$15 Camber Mod
Background:
When lowering your car, excessive camber may result, causing accelerated wear of the inside edges of the tires. With mild drops (under 2"), the change in camber is more problematic in the rear.
There are several aftermarket companies that offer camber kits, at a cost of $40 and above, which will fix this problem. Described here is a home-brew kit that works nearly as well for about $15.
The basic theory is that you use longer bolts with spacers to "push" the upper A-arm away from the chassis. To visualize the stock setup:
C|MB
where C is the chassis
M is the mounting plate
of the A-arm
B is the factory bolt.
This modification will use longer bolts, washers and a lock washer,
as follows:
C|WWWWMLB'
where W is a washer
L is the lock washer
B' is the new longer
bolt
Parts List
- Eight (8) M10x40, 1.25 threaded bolts (Grade 10.9 preferred, Grade 8 acceptable)
- Thirty two (32) M10 flat washers, preferably hardened
- Eight (8) M10 split lock washers.
- Anti-seize compound.
Equipment List:
- floor jack, jackstands, wheel chocks
- 14mm socket
- torque wrench
Procedure:
- Securely raise the rear of the car.
- It is recommended to remove the rear wheels. It can be done without, but why not make it a little easier on yourself?
- Prepare the new bolts by putting on one lock washer and coating the threads with anti-sieze. Stack the washers in piles if you like.
- Loosen the bolts that currently attach the upper part of the A-arm. They will be fairly tight, so you may need a breaker bar for leverage. Back out the bolts far enough to give the A-arm some play.
- Remove the first bolt completely (doesn't really matter which).
- Take one of the new bolts and insert it into the hole in the A-arm attachment bracket, while holding the stack (4) of washers in between the
chassis and the bracket. Screw in the bolt several turns, but do not hand-tighten it. Remember, from the car out the sequence goes like: chassis, washers, A-arm bracket, lock washer, bolt.
- Repeat above step with the three remaining bolts.
- Hand tighten the bolts in.
- Torque down the bolts with the torque wrench, to 28 ft-lbs (39 Nm).
Try to use an alternating tightening pattern, similar to what you do with wheels (i.e. upper left, lower right, upper right, lower left).
- Repeat the process for the other side.
- Lower the car, and take it to an alignment shop. This is VERY important, as the alignment can come so far off spec that the car will be unstable at speed.
Comments:
- You might want to clean out the wheel wells before starting this.
- Clean out the area around the A-arm mounting points after removing the stock bolts. This area accumulates dirt.
- This procedure is very similar to some of the other camber kits out there where a section of steel tubing is used in place of the washers.
- A final alternative is to use some special shims which are reported to give more area for stress transfer. The components come a manufacturer called Specialty Products Company at 1-800-525-6505. The components are:
- Specialty Products Tandem Truck Shims 73400 (quantity:
2)
- Specialty Products Bolts 73415 (quantity: 2)
Installation should be similar to that described
above.
- Now, those of you wanting excessive drops...dont do it! There is a lot of strain placed on the components, and the suspension geometry is very negatively affected. If you still feel the need to slam your car, look for the dedicated camber adjustment kits from Ingall's etc.
Source:
Credit to Thomas Wahjudi and Paul Estevez of ClubDSM for the descriptions contained above, and Kyle Woolset of the same for the Shim alternative.
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Cars Modifications Control Suspension_and_Handling Camber Mod
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