On the fly camber adjuster

[Sirdeuce]

Rig a system that works an eccentric pivot at the lower control arm bushings. Like turning the 'crash' bolt. The system could be rigged to the steering knuckle so the change can be made during a turn. Increase negative camber on the outside tire and decrease it on the inside. This would allow a zero or close to zero straightline camber, and change to the agressive camber in a turn. Imagine the inside tire is at a negative camber reducing contact patch area. Move the inside tire to a point where it has positive camber. Both tires will have the top and bottom of the tire oriented in the same direction! Now the outside tire won't be required to perform all the work! Reduced understeer!

[Sirdeuce]

Could even link to the rear and have 4 wheel camber on the fly!

[BigMike]

I'm taking a breather from cramming for my Statistics exam tomorrow.

This sounds really really awesome.... but man those are some huge forces....

Leverage is our friend. Quick brain storm here.... Imagine you have an adjustable camber plate at the top strut mount. But built it so it is freely adjustable, no lock-out. The strut is long so the forces would be reduced at the top, but it will require more adjustment to make the same amount of camber change.

Electric solution: Have an electric motor with a worm gear rack-and-pinion setup. When the motor turns one way, a worm gear pulls the rack one way, and vice-versa. Then you can have a G-force sensor (available for the BASIC Stamp!!) determine how much cornering you are doing, and then program the Stamp microcontroller to alter the motor as needed.

Mechanical solutions (preferred of course!)

Brain storm #1: Have a pendulum located in the center of the front trunk. Add an extension to the pendulum rod that extends up past the rod's pivot point by a couple inches. Then have two rods running to each camber plate, connecting each camber plate to the top extension of the pendulum. Then, in a right-hand turn, the pendulum will swing to the drivers side of the trunk. It will pull on the drivers camber plate and at the same time push on the passengers side camber plate. This will increase camber on the drivers side (which is the out-side tire) and decrease camber on the passengers side (the inside tire).

Brain storm #2: Use the same theory in the pendulum example above, but instead of a pendulum controlling the top extension, use some linkages to connect the pivot to the steering system somehow.

I'll come up with some drawings tomorrow after my exam.

[Sirdeuce]

Yes! It is a sickness!

[BigMike]

You cast, I bite :)

[Sirdeuce]

Use needle or roller bearins to replace the bushings, cut an eccentric roller to fit inside the bearing. Weld 14" plate as lever, maybe a 2 1/2" arm. Heim ends to connect them. The trickt part is the steering arm, ar maybe an adapter at the inner tie rod end. As for the forces at the pivot? I don't think it'll be that much of an issue. Might make the steering a little heavier. Just have to address the friction issue, see bearings above. We have a lot of parts to play with. if you are game, I'll let you in on my idea in more detail later, and you can describe yours to me. I'm sure we can come up with something durable enough with a smmothe operation that doesn't cause too much of a strain on the driver or components. Either way, I'm surre march is too early to try to build and test a setup like this.

[Sirdeuce]

Make the components out of titanium stock