So we corner weighed the car for the first time ever a few days ago. I've never bothered as I didn't think it was that big of a deal in autox situations. After reading the #s, I think I will just post this up to remind every to corner weigh the car :)

Left Cross was 45%, Right cross was 55%. I said, hmmm, not much. Until I considered that with a 3100lb car (race trim/ w/ stock seats/race wheels/my fat ass in it) thats 310lbs more on the right cross then the left. Damn! I bet that affects the handling ;)

Got it all evened out and the left/right side weights as well. With Porter's corner weighing prowess, it only took 3 adjustments total, and bam, done. Thanks TopSpeed!

-Tom

Now you just upset the car A LOT,,,so you should suck for awhile...

That's pretty funny Tom !
I knew your old opinion on the topic, sa I never gave you any grief...but HA ! Yours sounded pretty whacked...SOOOOoooooo...GREAT, now you'll be a lttle faster :rolleyes: :lol: :rolleyes:

Brian

Now you just upset the car A LOT,,,so you should suck for awhile...
Yeah, but likely it will make me faster to have the car dialed in better. Won't affect Tom as much as it will me. :D

Yea I know, I seem to drive best with all sorts of whacked ass busted stuff on the car. At topeka, the right rear wheel was 0.25" lower then the rest and we were accidentally running 1/2" toe out. Felt good to me :huh: Car will probably suck now :lol:

-Tom

All the greats are like that. Steven drives even better that way; Jon K suggested that he'd FTD in a trash bag with 4 wheels, provided the wheels were all different. :lol:

Apparently Earnhardt (Sr.) used to drive faster on a badly setup car. He got a new chief at one point who said "OMG we need to fix all this stuff!" once he saw the car setup...and Earnhardt didn't run as well anymore. They pretty quickly went back to the old ways. :)

:D :D

Tom gets cranky after a full day of wrenching and losing several bets in a row.

:lol:

-Porter-

can someone explain cornerweighting? You said the car was 310 pounds heavier on one side....how do you move the weight? With the height of the suspension?

Yes, per corner height adjustments.

55/45 is a lot, when I took mine in last year I was only at like 50.4/49.6, just setting all the heights even all the way around.

Yes, per corner height adjustments.

55/45 is a lot, when I took mine in last year I was only at like 50.4/49.6, just setting all the heights even all the way around.
Yea, last time I did the heights was after quite a few beers on a uneven surface :lol:

-Tom

Yea, last time I did the heights was after quite a few beers on a uneven surface :lol:

-Tom

And he did it by leaning to one side and marking the back of the seat.


edit:I have been told that this comment is just too vague and simply NOT funny.
Soooo, let me explain....

He acheived his corner balance by leaning over in the seat. He marked the back of the seat so he'd know how far to lean when balance was necessary. (i.e. auto-x event)

Hope this clears things up.... :p :lol: :lol:

Scott

can someone explain cornerweighting? You said the car was 310 pounds heavier on one side....how do you move the weight? With the height of the suspension?

put a scale under each wheel. Compare the sum of the diagonal wheels (FR+RL) and (FL+RR), you want 50/50. These diagonal weights are easily adjusted by chaning the coilover ride hieghts.

I thought that's what trunk monkeys are for.

I thought that's what trunk monkeys are for.
You got a 310lb monkey?? That's not a monkey, that's a damn gorilla! :lol:

:lol: :lol:

The 15lbs side to side difference now can be made up by the trunk monkey :)

-Tom

Do you have to get it realigned now?

I have heard people argue both.. just seeking datapoints :)

Usually you'd have it aligned after the corner weighting, yes. The place where I had mine done does both.

Why?

We dropped the car 1/4" on one wheel and 1/8" on another. Why would that affect alignment?

-Tom

Why?

We dropped the car 1/4" on one wheel and 1/8" on another. Why would that affect alignment?

-Tom

You've changed static camber slightly, which means you've changed toe slightly- how much?- probably not much.

What I've seen recommended is getting ride heights to where you want them, alignment, corner weigh, re-align (if you've made changes to ride height when corner weighing).

Honestly 1/4" and 1/8" shouldn't be too much, a full inch drop usually only results in a couple of tenth's increase in neg camber.

Mike

Alignments are for sissies. :D

can someone explain cornerweighting? You said the car was 310 pounds heavier on one side....how do you move the weight? With the height of the suspension?

Think of the car being like a table with a short leg. It will rock back and forth with most of the tables weight on two diagonal legs.

To a lesser extent the same thing happens to a car. By making one leg longer, (adjusting a strut longer) you jack weight over onto the opposite corner as well as adding weight to the now longer strut. The other two corners would likewise become slightly lighter in weight as the the other diagonal is now carrying some of the load they used to have.

In the circle track world they intentionally bias the corner weights to favor turning to the left. In some road circuits the same can be done to a smaller degree if there is a bias toward one direction. For example all the really important turns turn the same way.

In autox and on road circuits that are equally setup with important turns going both ways you want as close as even weight distribution as you can get as a starting point.

Your car might actually like a small corner weight miss match depending on how evenly it is balanced side to side, front to back and depending on if the chassis is equally stiff in twisting and bending in all directions.

Small alignment changes like modifying camber can also make changes in corner weight because they will in effect raise or lower the tire slightly. In the same way tire pressures can also effect corner weights as the tires grow slightly.

Miss matches in tire stagger (rolling circumference / loaded height) can also effect what corner weight you have and what the car handles best with. This is sometimes the reason a car that was handling very well suddenly turns into and evil handling beast after changing tires that for all appearences are identical.

Larry

Ball park price on getting a car balanced? How many hrs? done by a pro. I'm in the the process of looking for a local shop but the problem is that I live in BFE. ...more like Hazzard county..

Thanks

Ball park price on getting a car balanced? How many hrs? done by a pro. I'm in the the process of looking for a local shop but the problem is that I live in BFE. ...more like Hazzard county..

Thanks
There is a place in CIncinnati called Performance Alignment that does an escellent job. You can find their website with a quick google.

The place here that does it charges $129 for corner balancing and alignment.

can someone explain cornerweighting? You said the car was 310 pounds heavier on one side....how do you move the weight? With the height of the suspension?

just to add to the other replies, grassroots has a fairly in depth, but easy to understand, explaination. http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/cornerweight.html

The place here that does it charges $129 for corner balancing and alignment.

Phil is that what Big Bear charges or are you speaking of another shop?