Hello.

I know they're pretty rare, but I'm hoping someone else on here has a Sierra-based Henley!

The front wheels on mine display a huge amount of camber - they noticeably lean in towards the car at the top when viewed from the front. Can anyone shed any light on why it was - presumably - designed like this?

My car needs a fair bit of work to get it back on the road, and I'm seriously considering getting the top suspension 'rockers' lengthened to 'straighten' out the wheels. However, I'm obviously concerned that this'll be detrimental to the handling, even tho' the original Sierra clearly didn't have these 'cart-wheels'!

Any ideas? Is anyone else's Henley like this?!

Thanks.

Unfortunately I have got involved with the Ford based models and don't know what the build manual says, but to have visually excessive negative camber does not seem correct or beneficial to repectable handling in normal road conditions. Essentially negative camber may assist high speed cornering under track conditions, but often the trade off is in loss of straight line stability.

Consulting my spec book of 1984 vintage, I see that the camber for OHC Sierra's is - 0deg. 16' + or - 1deg. So pretty tolerant really, but obviously you want to keep both front tyres contact patch flat to the road under all conditions as much as possible.

Best starting point is to get the car on level ground and put a piece of flat material vertically across the rim and use an angle finder to read off the actual camber of the car to provide an idea as to how bad the problem is.

The only safe way to carry out any modifications to the suspension is to use a professional wheel alignment kit and turn tables (although you might get away with using two bits of 19mm MDF with grease between them) If things are found to be way out, you really need to build in some form of adjustment as this takes the guess work out of setting up. There are a number of specialist companies around that may be able to undertake this work for you and set it up to provide safe, predictable handling.

Hope that is of some little help - Dave

Cheers, Dave, that is very useful - many thanks.

I recall my old Dutton kit car had a similar look! As you suggest, it was reckoned to aid hard cornering - I guess the wheel will 'straighten' as the car rolls?

However, it looks, well, pants - and not really what a car of this style should have!

After the car is on the road - still quite a way off! - I'll see how it behaves. I like the idea of having it adjustable, and this should be pretty straight-forward to do.

The front suspension is quite a clever set-up: it uses the normal Sierra lower link and tie bar, but the top of the hub is connected via a 'rocker' which transfers the movement to an inboard coil-over-shock. Should be easy enough to have a sliding section added to this.

Thanks for the input.

ANY SIERRA-HENLEY OWNERS ON HERE? What's yer front wheels like?!

If you add lenght outboard you will reduce the springs lb per inch rating (it will get softer).

Hi Mel.

That's a very good point. However, if it's anything like my Marlin (rock hard...) that would be a good thing!

I'll certainly be trying it out as it is before making any decisions - to be honest, the main reason for me considering it at the moment is cosmetic; it just dinna look good.

I believe the inboard shocks are gas, and might even be adjustable - too dark to look at the mo'!

Cheers.

Any form of development is like squeezing a kids balloon. Mr. Ford built the Sierra and produced something that was of a fairly regular hypothetical shape and suited the needs of most people under most conditions.

We come along and chuck most of it away and use some bits to build what we want to. It is therefore quite reasonable that we should have to do a fair bit of work to get our patchwork balloon into a consistent shape that suits our needs.

Ha ha!

I never thought of my NG as a patchwork balloon before...

Actually, for something as fundamental as the suspension, I'd have thought the wonderful Mr Green would have sorted out the camber in his design - he had to come up with a length for the rocker arm; did he really get it wrong?!

Very strange.

Or did Pastiche do this part of the job, I wonder?

The recent Moss catalogue that plumeted through my letter box shows a simple camber / caster guage for £39.95 pt no. ccG001 www.moss-europe.co.uk

I have a pastiche henley,apparently factory built,the front wheels look vertical to me,certainly no discernable camber

Lidl have had a digital spirit level on offer a few times £24. Measures down to 1/10 of a degree, great for suspension set up.

Thanks for the suggestions, Dave and Mel.

That's interesting, Tony. A 'tweak' is definitely on the cards then!

Looking at the top 'rocker' arm, I think it should be relatively straight-forward to add an adjustable sliding section on top to allow full adjustment.

That job is still a way off tho'!