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Negative Camber wishbones?

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Nunyas

Nunyas

Yoda
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Ok, I've decided to rebuild my front suspension on my '76 B before trying to increase engine power. While doing this rebuild, I want to enhance the handling. Lowering the car is pretty much a given. So is ADDing a front anti-sway bar. Chances are I will have to change out my lower wishbones for the proper ones that have the reinforced anti-sway bar mount points. The question is though, do I want to just go with the stock lower wishbone sets, or do I want to go for the negative camber sets? To answer that question a couple of other questions need to be answered first.

My car is a daily driver. I want to enhance its performance, handling, and reliability. I am willing to make some sacrifices in ride quality if it means I'll get real world noticeable improvments in handling. The questions (regarding negative camber wishbones) I'd like to have answered are: Is the handling improvement really noticeable (i.e. is it worth the price of admission)? and... How much of a difference in tire wear does it make (e.g. will they reduce tread life by half? 1/3? 1/4?)?

Thanks for any info you guys may have
 
hmmm...No one uses negative camber wishbones on their street cars here? Is this one of those things that should be left for the track?
 
I dunno - but I'd like to hear some opinions also. Sounds like a good idea, especially for the RB MG's.
 
Yeah, I know alot of guys with MG, but none use neg camber on their street cars. Only place I've see it used is in racing situations. The MG suspension, when rebuilt properly is pretty darn good stock. Only upgrade I would suggest is like you said, adding the swaybar and using nylon bushes.
 
Hello Nunyas,

this is a general reply as I've no in depth knowledge of MG's.
One is what is the standard specification, is the camber figure a positive one?
You plan to add a front 'sway' bar, this normally increases understeer, which I suspect, you will alteady have built in.
I would suggest that altering the camber to a negative figure will help cancel some of that extra understeer and enhance the handling. Also lowering will tend to move the camber angle towards a negative figure, so is this modified wishbone adjustable?.
It all depends on your driving style, if you like to push on the bends etc I would say go negative but for gentle cruising then I wouldn't bother. Likewise, hard driving wears the outside of the front tyres on a positive camber car (remember the tyre's angle to the road goes more positive when you add the roll angle) so going negative may well extend the useful life of your tyres.

Alec
 
piman: The particular negative camber wishbones I've been looking at aren't adjustable (not anymore than stock wishbones anyways). They're quoted as 7/8" longer (or 3/4" depending on distributor) lower wishbones.

I have seen at least one coil over kit that replaces both upper and lower wishbones with custom units that allow for camber and caster adjustments. These setups are a bit beyond my wallet at this time.

I would certianly like to be able to take turns at higher speeds, but I think my main concern is tread wear. At least one of the distributors I've looked at mentions that tread life could be shorted, which is probably why I'm a bit apprehensive about putting these onto a street car.
 
I recently found these lower wishbones that lower an MGB 1" and provide adjustable camber. Anyone ever use these? They seem interesting to me, but I wonder how strong the welds are. I'd hate to have the welds break while driving down the road, or worse have a weld break while going through switch backs...

Also, I was looking at the pictures and it seems like they're only providing 1 offset washer per side, which makes me wonder if that's strong enough to prevent the camber adjustments from slipping while under stress.

At their asking price of $180 for a "kit", that makes them the most expensive aftermarket lower wishbone set I've seen yet. I wonder if the quality and reliability of the product reflects that...
 
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