my meager experience at uncle skippy's place (aka
>skip barber racing school), here goes. (Ed. note. this
>is an exerpt from a doctoral dissertation by Seok Min
>Lee, circa 1466 BC on the high performance
>modifications of single seat raing chariots.)
>
>"
>CAMBER:
>        The degree to which the tire/wheel is not
>perpendicular to the horizontal plane running through
>the center of the hub when looking at the vehicle
>head-on. Usually, this is a bad thing to have too much
>negative? camber with the bottom edge of the tire
>wider than the top edge, but when road racing, it is
>sometimes a good thing because when the outside tire
>becomes loaded, the weight shift and resulting lean of
>the car shift the full width of the tire into contact
>with the road surface.  Having alot of ?negative?
>camber will also exponentially reduce the life of the
>tire.
>
>CASTER:
>        The degree to which the front/rear suspension
>upright/strut tower is not perpendicular to the
>horizontal plane running through the center of the hub
>when looking at the vehicle from the side.  A Harley
>with high-bars and laid back seating is more conducive
>to high-speed highway cruising than dicing it up in
>the city with the rice-rockets.
>
>TOE-IN:
>        The degree to which the front/rear wheels/tires
>are not parallel with the vertical plane passing
>through the front/rear hub.  The more toe-in, the more
>responsive/twitchy the vehicle at turn-in.
>
>DROOP:
>       The amount of negative travel in the suspension
>(on a normal Cartesian x-y graph with positive being
>in the "upwards" direction).  For example, the A3
>Jetta/Golf  have almost no suspension droop leading to
>the inner rear tire lifting off the ground during
>auto-crosses/road races/high speed maneuvers while
>running from cops in south-central Idaho."
>
>thought that would take longer to wri.... i mean copy
>than it did.
>peace, out.
>-sudhir
>
>
>=====
>Sudhir Desai
>desa4622@kettering.edu   desa4622@yahoo.com
>1984 Vanagon Z34(soon to be S4) & 1996 Jetta Trek
>icq# 8255956 -- AOL: rawsuds -- yahoopager: desa4622
>
>__________________________________________________
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--
Dave Carpenter

Whatever you wish for me,
May you have twice as much.