thebigsadler

Well I will let the pictures do the talking, but my camber is WAY off in the rear and I honestly am not even sure where to start to get it adjusted back out to spec. I have the traction and camber arms in the rear and the a-arms in the front from Kinetix Racing. I had some bad camber before installing the camber kit, but it is much worse now (the picture of the tread coming off the ground should emphasize this).

The last picture I posted has circled the camber arm adjustment piece and the traction arm adjustment piece. I am guessing that the camber arm is the one that I took a picture of by itself, that come directly behind the rotor and goes perpendicular to the rest of the car? My toe and caster I am honestly not concerned with getting correct because I can only eye that up so much and when I take my car to an alignment shop they will be able to get that done easily (with the traction arm I am assuming). I just want to adjust the camber arm to get the wheel somewhat straight again and not completely ruin my tires or drive worrying about my safety.

Thanks for any help, and if more pictures are needed let me know. My car is lowered on JIC FLTA2 Coilovers about 3" in the rear and about 2.25-2.5" in the front.

zwindsor

iTrader: (6)

You need to adjust the camber rod (perpendicular or blue one) and bring the tire in at the bottom. What you should have done was to adjust the camber arm to the same length as the stock for your preliminary setting. Also if you dropped as much as you say I'm not sure how close you will ever get to stock specs even with the adjusters. Bad tow settings will eat tires faster then camber but those adjustments really can't be judged by eye.

thebigsadler

I used two long bolts as pins and placed them in the stock pieces and in the kinetix pieces to get as close to the same length before installing that I could. The problem I ran into, is that I was also messing with the spring (rattling issues and installed upside down) and I had to adjust the camber arm back and forth to get the bolt back in for the spring. So basically I ruined the settings I had made.

I actually wouldn't mind a bit of camber because I won't have to worry about rubbing and so far the tire wear has not been too apparent (before installing the kinetix kit). I just want to get ALL of the tread touching the ground while driving, haha.

Which way do I need to adjust the camber rod? Out towards the wheel, or back in towards the opposite side of the car?

Thanks for the help.. I searched like crazy but couldn't come up with too much information on this (I guess no one is as crazy as me and wants to have such a low car).

jason

neur0sis

iTrader: (3)

If you look at the blue/red pic you labled, you'll see that the camber rod is attached to the bottom part of the control arm. At the setting you're at, you're "pushing" the bottom of the tire outward -- thus creating your negative camber.

If you adjust the camber rod, you want to esentially make the rod "shorter" ... pulling it IN towards the frame of the car, not pushing outward.

With a 3" drop in the back, I'd worry more about becoming a teeter-totter on a speedbump. Also, when you bring the camber closer to spec (as zwindsor said, not sure how close you can come back to stock spec with that drop) ... you'll want to watch to see if your tire/wheel is going to rub the fender.

specialp

You should really bring it for an allignment. I love doing everything myself but you cannot allign it all that good without the right equip. When you mess with the camber, the toein sometimes needs to be adjusted too. It is not all that much money for an allignment and it will pay for itself in tire costs.

thebigsadler

Trust me, I have no intentions on keeping it out of alignment for very long now that I have these parts installed. I just want my tread to be touching the pavement when the car is in motion, because right now it is not doing such a hot job of that. The toe I will definitely not even worry about adjusting because it is near impossible to tell by eye.

Speed bumps aren't too bad.. I want to go lower in the front to make it more even with the back, but I haven't had too many problems yet (knock on wood). My last car was about 2 inches lower than this, so I am used to driving a car that doesn't make it over any speed bumps.

Once this question is resolved, I need to find out why my adjustable control arms in the front are making a clunking noise. Is there something special I should know about the front arms? I matched them up to the stock pieces, impacted the 2 bolts and main nut in place and thought that would be the extent of the install. Is there a critical piece I may have missed?

Thanks again for all the input guys.. much appreciated.

Jason

03Z33

iTrader: (49)

Don't waist your money on an alignment in the rear until you get something to adjust the rear toe (like the SPC eccentric bolts). With your current set-up you will always have a little bit too much toe in (which increases as the suspension is compressed)

If your car is as low as mine, which it seems to be, then you will want to run the camber arm (blue arrow) at its shortest length (turned all the way in so no threads are showing).
I would not change the traction rod length too much as it will mess with your camber, if anything run it a couple of turns shorter than the stock rods to try and help zero out the rear toe.
Then loosen the toe eccentric bolt (inboard of the spring cup) and set to maximum toe out (all the way in towards center of car).

This will leave you with approximately -2 deg. camber and 3/32 toe in which is as good as you will get running this low without buying any more parts.

If everything is tightened to correct torque, you should not have clunking from the arms... the rear springs will clunk on the JIC's though. You can add a rubber spacer between the top of the spring and the body available from JIC (if you don't already have it) but it still does not completely elimintate the noise.

thebigsadler

The good thing is that I get free alignments.. So I don't have to worry about paying for anything. What I don't want to do is bring my car in with as much camber as it has right now because I am sure it will take my guy a couple hours to get it straight. I think I will go ahead and adjust the camber arm all the way in and just leave the toe (traction arm) alone unless it's horrible. Right now the toe is not that bad at all, but I am sure once I pull the wheel in with the camber arm it will come out or in a little in toe. What all do I need to do to get the eccentric bolt set all the way out? I know which one you are talking about, I just don't remember how it is adjustable.

And I know about the clunking in the rear, I have some, but it is fairly minimal. I know the front is making a clunking/crunching noise (even when I jack up the car) and I honestly can't pinpoint where it is coming from. I highly doubt its from the suspension, and it seems like it is from the ball-joint on the control arm? I just have no idea what could even be making any noise in there. Do you have any pictures of your front control arm installed so I can make sure everything looks the same?

Thanks a lot,

Jason

NismoGCoupe

I just sent you a PM about this but Its seems like your not the only one with this problem i've read 3 post today about this, Im gonna call kinetix on my lunch break today and see if they know anything about this and if theres a way to solve this issue before I install mine

03Z33

iTrader: (49)

Didn't realize the clunk you are reffering to is from the front... I don't use the Kinetixs arms up front, so I can't help with that. Probably just cheap ball joint.

To adjust toe in the back, you unlock (loosen) the adjustment bolt and turn it in the direction that will bring the head of the bolt closest to the center of the car. Once it is position you lock the bolt back in place.

When you adjust your camber arm you will notice that you will get severe toe-in, that is why you will need to max the rear to to full out.

thebigsadler

So does anyone have any pictures of an SPC toe/camber bolt install? Possibly some information on the process of drilling out the holes as well? I'd like to make sure I only drill one time.

Also, are there vendors that sell the SPC bolts around here at a better price than I got ($135.00 for 2 bolt sets and one drill set)?