a little activity i would like to blog on after a long time. this might help our newbie Sierra Charlie as well. here's the result of my negative camber on the front wheels. chewed through brand new tyres within an year. its gone down to the wire on the inner lip. i'm buying a new pair tomorrow.

this is not a result of me neglecting it, but of me not knowing what else to do after correcting the camber with adjustable upper arms on the front sus. learned later that you get adjustable upper arm mounting points, and got them down only this month: these give an added 3 degrees of camber either way.

to clarify, all this brouhaha is because i have an uncorrectable negative camber on the front passenger side wheel. even with full positive setting, there was -2.08 on that side. why only that side i cant figure out. maybe a previous accident. who knows? but as you can see it had its impact on the tyre. now tho, its all aligned perfectly.

to add to this, there was a toe out of the rear wheel. this too i didn't know there was adjustment for it. the gut at the alignment center suggested this, and i got down the adjustable toe arms as well. so now the rear alignment is spot on as well. finally.

on a separate note, i had some trouble with the AC, and as always, the culprit being our makabaases thinking "ooh this looks like it'll fit! let slap it on!". my compressor packed up, and when we looked into the matter, apparently i've been running a toyota compressor. now the interesting fact is that toyota engines crank one way, and honda the other way! so not quite sure how this managed to work this long even. bottom line is, we had no sample to get a new one from, and after much hunting and frustration, sourced a condenser and compressor off a b20b CRV engine. perfect fit.

to clarify my loving fan(s):

1. the camber kit, front and rear, (not available in SL) cost me 50$

2. recon IACV valve (OS at tech, 27,000) cost me $30

3. shipping for above $45, tax 1500

4. makabaas = NOT indika. not a repair i did.

more on this: despite sanka doing their job, i was still unsure since the wheels LOOKED like they were all askew. so since i had to get new shoes anyways, i had amila recheck the alignment. no fancy computers there, just good old physics and lasers. turns out sanka's alignment was perfect. maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. so ended up paying the price for bad camber. two new tyres. upgraded from the chinese tyres i had to maxxis victras. love the tread on these:

took her for drive on galle road. pushed it a little. grip is much much better compared to the previous tyres. no skidding when braking hard. no ABS engagement. rolling noise is minimal. alignment feels good. no wobble on thrashing or braking.

this is all relative. and i was running shitty tyres due to budget constraints. will eventually swap out the rears for a pair of these as well.

*-UPDATE-*

the negative camber was duet to the rubber bushings on the front suspension giving out. it was not an issue with the suspension arms or the chassis. this was later discovered and explained to me by sanka. as the rubber was designed to be on par with the stock spring rates and dampers, it became the weakest link through hich force was dissipated when i switched to coilovers. i had since then replaced all the bushings with prothane PU ones. the camber, caster, and toe now are perfect. the ride however is firmer, and PU bushings tend to creak sometimes.