GTD Front Camber

Has anyone modified there top A arm to take an adjustable link (like Tornado seem to do)? Apparently a Transit track rod end is used?

I would like to make some new top arms as
I found it impossible to get any negative camber on the OS front. Even without any spacers the measurement is till positive.
I have moved the triangle holding the top ball joint but there still isn't enough adjustment. I think a screw adjustable link has to be the way to go.

Can anyone help?

David Champ

Dave,

Could you not shim the bottom A-Arm? making the top 'effectively' shorter.

regards,

Julian, that would work except that the bottom pivots are integral with the chassis and cannot be moved.

If I remember rightly the GTD setup shims the wishbones, yet the swivels are fixed. The Tornado has a fixed lower wishbone, and the Transit setup you mentioned above which adjusts camber (caster is fixed on mine) coupled to the granada 2 front stub axles. It is a right hand thread Transit Van drag link balljoint. Don't know if any GTD boys have done it, they all seem happy with their setups (see later), but if you went the Tornado way, you would need an internal threaded rod, an M18 X 1.5mm half nut (to lock the ball joint),welding kit, hacksaw and a ruler. All you need to do is measure where abouts you want the swivel, cut, weld, hey presto! Might be worth making a jig of the mounting points for accuracy.

However...before you rush out and I'm sorry to doubt your integrity, but if no one else has encountered this problem, check, re check, and double re check and check again to make sure it's not something really simple or obvious. Sometimes you cannot see the wood for the trees. I know...been there...done that!

Good luck.

Thanks for the input.

I checked the setup as best I could but then took the car to a centre with a four wheel alignment system to measure caster, camber, toe-in - front and camber, toe-in at the rear. On checking just now its the nearside that remains positive (plus 0.1 degrees), perhaps this isn't significant?

Hi Dave, I have a new top wishbone for the GTD that has fully ajustable caster and camber with the car sitting on the ground, so you can get a direct and immediate reading on the guages without all the jacking up and down etc. Frank

Hi Dave,

I posted without looking at my chassis first. Possibly they are not all the same, But my bottom wishbone rear pickup is bolt-on, but the lower front is not. I guess this is purely for adjusting castor.


Regards,

Hi there,

You are not alone in experiencing this issue. Whilst a jig was used at manufacture, hand made chassis' have a room for error like everything else. However I shortened both top arms by half an inch and then shimmed accordingly. Cut down the side of each of the flat plates the ball joints bolt to and then slide the plate in, take to a good welder and get it welded back up. Re-paint or powder coat and it should be ok. Geometry wise there should be no difference to what you had before as the pivot and ball joint positions remain static (except of course hopefully some negative camber!).

The idea you mention above is used on the Ultima (or at least on my friends Ultima) and works fine. If you had a simple tube through which the ball joint stem was put with a nut each side then you would have easy adjustment for camber without having to break the ball joint to turn it in and out of a threaded tube. However get your sizing right as these front joints take some pounding. Min 5/8 inch? If in doubt get proper advice! Also use lock nuts on them.

You could go to a plumbers store and make a mock up wih copper pipes and then take to a welder to make you a steel version?

Hope this helps.

Malcolm

Hi David,
You have the same front uprights as me, I also want to make some new top A arms, If you tell me the dimensions I will make two sets in cold drawn steel tube and nickel plate them-let me know

Thanks one and all, this gives several options. I would like to be able to adjust 'in situ' as this allows it to be done real-time at a laser aligment centre.

I used 24 Aurora rose joints on my GTD suspension and everything is now adjustable.
When I say I used them, I only bought them
and Henry (here in Marlow) installed them.
If you want to have some photos of what we did let me know and I'll email them to you.
Dave

[ February 07, 2003: Message edited by: David Morton ]

Dave,

I'd love to see your photos, my e-mail is [email protected]

Thanks and cheers
David

Dave,

Can I have photos as well? My email is below.

Thanks,

P.S What is a 24 Arouro

[email protected]

David,

I would be very interested to see your setup, especially the front wishbones. Could you email pictures top me at [email protected]

Thanks in advance.
Regards,

Faili,
I used 24 rose joints and they were made by a company called Aurora, sourced from a comapny called SO-CAL (near LAX airport)
Dave M

Got you beat Dave ,I used 28 Aurora joints on my suspension...so there.And I made my own suspension pieces


[ February 10, 2003: Message edited by: Fran Hall ]

No wonder i become more despondant as the days go by with this site and many of the sarcastic replies.What was the point of the last comment made?
GTA.

The point is I am having fun with a friend of mine.Dave is always good for a quick one liner or at least he has been with me on the phone.
Sorry if that offends you Graham.

[ February 10, 2003: Message edited by: Fran Hall ]

Absolutely - I dont mind at all - life is too short and good 'one liners ' make the world go around. PS - I'm useless at welding - everything I've tried has been an uncontrolled explosion and whatever I've been trying to weld has been found in a neighbours garden totally destroyed, so Henry does it all for me. PPS I was too busy earning doing other things to learn how to weld.
Dave M

[ February 10, 2003: Message edited by: David Morton ]

Dave M,

Thanks for the pictures, they almost got junked by my mail server security, just rescued them in time!

I see how you've done it, at the front I was going to put one ball joint at the wheel end of the wishbone - I'm not competing on maximum rose joints in use )

I see at the rear you have rotated the bracket attaching the top radius/trailing arm to the upright. I have done this as I have the same arrangement and this bracket fowled the inside rim of the wheel, but I wondered if it introduced any unwelcome geometry changes on bounce/return? I couldn't see why but its re-assuring to see I am not the only one to make this change. I did pin the bracket to be sure it wouldn't rotate and hit the wheel.

Regards
David C