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Stldave2

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I searched, and read my shop manual, but still havent found a reasonable answer. I dont need to know anything to fancy, i just want to know HOW to adjust the front camber on a 2g awd. My front left wheel has alot more - camber than the right does, so im assuming its in the adjustment. It still wont be in spec but i just want to kick both of the wheels as positive as i can till my camber kits arrive. I just replaced all my wheel bearings and i DONT want to do it again soon. If you can just tell me what to do to throw the front as + as i can w/ stock adjustment that would be great. I know its ghetto but i dont care right now.
 
Most McPherson strut suspension vehicles have adjustable camber - you can replace a lower strut bolt with a smaller "crash bolt" that allows you a small range of movement in the strut assembly. Depending on the vehicle, this can be up to 3 deg or more.

The name "crash bolt" comes from the idea that this adjustment method was originally designed for for cars that had been in an accident of some sort, and could not be adjusted to factory camber spec with the original bolts.

The Subie WRX somes with eccentric adjusters for camber control - this is superior (IMHO) to crash bolts.

No, 2G's have no camber adjustment from the factory, only toe. The Ingall's camber kit has a bad rep, and has been known to break under hard use. You may want to consider one of the products Specialty Products makes for our cars. You have several options. Also - when you lower a DSM, you naturally get a bit of negative camber.
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
tomfree said:
No, 2G's have no camber adjustment from the factory, only toe. The Ingall's camber kit has a bad rep, and has been known to break under hard use. You may want to consider one of the products Specialty Products makes for our cars. You have several options. Also - when you lower a DSM, you naturally get a bit of negative camber.
My ingalls front kit is on the way. I heard the specialty products was shit.
 
Stldave2 said:


My ingalls front kit is on the way. I heard the specialty products was shit.
I hope not...... I have the Specialty Products kit coming for my car. In all fairness I have heard nightmares and complaints about both SP and Ingalls kits. I chose my Specialty Products kits cause I got into a conversation with Scott Belcastro from Victory Performance and these are the kits that they use on there cars. They have had pretty good luck so far, so I went with his suggestions. He has more time and experience with vehicles on the tracks then I do. A very good guy to deal with. As busy as he is, he found time to answer my questions and even return calls when I needed.........But I shall save all this when I post up my reviews of some products that are on order through Victory Performance. :D
 
From my research, I've heard about the Ingalls kits actually breaking - bolts snapping and such. As for the SP stuff, I've read about installation problems (not enough clearance for the eye bolt replacements) and maintenance problems where they get dirty, make a lot of noise and need to be removed and cleaned every once in a while. I haven't heard of them physically breaking, just becoming non adjustable until cleaned.

I had a conversation with an engineer at SP when I was researching camber adjustment solutions. He strongly suggested the adjustable ball joints - camber and caster adjustable, and need less service. I happened to pick up a set of used KMAC adjustable ball joints(same design exactly), but never installed them. I need to sell them, so they'll go cheap. They were about $300 new.
 
tomfree......

Just curious cause I have never used the adjustable ball joints, but I have heard from a few people that they are a real treat to adjust :rolleyes: If you know what I mean. Have you used them in the past? Your right as far as the SP stuff....... I have heard some of the same complaints. 90% of them being related to the noise, squeeking, etc. that you posted.
 
tomfree said:
There looks to be lots of adjustment, which unfortunately means lots of opportunity to screw up your handling :D
Yeah that too. Most of the complaints that I have heard about is the disassembly of other suspension components to be able to get up in there to adjust the ball joint itself. Example: set the balljoint, check alignment, disassemble, set balljoint, re-assemble, check alignment, find out its still off then you start this cycle all over again. Apparently there is no room for adjustment while the entire suspension is intact. :confused:
 
i've tried a set of adjustable ball joints on my GS-T. what a nightmare. here's my story if you care to read about it. the suspension needed to be unloaded in order for the ball joint to be adjusted. but with the suspension unloaded and the nut loosened, the mounting plate would move. crap. welded the mounting plates. then tried again. i thought i might set it to factory spec first. found another problem. the eccentric ball joint swivels. it doesn't slide. after adjusting the camber first, i set the caster. but due the swivel action, the camber was out of spec again. eh. so after three attempts which included raising and lowering the car three times, i finally found the factory settings. retorqued again after one week. six weeks later i put the car back in the air and notice that the ball joint seemed "loose". tore apart the ball joint and found that the teeth in the mounting plate had been worn down due to the stress from the teeth on the ball joint. i don't know why i thought this would MAYBE be normal. so i retorqued again and drove around and in another three weeks while driving at 70 down the freeway the shiny metal ball joints took a big dump and turned my left front wheel to the right. :D WHEEE!!! luckily it was 1am so i was able to correct with the help of half a lane to my right and limped my way home on local side streets. i don't know what to think now considering i've seen track racers on speed channel with this company's name plastered on their car. KMAC. *sigh* maybe i just got a bad batch. or maybe i read the instructions wrong. or maybe they didn't have LA road conditions in mind for this kit. whatever it was, this whole experienced sucked. i asked a few alignment techs about what they've seen in the real world. first they told me that i shouldn't have lowered it, then 90% of them suggested the adjustable eye bolts for the upper control arm. i'm sitting here with a set. but after i post this i'm going to do a search on these for input before i think of installing them. or maybe i'll wait until someone else installs these. anyway, that's my experience and btw, thank you all for making this huge vault of information available to backyard wrench monkeys like me.
 
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