DIY adjustable camber ball joints mod

**sambb** · 28-07-2016, 12:49 AM

guys over on a non watercooled skoda fabia mk1 site just showed me this link:

CAMBER PLATES Domlager VW POLO 9N AUDI A2 SEAT CORDOBA IBIZA - RED | eBay

**Martin** · 28-07-2016, 09:13 AM

Interesting

I don't see why they constructed them that way - as a sandwich
Normally sandwich style versions are camber and castor adjustable

Given your car is still a daily ride, camber plates are not a great option
You'll need a nice road setup most of the time
But once a month you would max the camber out and need to do a toe alignment
If you get a shop to do the toe it will probably cost $70~$100 - twice (before and after the hill climb)
(You are also going to find out just how useless street shops are at alignment)
It would be a good idea to learn how to do the toe yourself

It would be a better idea to get castor plates and avoid the monthly configuration/alignment changes

**Martin** · 28-07-2016, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by sambb

anyone know how long the threads are on our tie rods. Obviously had to expose more thread to square the toe up so just wondering how much is likely to be left inside?

Not the the tie rod - the tie rod end with the ball joint
Every car is different but between 2cm and 3cm

It would pay to remove them and check the depth inside sp you know exactly what you've got

Amazing how much the toe changes with camber!

Originally Posted by sambb

I couldn't get into anywhere half decent for the alignment tomorrow so i'll probably have to drive it how it is for a few days till I can get it sorted.

Did you secure the steering wheel?
Often when you adjust toe the steering turns which totally messes you up
Should have been possible to lengthen each end by the same (say 1cm) and got something ok

**sambb** · 28-07-2016, 11:40 AM

Those plates look interesting. I just put them up for others to see since there's not a lot of stand alone plates for standard springs that could potentially fit our car.
Yeah a little more camber mangles the toe big time. I had to extend the threads by 10mm each side. I just went for a drive and remeasured and the toe seems to be more or less square - well at least streetable until I get into pedders on Monday morning. The wheel stayed more or less straight too which was a fluke more than anything. Access was surprising good with the car on the ground. It'll be interesting to see how close I got.
I flung it through a couple of favourite corners and it felt very nimble and direct with less tyre squeal than usual so there is a definite improvement there. Its tempting to take it for a proper test but I don't want to push it till I get some happy numbers at the alignment. Steering feels marginally lighter - I hope that's because the contact patch has changed due to the camber and not because I've lost any castor.
I can see the extra width down at the ground. I hope that when I fit my spacers for the hillclimbs that they don't ping me for having the tyres sitting too proud of the guard lips. Wouldn;'t be the end of the world if they did though. As is the car will have a 20mm wider track and retain the standard negative scrub radius. That might end up being how i'll run it in the wet since neg scrub is meant to be far more stable under brakes, not that I could feel much difference when I changed the scrub last time. With the front 20mm spacers though it'd now be around a 60mm wider front track although running with positive scrub. It was a weapon in the dry last time I ran with them in at 40mm wider track so 60mm will be amazing.
No I don't think i'll go back and forth between street and hillclimb settings. Just too much drama. Like you said earlier 5/1/2 degrees of castor is good and I may even end up with more now. That level of castor and the fact that I'm hillclimbing will hopefully mean that a streetable 1.75 degrees will be an ok one size fits all setting.

**sambb** · 28-07-2016, 11:52 AM

A plug for my local pedders re alignment quality. I took the car there after I fitted Eddy's mod - the subframe eccentric bolts. I gave them all the tools needed for job, they were happy for me to show them all front end bolts on the subframes and crossmember that needed to be loosened for adjustment to be possible, and they got everything squared up nicely. I'd wanted to get into heasmans but they are booked a long way ahead. When Pedders did the subframe eccentrics I asked them to prioritise camber if there was any adjustment even if it was at the expense of castor. They said there was only a smidgen extra to be had. I think I got an extra 15 minutes.
Down the track after I've changed the rear LCA offset bushes to the extra castor position I will go there so that the subframes can be set for max castor too (I think bulletfast said he got an extra degree of castor from the subframe eccentrics) and these ball joints adjusted to square up the camber at whatever setting. Then everything will be sweet and I can move onto steering angles as the next mission.

**sambb** · 28-07-2016, 05:12 PM

sorry some pics seem to have not loaded from earlier. The main one is the one here that shows the physical size difference between the OEM and Audi TT joint.

**sambb** · 28-07-2016, 05:18 PM

Martin you said earlier that you run 195's when we were talking about staggered set ups. Wasn't sure if you meant that you run staggered with 195's on the back or if you were just saying that that's what you run all round?