Bill Kearley
Supporter
Yes, OK. I have chrome molly control arms, jam nut with 1 1/2" of 5/8" of fine thread inside. A whole different picture.
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Rear Tire to Wheel Well Clearance
- Thread starter Cobra
- Start date
Bill Kearley
Supporter
Let me clarify Howard, I thought that with all the engineering talent on this forum, my comment re bottoming out a rod end would be understood. Michael, with a short rod end with shoulder that is designed to be bottomed out and act as a jam nut may move the lower control arm in enough and allow you to move the top in as necessary. In your pictures it looks like you can move the lower control arm in and it would take nothing to make a new upper arm. How ever changing the geometry is never the best way to go. Why do you have so much thread showing on the lower? Before doing anything I would be checking the entire car for tracking, and being square. Some time with a laser, a good angle gauge and tape measure will tell you a lot.
Howard Jones
Supporter
Agreed, Sort of.....maybe with steel pieces and some time devoted to getting the special type rod end tight AND aligned. Aluminum base housing and standard steel rod end we have here raises my "all available overkill/ minimum risk" engineering flag but in the proper situ as a last resort...………...well I didn't mean to offend...……
So what to do. This where we agree completely. The car needs to be completely reset up suspension wise to result in min possible rear track. Take out any wheel to hub shims. Tires to normal pressure.
Starting at the bottom a arms. Be sure there are no shims behind the bracket that is the chassis mount point for the lower inboard a arm rod end. If so take them out. Screw ALL the rod ends on bottom a arms all the way in and that allows for rod end hole alinement. Make tight and leave them as is for now. Go to the top transverse links and make them as short as possible with present pieces. Set toe at straight ahead. (0 toe)
Now put tires back on, set car on ground and set ride height at rear to prevent body from contacting tire at rest. Make both sides the same. Where are we now? Does the tire still interfere with body? What is the rear camber measurement now?
Given this data we can certainly help you. It may just be a matter of making new transverse tie rods that are a bit shorter.
Bill Kearley
Supporter
All is good. I should have printed the word TIME in bold.
While this started out as a tire clearance issue on the RH side, I've since discovered a number of things that needed to be set straight. The biggest discovery however, is that my car has two very different lower control arms, which makes for some very odd and dissimilar geometry. The tire clearance issue on the right side was fairly simple to correct as previously discussed. The left side actually turned out to be the problem child, and I'll need to call RCR to discuss a swap for the correct part. Pictures tell the story. The original owner somehow made it work on the left side, but the aft outboard heim had to be threaded out beyond what would be considered safe. Attempting to align the outboard heims similar to the right side yields an excessive toe out condition. Placing the right hand control arm on the left side yields a nicely aligned hub position.
Terry Oxandale
Skinny Man
Hmmm, that's some jacked up stuff. Another example of regardless of what you're buying, a "builder" by someone else takes an exhaustive amount of inspection to find all the "features" installed by the previous owner or builder.
Once all put back together, and still not satisfied, have you considered (little bit of $$$ needed) replacing the wheel barrels (shells, etc) for the next incremental inboard offset? See if you've got 3-piece wheels. If so, contact the manufacturer about new parts . It looks like you've got room inside the tires if this option is possible. Can be done DIY if this is a possibility.
Once all put back together, and still not satisfied, have you considered (little bit of $$$ needed) replacing the wheel barrels (shells, etc) for the next incremental inboard offset? See if you've got 3-piece wheels. If so, contact the manufacturer about new parts . It looks like you've got room inside the tires if this option is possible. Can be done DIY if this is a possibility.
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So here's my dilemma. Spoke to RCR and apparently both arms are an outdated design no longer being produced, so the only solution from RCR's perspective is to buy a current design matched set for $800. Before I go that route, I figured I'd explore other options.
Its possible for a variety of reasons that someone may have an extra lower arm like the top one in the first photo (left one in the second photo) that they'd be willing to sell? Not really interested in making tubular steel arms, would really prefer to stick with original RCR design parts.
Its possible for a variety of reasons that someone may have an extra lower arm like the top one in the first photo (left one in the second photo) that they'd be willing to sell? Not really interested in making tubular steel arms, would really prefer to stick with original RCR design parts.
Only asking because I am curious, did RCR happen to tell you why there might be two different arms? Is it possible they shipped the kit with mismatched arms or maybe the builder needed a new one (broke on install?) and didn't realize the arms were different? Just interesting they are mismatched.
Sorry this happened, I have a sense you might need to go through the entire car to look for other special things.
Sorry this happened, I have a sense you might need to go through the entire car to look for other special things.
According to RCR, the two arms were not made at the same time my car was originally delivered (2006/2007), so the wrong arm could not have been mistakenly included with the kit. The second design arm was apparently developed for +2 configured cars which my car is not, so its reasonable to speculate as you say that the original owner may have damaged an arm and bought and installed the other arm at a later date not knowing it was a different configuration. I've been going through the car methodically since acquiring it and have corrected quite a few things so far, that's half the fun of a project like this.
Terry Oxandale
Skinny Man
Here is his photo on the truck bed, and using the bed grooves as a grid (enhanced by my yellow boxes), you can see that the front part of the right arm is too far forward, thus the arm has to be pushed rearward at the wheels, which rotates it (yellow arrow), causing the need to extend the rear Heim joint in order to make it work. Shortening it would make it even worse.
So....with that said, would a stout 1" or so spacer placed between the frame and the inner joint (thus pushing the entire arm rearward), allow you to rotate that arm back in the opposite direction, shorten the rear Heim, lengthen the front Heim, and get you back on the road? In other words, the arms would then be installed similar to how the original photo was taken, but with the Heims adjusted correctly (except the one arm would be spaced further back than the other side arm. The suspension would not know the difference. I know this is single shear, but that appears to be what it was originally. Yes, there is some cantilever with the spacer, but a wide spacer, and high quality bolt should be fine.
Terry Oxandale
Skinny Man
It was an idea to get you back on the road considering the challenge to find the correct part. Hopefully a dusty one is sitting in a bin somewhere waiting for you.
Ian Anderson
Lifetime Supporter
Will their current generation of wishbones not fit? Or have they changed the pick up points on the chassis?
would any of the cars supplied to the Fast and Furious people used of an accident scent be a possible source?
ian
would any of the cars supplied to the Fast and Furious people used of an accident scent be a possible source?
ian
Yes Ian, the current design parts will fit my car according to RCR, but my cheapness quotient compels me to seek the lower cost alternative... 
That's a good question, I didn't think to ask that when I spoke to them, but I got the distinct impression they're only interested in selling a new set. Thought I'd try to locate a used one before I pony up for a new set.
Btw, I visited Edinburgh in 2016 with a group of friends. Beautiful place, we had a great time!
That's a good question, I didn't think to ask that when I spoke to them, but I got the distinct impression they're only interested in selling a new set. Thought I'd try to locate a used one before I pony up for a new set.
Btw, I visited Edinburgh in 2016 with a group of friends. Beautiful place, we had a great time!
