camber probs with s13 coilover on ae86

[rick86]

i have done the conversion already, but noticed i dont have anywhere near as much camber as i used to when i had ae86 coilovers, i have camber tops and they are maxed out and my LCA's are cut and shut, not rose jointed, is there any other way of getting a couple more dergrees of camber, apart from making up another LCA??

[Crazyracer]

1. Move adjustable strut tops towards the centre of the car which you've already done
2. Make the LCA longer
3. Redrill the Xmember to move the LCA pivot point further towards the outside of the car.
4. Bend the strut tube - probably not a great idea though as you'll end up with the tyre rubbing on the spring. Its probably a bad idea on a number of other levels too.

It may be that the stub axle angle is different on the S13 upright, but you can't change this as its forged with this angle built in when its made.

Looks like its will have to be a longer LCA or redrill the Xmember

[Hen]

It sounds like you stuffed up the length of your LCAs. Short of making some more you could check if your coilovers have slotted mounting holes for the hub. This may allow some adjustment of camber.

I'd recommend either remaking the LCAs or trying an S13, MX62 or JZX81 arm.

Hen

[rick86]

i got them made from a friend a while ago, wasn't too much effort, im just not sure how much longer to make them? maybe a dry fit first, before i weld them, how hard would it be to get a rose joint made up so they are adjustable?

[LeeRoy]

Yeh ill agree with hen that youve probably made the lca's too short as they are longer than the stock 86 ones. You could go and get some more s13 lca's and not cut them and put them straight in.

Might be an idea to measure them in comparison to the stock ones also.

edit: rose jointing them shouldnt be too hard as all you need to do is get a plate with a thread welded onto the end of them where they mount to the lca along with cutting the rca maybe a little more than you had depending on their measurement. Then get a suitable bolt to connect the rose joint to the crossmember and adjust them to your desired level.

- LeeRoy

[Sprinter-Saurus]

I fucked up in a similar way when I did my S13 sussy conversion too, I rose-jointed my S13 arms, and even though I haven't driven my Spoontah with the new setup yet, I can still tell that the LCA's are no where near long enough, even if I wind the rose-joints all the way out.

I'm going to get another set of S13 LCA's and just throw them straight in, no cutting or anything. You'll have more than enough useable camber if you do the same.

Slightly OT: How did those measurements go that I sent you a while back Henn ?!

[rick86]

so the s13 LCA's will fit straight in?? why the hell did i cut them in the first place then?
i like the rose joint idea personally, u can adjust them then, when do i pick up such a part??

[Sprinter-Saurus]

so the s13 LCA's will fit straight in?? why the hell did i cut them in the first place then?
i like the rose joint idea personally, u can adjust them then, when do i pick up such a part??

You will have to slightly grind back the outside edges of the LCA's where they bolt into the crush tube as the S13 LCA's are a fraction too wide at the end where they bolt in. I'm guessing you cut them because they didn't fit without grinding them down, did you weld the other end of an AE86 LCA onto the S13 LCA, but still made it the same length as a normal AE86 LCA ??

It sounds like that's what happened. Also note that most rose-joint setups are not legal, you have to use the correct approved rose-joints, and also have it engineered if you want the mod to be 100% legit.

Rose-joints can be purchased from any reputable automotive parts stores, and also bearing suppliers etc.

[Crazyracer]

You get rod ends (rose joints was a brand name) from a bearing supplier. There are many different grades and strengths as well as sizes. Ideally you want an aircraft quality joint but they are $$$$$. Quite often the bearing suppliers have very little idea of what is good quality in these though. All many of them know how do is just look up the parts book. The other alternative would be to go to a racing supply outlet.

Imperial sizes are usually much cheaper (and easier to source) than metric equivalents. I wouldn't use anything smaller than 5/8".

You'll need to get a ferule turned up with the correct thread up the centre and get that welded into the LCA. You then need to use a lock nut to stop it moving in use.

Don't forget that you will need to disconnect one end from either the strut or the car in order to adjust the length of the LCA.

However spherical bearings/rod ends are pretty much 100% not legal for road use.

I probably wouldn't tackle this yourself unless you're really confident in what you're doing.

[LeeRoy]

It sounds like that's what happened. Also note that most rose-joint setups are not legal, you have to use the correct approved rose-joints, and also have it engineered if you want the mod to be 100% legit.

Last i heard cutting them wasnt legal either so i dont think legality is an area of concern for this venture

- LeeRoy

[Hen]

For a general idea, an S13 arm is 350mm long (from centre of crush tube to centre of balljoint) and gives a reasonable amount of negative camber.

I use 360mm MX62 arms. With the adjustable coilover bottom mount set to minimum negative camber and the strut tops in about factory position I see around 3 deg neg camber.

Saurus - Yeah, the measurement you gave me seemed pretty short. I've been meaning to get some MX83 rack ends and an S15 tie-rod and mesaure to see if they'd suit the length arm I'm using... but I'm slack and haven't yet.

Hen

[rick86]

Last i heard cutting them wasnt legal either so i dont think legality is an area of concern for this venture

- LeeRoy

either way it will not be legal, so like leeroy said, its not an issue, i had no idea that s13 lca's almost fit straight in, why the hell did i go to all that trouble??? bugger. oh well, u guys have given me some insight, one last thing, the ball joint on r31 lca's are exactly the same, and only cost a few bob in conparison to s13, i might have to measure them. so everyone is pretty happy witht the length of the s13 ones? does anyone actually have the s13 ones in that know how much camber they have?

[EVOSTi]

S13 arms arent ideal but thats what everyone uses. i recently did this conversion with S13 arms after first using standard sprinter arms, sprinter arms will work with the appropriate balljoint pressed in, but the track is narrow, might be good if you wanna run wide rims with crazy offset.
with the S13 arms, you need to grind the crush tubes down a bit like mentioned as well as redrilling the crossmember to fit the larger bolts. its a bitch to get a drill to the crossmember so i enlarged my holes with a dremel.
you can use the sway bar link hole, and one of the lateral rod holes but you need to drill one too. also with this the lateral rod doesnt sit perfect, but it works.

[Sprinter-Saurus]

Last i heard cutting them wasnt legal either so i dont think legality is an area of concern for this venture

- LeeRoy

Haha, almost anything done to a Spoontah these days is illegal, that's the only way to make 'em look good and handle.

For a general idea, an S13 arm is 350mm long (from centre of crush tube to centre of balljoint) and gives a reasonable amount of negative camber.

I use 360mm MX62 arms. With the adjustable coilover bottom mount set to minimum negative camber and the strut tops in about factory position I see around 3 deg neg camber.

Saurus - Yeah, the measurement you gave me seemed pretty short. I've been meaning to get some MX83 rack ends and an S15 tie-rod and mesaure to see if they'd suit the length arm I'm using... but I'm slack and haven't yet.

Hen

Yeah I knew as soon as I got the LCA's back from the welder that I had fucked up and that when I eventually got my POS back on the road or close to it that I would be re-doing the LCA's in one way or another haha. I'll post up the results when I get some more un-cut S13 arms and throw them in with the S15 and MX83 ends.

Cheers.

[Crazyracer]

Just remembered that you can get some camber bolts to go in S13 struts where the hub bolts to the strut tube. They're an offset pin deal that you use to change the angle of the hub relative to the strut tube.

I think Whiteline might have them and I think the camber adjustment with them is pretty small. Didn't like the look of them myself, but might be another option for you.

I