Camber Surprise

[Error404]

depend which was your steering wheel is offcentre
By my reconning if its off centre to the same side you changed the BJ, you have too much negative camber, and viceversa.

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Yep I agree there - pulling the balljoint outwards has generated extra negative camber but because of the steering arm location it also generates toe-in, and because of the self aligning effect (or just the steering input required to hold a straight course, equalising the toe on both sides) the wheel is now steered towards the side on which the balljoint position has been moved outboard.

Solutions:
Move the balljoint inboard (but this takes away some of the negative camber)
Lengthen the track rod (keeps camber and gets the alignment straighter)

I'd strongly advise doing both sides to get it all nice and symmetrical - balljoints first, then track rods, then check again.

Incidentally, for toe alignment purposes - in the absence of fancy optical alignment tools, get rigging bars (sit them on axle stands or even better, attach them to the chassis!) and run a taut string (eg fishing line) along each side - then you can just measure the distance from the line to the wheel rim, front and back edge, to determine toe settings. As long as you set it all up so the lines are square with the car and parallel, this is one of the most accurate ways of getting the setting without specialist tools. We used to use it all the time for single seaters and even with much smaller wheels you can make good toe setting adjustments this way.

[S2central.net]

OK - just to close this one - I pushed the right balljoint INboard as far as possible and the wheel position is MUCH improved now... So that is a relief.

Alignment is not perfect but its a whole lot better than it was... I'll get some powerflex wishbones and swap back to the two presses arms (with a new left ball joint as well) to match everything up then aim for -1 degree of camber and THEN go for steering alignment before I swap onto winter rubber.