Looking to remove radius arms and where it mounts to the rear subframe it seems to be spring loaded...also, it seems very difficult to get access to the bolt ( aside from with wrench but hard to get enough torque)

A - does this bar need to be replaced if I only want to correct camber after lowering? It came with my kinetix kit.

B - if A is true, any tricks for getting the bolt out without mangling the wheel well sheet metal?

 

It's not spring loaded You're just feeling the bushing not spinning is all. You will probably end up taking a small crescent wrench and tightening it up onto that little metal lip and slightly flaring the lip out in order to get your wrench in there. You can just bend it back when you're done. If you use channel locks or something like that the teeth are going to bite into the metal but if you use a small adjustable crescent wrench it's nice and smooth and you can use that to bend the metal out a little bit and then bend it back when you're done. It will crack the paint slightly so just have a little bit of undercarriage coating or something along those lines to touch up the edges of it with.

 

I left mine flared out ever so slightly, just enough to get a wrench back in there and you can't even tell unless you really get your head in there and look at it. I didn't want to have to worry about bending it out again in the future if I ever swap those radius rods.

 

Lastly, the only real benefit from swapping out the radius rods is you probably have polyurethane bushings on your kinetics ones. it's not really a component that sees a lot of wear anyway so you could just leave the existing ones but if you are swapping out all the rest of the bushings in the rear for poly you should just get the radius rods out and swap them.

Don't make any changes to the overall length of the kinetics radius rod unless you know what you were doing because it will affect bump steer. Set the kineticsrkinetics rodat exactly the same length as the OEM ones, put them side by side and take the bolts and run it through both sets of rods at the same time to make sure they are exactly the same length.

 

Awesome... can always count on your expert advice... I don't have the rest of the poly bushings I need to change em all out entirely ( future project) none the less i paid for them, and they look cool so they're going in...

Ill use the bolt trick like you mentioned and am only changing out one component at at time in hopes to minimize the chance of changing the rod length...

 

Cleric,

I've seen you make this comment on a few threads. Allow me to explain why I shortened the radius rod length, and please chime in with your thoughts.

Last night I installed my BC racing coilovers on my 05 G35x, along with Z1 traction arms and camber arms. I elongated the toe bolt hole and installed SPC toe bolts. I opted for the upgraded swift springs - one thing to note is the spring and shock are separate for the X, there was no option for a true style coilover in the rear from BC. The swift springs are much shorter than OEM.

Install went fine on every part, I adjusted my camber and toe as close as possible to 0 and 0 (as far as the naked eye can tell). The ONLY component I left at OEM length was the traction rod, as per the instructions from Z1. What I found was each spring on both sides was not straight up and down between the mounting point on the spring bucket, and the mounting hardware from BC that is placed at the top of the spring (when looking at the springs directly from the side at 90 degrees). The bottom of the spring was further back towards the rear of the car, and the top of the spring was a little more towards the front of the car. Looking at it from the side, it looked like each spring had a slight curve to it from the bottom to the top. As well, each spring bucket was slightly angled towards the front of the car (which makes sense as the bottom of the spring was sitting flush on the bucket).

This morning I thought to myself... of course the spring bucket is being pushed out. With the entire knuckle now sitting higher up in the wheel well (due to the shorter BC shock and shorter swift springs), once I adjusted the camber and toe back to "0 and 0" but left the traction arm at OEM length, the entire knuckle assembly is essentially being pushed towards the rear of the car, and a slight rotational torque as well (which would put stress on all bushings as they are being slightly rotated towards the front of the vehicle).

After shortening the traction rod, everything looks flawless. The spring has FAR less of a "curve" or angle to it from the bottom spring perch to the top where it mounts, and the spring perch itself is now far less angled towards the front of the car, almost flat. This is with camber and toe re-adjusted to "0 and 0".

So, I'm looking for educated thoughts and opinions. Either I leave my traction rod at OEM length, and my spring buckets & springs sit at on upward (towards the front of the car) curve. Or, shortening the traction rod allows the rear section of the knuckle where the spring bucket connects to be moved back into position such that the spring can sit straight up and down. Personally I don't consider the former as an acceptable option.

 

Rear camber should be around -0.5 and -1.0 degree, if you set it at zero when the suspension is raised (while driving) you'll end up with a lot of positive camber which can make a car handle very unpredictably. Like just after you crest a hill and start to descend, or as you corner and one side lifts up away from the road that lifted corner will be positive.

As for the radius rod length, double check WITH THE WHEEL INSTALLED. You should have a pretty even gap between the wheel and the chassis wheel arch on both front and rear of the tire. I have a feeling you'll find that loading up the suspension with the right camber will fix this problem.

Just to verify, you set the length of the radius rod by setting the two rods side-by-side and inserting the bolts through each bar to basically bolt them together yes? It's surprisingly difficult to set the length just by measuring, even being 1/8" off can make it difficult to align the car since you run out of adjustment on the toe bolts so quickly and end up running more negative camber to compensate.

How much of a drop are you using on those coilovers?

 

The drop is around 2". The camber and toe were set with the suspension in the position it will be once the wheels are on the ground. Tomorrow I'll be rolling the rear fenders before putting the wheels on and dropping it, I'll see what it looks like once it's down.

Yes, the length of the radius rod was verified as you described before installing it on the car. As I said, install on each part went very well. Only once everything was set did I realize the springs were curved from the spring perch to the upper mount, and decreasing the radius rod length (thereby pulling in the toe arm on the knuckle) was the only way to get the spring straight up and down. I then re-adjusted camber and toe with the radius rod length changed quite a bit, but I will report back with how it looks once the vehicle is back on the pavement.

On a side note, for the Z1 adjustable FUCA's... does anyone re-install that little OEM rubber washer that sits between the rear body mounting point and the rear FUCA bushing? I chose not to slide it in front of the greased Polyurethane bushings on my install. They're sitting in a box in the garage if I ever need them.

 

Those big flat rubber washers? I don't for poly since the poly bushings I use have a thick enough side that the FUCA cannot touch chassis metal and rub. If the FUCA can touch chassis metal you would need to install them though, I guess it would depend on how thick the flange is on your poly bushings, Z1 bushings have a really thick flange around them.