looking to add more camber

[rsss396]

So I changed out the upper and lower control arms and bushings along with wheel bearing hubs, because of sloppy bushings. All the pieces were chinese knock off parts.
But I have a negative camber issue I would like to correct, will adding a 1/2" outside strut spacer help give me positive camber or will it make it even more negative.

I know my torsion bar suspensions would always go positive as I raised the suspension so I would expect the strut spacer would do the same.

What effect does flipping and swapping sides with the upper control arm do to camber and would this create a bind issue with the upper ball joint on a none lifted suspension.

I have a 2 in rake now on the truck so added lift to the front would be good.

Thanks for your thoughts
Dave

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

You can lift if you want, but you really need an alignment.

 

[rsss396]

The lower control arms are pushed all the way in and the camber is still negative, so I am looking for other ways of manipulating more positive camber into wheels.

 

[BoldAdventure]

The lower control arms are pushed all the way in and the camber is still negative, so I am looking for other ways of manipulating more positive camber into wheels.

huh??? I don't think you mean the control arms are pushed in....

 

[rsss396]

The control arms are connected to the plate that is used align the front end, if you push the control arm/plate combo in, it will bring the bottom of the tire in thus giving you a positive camber change. At least this is my understanding if I am wrong please correct me.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

You got other issues if you can't get it right stock. Lifted to lowered will get the right camber with proper alignment but lifting or lowering to get it right is wrong.

There is something else askew. Fix that and your camber will be fine.

 

[rsss396]

well I have read allot of threads with people struggling with camber even on stock suspensions, and I am open to the fact that the Chinese parts are not exactly reproduced possibly causing this issue.
The camber is about -1.5 degrees so I am not far off, I could probably remove the lower a-arms and grind them some, or try returning them along with the huge hassle of that, but I can also look at this from a mechanical point of view and try and influence the camber in other ways.
When the "lowering crowd" lowers there rides they have negative camber issues and even though I have installed new strut/spring combinations last year I believe the car sits slightly lower than it did brand new. so that means I will have a slightly more negative camber than if it was at factory height. This is where I am going with adding spacers above the struts to give me back some of my camber which also would allow for more plate adjustment of the castor settings since it would maybe not be bottomed out in the plate mounting area.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Makes sense, but it seems you need nearly 3 inches of lift before the camber becomes any sort of worry. Plenty of adjustment that I have seen over the years, but i guess it is possible and your idea os a top spacer would likely help in your case then.

 

[The_Roadie]

If you look at the geometry, and the length of the two control arms, you'll see that you get the most positive camber when the control arms are parallel to the ground. When you lower OR LIFT it, either way, you get negative camber. That's the root cause of your current issue. Control arm suspensions are different from Macpherson strut or torsion bars.

Only real fix is shorter lowers, which you can get by machining the adjustment slots. Or longer uppers, which need to be fabbed.

Many figures on-line:

View attachment 31692

Wish we could get adjustable ones made by some fab shop:

View attachment 31693

 

[rsss396]

Thanks for your thoughts roadie, we'll I went out in the garage and my A-arms are not level and infact are less than level where the ball joints set slightly higher than the arm bolts at the adjuster plate the opposite the way a lifted suspension would set. So lifting the suspension would be a step in the right direction.
But while I was out there and a little lazy about making some spacer in my lathe I decided to swap the arms and flip them. We'll it actually seams to add just a little positive camber to the wheels, I did have to pry the inner fender well just a little at the rear bolt because it would get hit by the arm going over a bump.
The ball joint angle still looks ok since even the factory setup still puts a pretty good angle on it.
Only bad thing I see with the arms upside down is the water and dirt that will collect in the arm, it should still dry but not as easily as properly installed.

Thanks for the help guys
Dave