If one were to use tubular a-arms, would it clear without grinding?

 

^^It would. New design will be bolted on the car by Saturday though. It will also allow the use of the stock tie rod link on the 45's.

 

Hi Jenson,

i made several tries with your brackets.

First, i must said, i'm using UMI adjustable upper arms and UMI boxed ajustable lower arms. I'm not completly satisfied with them as it seems difficult to have the geometry you want with them (especially the lower ones).

The way you adjust the lower arms have an effect on how the tie rod will touch or not the arms.

so :

- with lower arms extended at the most and tie rods fixed Under your bracket : the ball joint on the tie rod touch the A-rams (i even bent the tie rod),
- i tried to fix the tie rod on the upper side of your braket : better. no more interference with A-arm but still with sway bar
- just received your angle ball joint : will try them the next days and keep you informed

Also others opinions:

- perfect service. glad you made me those brackets
- before getting more angle, you have far more reaction in your steering. Can be a little surprising the first time,
- when the car steer as usual (not drifting), it starts to turn and suddenly it wants to go forward without turning (pushing front wheels). Anything can correct this ?

Thx

 

Did you get the car aligned at a shop and/or did you attempt to align the suspension and properly set camber, caster, and toe? No reaction in steering and pushing front wheels sounds like incorrect alignment specifications.

 

Hey Sporty,

I was wondering if you got them, havent heard anything from you in a while. The angled tie rod should completely eliminate the interference with the sway bar. That's its only function and works to clear the sway bar on the 66* bracket.

For sure, the initial turn in is going to be amplified greatly over stock with any steering angle modification. You are increasing the amount of angle the wheel travels per the same amount of rotation from your steering wheel. So if a 1/4 turn on the steering wheel before was 5* at the tire, its now increased to say 10*.

Now to try and help you guys to get a better setup. This worked on my car really well with the 45's. All the way out on the lower A-arm to get as much camber as possible, then back in slightly on the forward leg. You can also use the upper arm for camber too and to aid in this geometry. Your upright will mostly go from looking like this l, to this \. You have to find the right balance for your ride height and geometry though. And like Zex said, after you get a baseline, take it to an alignment shop, but just have them align the wheels. Dont let them touch caster/camber/toe. Well, that last one they basically have to, but tell them to leave some toe out in it.

 

So is stockish caster/camber alright to use with these for a DD, or do they really require some crazy negative camber and adjusted caster just to be function correctly?

 

Stock-ish is fine with the new stuff. Like I said, the brackets just plain dont clear in the 45 version. And to sporty and the others that have the 45 brackets, you are welcome to a set of new uprights if you want them.

 

Hi everyone,

you can bring your car to a shop but a shop cant really adjust your car for what you want. As jenson said, most of them (and in my country every of them) will just align wheels or toe, what can be set yourself at home (at less not so bad with a long ruler).

My problem is : it is time consuming to set this geometry right, as you have to remove the complete front parts to set the upper and lower adjustable arms. It would be great to have a baseline from someone that have some experience. My car must be set for drift, and I would appreciate any help.

My experience from now is :

- upper arms : except the fact, you have to remove the shocks to adjust them, it is easy to give a little more camber with the upper arms, adjusting them the shorter possible. It will move the top of the wheel inside the car what can cause interference with the tire if you don't have the right offset.

- lower arms : here is the most difficult. If you try to adjust the camber, extending the lower arms, you WILL definitely modify the caster too, because of how the A-arm is linked to the car body. Giving more camber here need you to have less caster. if you try to keep the same caster, the distance between the 2 mounting points on the arm will be more important and the arm wont be able to be mounted on the car. You can try to correct this with the upper arm, extending the front pivot of this arm more than the rear pivot but you can do it only moderately then the upper arm cant be mounted on the car too.

On my first try : i tried to get the more caster possible so I extended the lower A-arm the most the arm can be mounted on the car body. it moved my caster backward quite a lot, so I tried to moved the upper arm too. The reaction of the car was not really good

try of last week : I tried to keep the OE caster and just have more camber : upper arms are set the shorter possible. the lower A-arms cant be extended more than a few mm this way. Toe : I believe it should be set at 0

what I try to achieve is :
- the more camber possible
- keep same caster as OE
- toe = 0

i have Strano springs + Bilstein HD shocks. My rear end is a 12-bolts which affect the car drivability.

i appreciate every opinion

 

Sporty here is a great read, if you havent read it already;
http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticl...up-Part-3.aspx

I really think you'll enjoy a bit more caster and toe out. The problem with more camber and the OE 3 degrees ( I think thats the F-body spec IIRC ) is that you start to get in to some weird wheel angles with the added steering angle. Remember its now traveling way past what the OE specs are, so they should be used as a reference only. I would imagine you are on the very outer edge of the tire at full lock and OE caster.

You really need more caster with more steering angle and can live with less base camber. With more positive caster you can run less negative camber at steering base point. Especially at that ride height. I thought you were on coilovers, sorry.

 

Subscribed! this is just what I needed to see since all I really want to do in my lt1 is race around some twisties...

 

Hi jenson. I agree with you to try to add some caster but I don't really know how to get more wit this adjustables arms. It seems not really doable to add caster while you put negative camber at same time without some modifications on the car chassis. Do you use adjustable arms ? How have you do to get more caster ? Moving the upper pivot backward and the loser frontward at same time ? Or only one pivot is changed ?

 

Yes sporty,

Take the Lower arm all the way out in the K member and leave about 1/2 or less if your comfortable with it of the rod end in the tube. Now tighten the rear arm in place and slide the front leg in a bit. This will add some caster and also help with clearance in the sway bar area. Now from there if your uppers are also adjustable, you can bring them in, leaving the front one out further than the rear will also add caster. The uppers are a bit harder to adjust on the car than the lowers. I put the uppers all the way in, then wound out the front leg about 5 turns for a base setup.

 

Hi jenson. Thanks you for your help. CAN you explain me better how you adjust the lower adjustable arm ? I've not completely understood.

 

Finally : I decide to spent yesterday on the car.
I have enlarged the adjusting holes in the chassis + modify the lower A-arms because it is impossible to mount then on the car without losing either caster and camber with those, I just believe the UMI boxed arms don't have a good geometry. I also have mounted your angle tie rod. they are just fine but you need to cut something about 20 mm on either rod. Everything is now pre-tuned and I will go to a shop to fine tune everything. I believe I should get something better now (at least , I hope so)

 

This thread needs more drifting!! Thanks Andrew for the vids and pics. He's using the 45 degree kit here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0jQ...ature=youtu.be


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uptQ...ature=youtu.be


and a couple sweet pictures someone took

 

Freakin' sweet!

 

I made my front geometry myself and have a shop check for the values I succeed to achieve : Camber : - 2 / -2° ; caster : 4.50 / 4.40 ; toe : 0. Stayed there and the car is ok. I will put a video of yesterday demonstration

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

 

Andrew sent me some more pics this time out. Even got on OMG

 

I call these maxed out