advice needed.....neg camber woes.........

[K13 WJD]

hi guys, im after some general advice.

IM looking to sort out some negitive camber on my corsa.......now, its a pretty simple setup as far as suspension goes.....i presume there's 2 ways to alter the front camber: re-drilling the holes for the strut top, and extending the length of the bottom arm, by means of cutting, and welding...

which is best, and where can i find some info with regards to how much camber is should aim for ????

secondly, the rears ( more camber required here...) im been told that there's nothing wrong with stripping the rear hubs, and inserting penny washers inbetween the flange and the stub ( at the bottom) and re-fitting. anyone see any major issues here......me being a sensible person, id make sure there was no way any of the 4 bolts could work loose ( by means of tack welds, and,or lockwire)

any advise ???

[Mr2Mike]

Does the strut attach to the upright with a couple of bolts? If so the normal way of adjusting camber is to use special eccentric bolts.

Be careful extending bottom arms, the inner CV joint only has a limited amount of "plunge", extend it too far and CV will fall apart unless you get longer driveshafts.

[Steve_D]

K13 WJD said:

......me being a sensible person, id make sure there was no way any of the 4 bolts could work loose ( by means of tack welds, and,or lockwire)

any advise ???

Use high tensile nyloc nuts or failing that Loctite.
Don't weld anything as you will change the strength of the bolt/nut material.

Steve

[K13 WJD]

ive seen these bolts on ebay.....my setup is as you suggested.....but what i dont get is, the holes on my hub, and the hole in my shockie are the same...i don't see how they could work....


as for the rears.....so we rekon its safe enough to use washers ??? i'll have no problem working out the thickness of washer required to create a camber angle......what should i aim for ???? 2.5 deg

[Mr2Mike]

K13 WJD said:

ive seen these bolts on ebay.....my setup is as you suggested.....but what i dont get is, the holes on my hub, and the hole in my shockie are the same...i don't see how they could work....

The bolts is a narrower diameter than the standard one, but with an eccentric section in the middle where it passes through the upright of the same diameter as the OEM bolt. A special washer contrains movement of the bolt to one plane. It's very difficult to describe in words, but it's obvious how they work if you see them. The downside is the bolts have to be made from higr grade material since they have a smaller cross section then the OEM bolts.

Another possibility is bolts with a narrowed middle section, that allows some movement of the upright. The disadvantage with these is that once set at the desired camber, it's only friction holding the upright there.

[leorest]

K13 WJD said:

...as for the rears..... ......what should i aim for ???? 2.5 deg

My guess is you can only accurately answer this when you know what the application is (road, track, race etc..) and do appropriate testing and measurements e.g. track time and a pyrometer.

I strongly recommend, "How to make your car handle" by Fred Puhn

[K13 WJD]

as for the front stuts....would it not be better for me to use a mill to elongate the top hole.....by say 15mm....then weld washers in at a measured point....thus creating movement, without these dodgey bolts ????

[Mr2Mike]

K13 WJD said:

as for the front stuts....would it not be better for me to use a mill to elongate the top hole.....by say 15mm....then weld washers in at a measured point....thus creating movement, without these dodgey bolts ????

That's a perfectly good option if you don't require the camber to be adjustable.

[edc]

Eccentric top mounts?

[K13 WJD]

budget.

[skwdenyer]

K13 WJD said:

as for the front stuts....would it not be better for me to use a mill to elongate the top hole.....by say 15mm....then weld washers in at a measured point....thus creating movement, without these dodgey bolts ????

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but... Mk I VW Golf struts come out-of-the-box with elongated upper holes just for this purpose. Yes, friction is all that keeps it all together, but friction is often quite enough for the job.

Edited by skwdenyer on Sunday 13th January 20:27

[skwdenyer]

K13 WJD said:

secondly, the rears ( more camber required here...) im been told that there's nothing wrong with stripping the rear hubs, and inserting penny washers inbetween the flange and the stub ( at the bottom) and re-fitting. anyone see any major issues here......me being a sensible person, id make sure there was no way any of the 4 bolts could work loose ( by means of tack welds, and,or lockwire)

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but... the big problem with this is that flange is now at an angle to the stub. So all of the load paths are wrong. Furthermore the bolts are now no longer square to the components. All in all you run the risk of encouraging premature failure of the assembly

The correct way to do this is to machine a spacer to fit between flange and stub which is a continuous wedge shape, with the bolt holes drilled appropriately. Now you need 4 washers similarly machined to a corresponding wedge shape, and those can be tack-welded in place (a very small tack] to keep the angles correct whilst you torque up the bolts.

Edited by skwdenyer on Sunday 13th January 20:28

[stockhatcher]

for the rear camber can you not just bend the rear beam, or the trailing arm?

you could of course do the same for the front struts. Leda will bend the strut for you, or you just find a vice and erm guess...

[skwdenyer]

stockhatcher said:

for the rear camber can you not just bend the rear beam, or the trailing arm?

you could of course do the same for the front struts. Leda will bend the strut for you, or you just find a vice and erm guess...

As you suggest, "guess" is about as good as it gets. Unless you know the precise metallurgy of the beam, the chances of this working well are, err, slim... Machining camber plates up is, however, pretty trivial for anyone with machine tool skills.