Why positive camber?

Reading my alignment charts my camber can be set from -1/6 degree to +5/16 degree perfect being +1/3 degree.  It seems to me that everyone and their brother is talking about negative camber, why? Is there any advantage for me to pull back my camber to -1/6 degree?  

Just trying to learn something here.  

Also, my total toe is toe out / negative toe at 1/4 degree.  Might as well just set them at 0 and get it over with, well, same goes for the camber too!

Anybody have any insight on why VW decided on close to 0 camber and toe?

Oh yah, the car handles like crap unless I'm driving 80+ mph then its great.  Seems like the slower I go the more twitchy my steering gets.  I was driving through the snow last week and I played hell keeping it on the road.  

I already have my camber at 0.33 degrees positive camber and my toe is at damn near 0.  Anything I can do to improve the handling of this thing.  

Thanks in advance
Dave.

Best stability is achieved with negative camber and toe in at the slight risk of increased tyre wear and some loss of straight line speed depending how far you go.

There is loads of info on this on the net, take a look at this one it is a good read in my opinion, http://www.ozebiz.com.…acetech/theory/align.html
You can ignore castor, the only car I could ever set that up on was my Beetle. In fact the mk1 is pretty rare in having camber adjustable, it is fixed on most suspensions.

very good article.  Thanks.  

In the article…
Remember also that toe will change slightly from a static situation to a dynamic one. This is is most noticeable on a front-wheel-drive car or independently-suspended rear-drive car. When driving torque is applied to the wheels, they pull themselves forward and try to create toe-in. This is another reason why many front-drivers are set up with toe-out in the front.

This explains the toe out or negative toe that is required on my 91 cabriolet.

but, then it says…
The amount of toe-in or toe-out dialed into a given car is dependent on the compliance of the suspension and the desired handling characteristics. To improve ride quality, street cars are equipped with relatively soft rubber bushings at their suspension links, and thus the links move a fair amount when they are loaded. Race cars, in contrast, are fitted with steel spherical bearings or very hard urethane, metal or plastic bushings to provide optimum rigidity and control of suspension links. Thus, a street car requires a greater static toe-in than does a race car, so as to avoid the condition wherein bushing compliance allows the wheels to assume a toe-out condition.

So, if I'm reading this correctly, the toe out actually can turn into a 0 toe or a toe in while i am accelerating.  This would get thrown way out when your bushings are worn out right?

So, I wonder, my car has 150,000 + miles on it, could it be a case were my bushings have seen their better days and as I'm driving down the road my toe out is only turning into a toe in when i am accelerating and turning into a grossly out of whack toe out when I let off the accelerator. This would explain why the car does great at 80 mph and sucks at 25 and 35 mph.  

Is this the reason for the poly bushings?  It would make sense because it would be easier to dial in a alignment and you would not have as much dynamic changes in your suspension, but, a rougher ride and loss of some control on rough roads would result because there are times when you want the changes in order to absorb sudden jerks and spikes in the suspension.

I am looking for straight line stability, so what I am going to try is setting my toe to  toe in (assuming my bushings are old and suck) so when I let off of the accelerator I still have a toe in to close to 0 toe.  That SHOULD give me the straight line stability I'm looking for.

Of coarse I will change out my bushings but that would be a waste unless I learn something first and my knowing the "why" of which type of bushing to buy (poly or OEM) is priceless to me.

Anybody see why this wouldn't work?

Thanks in advance
Dave

On a mk1 I have have always found that the use of powerflex bushes front and rear are a great way to go. They are not as hard as the red poly ones and just as good at absorbing as rubber ones with the bonus that they do not disintegrate.

It is also a good plan to replace the steering rack bushes with powerflex ones, at the same time look for any signs of bracket fatigue.

I also swear by the use of Eibach Anti roll bars, single best mod to a mk1s suspension in my opinion.

Once all that is done I would go for -1 degree camber and neither toe in or out, if anything a slight toe in.

Lhasa hows your tyre wear on the inner edge? -1 sounds to much but im always looking into different set ups if they work. Total camber or -1 per side
Hows it handle?

Dave id personally choose polys and day. I prefer a harsher ride but better handling than a less handling but softer ride.
And there is a massive difference in responsiveness.
150K id check all my bushes rear beam may be worth a look to

Ok, here is the verdict.

I set the camber at .013 degree negative.

I set the toe at .013 degree toe in.

I took it for a test drive and it was like driving a new car!  I let go of the steering wheel at 65 mph and it ran straight.

I did notice the steering wheel was less twitchy and it feels more like a normal car and less of like a race car.  Just what I wanted for the snow.

This spring I'll set the toe back out a little.  

I can feel a little more drag then I felt when I had the toe and camber positive but I expected that.  I suppose my fuel mileage will drop a little.  I'll keep you guys updated on that.  As it stood I got 425 miles on a tank of fuel (13.9 gallons).

Thanks for all the input I did indeed learn alot tweaking my alignment.

I'll check into the powerflex for both my mk1s.  

lhasa - What do the anti roll bars do for you?

possle - I checked my rear camber and yah, the rear beam just needs replaced or taken out of the car and pulled back into shape.  Unless there is a after market rear beam I don't know about.

One project at a time I guess.

Oh and one more thing, Lhasa, I was checking out the pics on your car (great job by the way) and I noticed you had rear disk brakes.  Did you put that together yourself or did you buy a kit?  And if you bought a kit where?

Thanks again
Dave

I dont think you can do anything with the beam i meant check the beam bushes as they can get a bit on the worn side and give play

Ok. I got a friend of mine that works on semi trucks and they heat up and bend the axles on the trailers to set the alignment.  I'm not real sure how that little piece of metal they call a rear axle beam would handle that.

i cant see your beam being out of alignment tbh