Camber adjustment on SPL front A arms

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Old 08-31-2011 | 09:54 PM
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Camber adjustment on SPL front A arms

Well I feel like a n00b posting this but I wanted to share my newfound knowledge with the Driver family. Thanks to MikeGrote for bringing this to my attention.

I bought the SPL arms a year ago and have wanted more positive camber adjustment. I'm dropped ~ 3" from stock and the best I could get was -2 degrees camber up front with all of the shims installed in the arms. I was about to contact SPC to see if they would sell just the spacers and ABS bracket separately that are included in their front camber kits and discovered my arms still had some positive camber adjustment left. MG was told by SPL that by unscrewing the heim joints at the end of each arm an inch we would get an additional 1.5 degrees of positive camber. Why the fvck didn't I think of that before I wondered? Here's a couple of pics for reference:

Arms

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Heim joints

The one on the left is from the V2 arms and the one on the right is from the V3. If you have V2 arms, SPL will send you the V3 upgrade for free FYI.

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SPL did suggest that to be safe they recommended only unscrewing the joints 3/4" but that's still 1.15 degrees of positive camber and would put me back squarely in factory spec if I had that much room to play with. Unfortunately I don't due to fitment issues, but measuring my gap between the sidewall and fender I have about 3/8" so that's over 1/2 degree adjustment which will certainly help with my front tire wear.

So if you have these arms and already knew that feel free to flame I feel really dumb for not figuring this out on my own but thought if I posted this it might help someone else.

That's all, thanks for reading.
 
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  #2  
Old 09-01-2011 | 12:44 AM
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Good lookin out...I love me some SPL...they think of EVERYTHING!
 
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Old 09-01-2011 | 12:51 AM
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The only thing you have to be careful of with this is the arm hitting the point where the inner fender meets the body of the car.
 
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Old 09-01-2011 | 01:21 AM
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U really get what u pay for with these bad boys!!
 
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Old 09-01-2011 | 05:39 AM
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Originally Posted by Gdup35sedan
The only thing you have to be careful of with this is the arm hitting the point where the inner fender meets the body of the car.
I haven't had that issue but I have had the bottom of the A arms hitting the top of the OEM radius arm. I didn't grind the bumps of the OEM arm off as suggested though so I think that would cure my clunk.
 
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Old 09-04-2011 | 10:19 AM
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For anyone who cares I adjusted my arms last Tuesday and have put about 400 miles on the car and they are solid as a rock. I only adjusted them out 3/8" which I calculated to be about +.5 degrees of camber. Haven't taken it to the shop to confirm numbers, will do that next week. Tires are exactly where I want them from a fit perspective and I should be somewhere around -1.4 on the fronts ATM.

Thanks again to MikeGrote for revealing this info.
 
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  #7  
Old 09-04-2011 | 12:05 PM
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what is the range of these? i remember at the time when i bought my SPC arms years ago, they offered the most range for adjustment, up to +5 adjustment for those with some serious neg camber issues.
 
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Old 09-04-2011 | 12:29 PM
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Can caster be achieved with SPL?
 
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Old 09-04-2011 | 01:42 PM
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Originally Posted by Blue Dream
For anyone who cares I adjusted my arms last Tuesday and have put about 400 miles on the car and they are solid as a rock. I only adjusted them out 3/8" which I calculated to be about +.5 degrees of camber. Haven't taken it to the shop to confirm numbers, will do that next week. Tires are exactly where I want them from a fit perspective and I should be somewhere around -1.4 on the fronts ATM.

Thanks again to MikeGrote for revealing this info.
Glad I could help, but you mention you are supposed to grind something down? Is this mentioned in the instructions? I haven't ordered my arms yet
 
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Old 09-04-2011 | 01:46 PM
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Originally Posted by G35sedan03
what is the range of these? i remember at the time when i bought my SPC arms years ago, they offered the most range for adjustment, up to +5 adjustment for those with some serious neg camber issues.
I'm not exactly sure on the specs for the spl, but the spc arms get such a high range by including hub spacers with the arms. For those of us planning to do an akebono brake kit, these hub spacers will not allow the adapter from the brake kit to work, therefore without the hub spacers, much less adjustment with the spc arms
 
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Old 09-04-2011 | 01:49 PM
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Originally Posted by broke_as_ajoke
Can caster be achieved with SPL?
Yes, when I talked to spl he confirmed this also. You use the same heim joints referenced in the original post, but you just unscrew one more than the other. Depending which way you want to go with it will dictate which one needs to be unscrewed more
 
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Old 09-04-2011 | 01:57 PM
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got this from their website, check it out http://www.splparts.com/instructions/SPL_FUA_Z33.pdf
 
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  #13  
Old 09-04-2011 | 02:05 PM
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Yep, those are the bumps I was talking about. The bottom of my A arms is scored where they rub. I've just been too lazy to do this.
 
  #14  
Old 09-04-2011 | 02:14 PM
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Originally Posted by MikeGrote
I'm not exactly sure on the specs for the spl, but the spc arms get such a high range by including hub spacers with the arms. For those of us planning to do an akebono brake kit, these hub spacers will not allow the adapter from the brake kit to work, therefore without the hub spacers, much less adjustment with the spc arms
i went with the megan BBK years ago, before the akebono kit was an option. with that kit, i have not had any issues adjusting camber. and to be perfectly honest, i'm very happy with the megan BBK. i know the akebono is a great buy for the $$$, but i got mine on a GB and the price was too good to pass up.
 
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Old 09-07-2011 | 01:28 PM
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Originally Posted by Blue Dream
Yep, those are the bumps I was talking about. The bottom of my A arms is scored where they rub. I've just been too lazy to do this.
Haha, you and me both Tim! My arms are all banged up on the underside from the bumps. It's funny that I cut then off when I install the arms on other G/Z's I work on but not my own!
 


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