Ellies last suspension mod .

[discopotato03]

My retired rally mechanic/fabricator months ago made me up a pair of slightly extended L Series front control arms , you get two sets and cut and shut them using the two longer halves of each side .
These have also been modified so that the cross member bushing tubes line up properly even though the arms outer ends are angled forward and supported by packing/extended crush tubes/urethane bushings on the compression struts (caster rods) .
My standard control arms have virtually destroyed their rubber bushes because they are so far out of alignment and the bushes are small in diameter to start with .

Anyway the plan is for the bushes now to survive and because the arms are from memory 5mm longer there should be a slight camber change and an increase in track .

This should be happening Wednesday with a rough toe reset and an accurate alignment the day after .

Cheers A .

[Gannon]

Cool

Send me some pics via email and i'll post em up for ya

[discopotato03]

Yeah ok , I'll try to remember to take the camera along and get a side by side comparison .

Poor ole dames got some weird creaking noises in its front end and having done a front wheel bearing not too long ago (LOL OE ones) we know its those chopped out control arm bushes .

The std geometry is so completely woeful in an L Series but big bars and any reduction in negative caster and positive caster works wonders .

Just to rehash my car has all original dampers but wagon springs in the rear .
Custom anti roll bars 24mm front 22mm rear , was 19 and 16 .
Front strut tops changed to Noltec Forrester ones with didn't allow big changes (std tops offset OE) . Caster rods have three Nissan thick caster rods behind urethane bushes the push the control arms forward approx 15mm at their outer ends . Steel bushes had to be added under the outer (forward bushes) so that the outer washer had something to tighten up on (like a crush tube extension over the rear parted of the threaded section of the rods) .
The height adjuster nuts were removed so the lower spring seats could sit lower on the damper body , the nuts were screwed back on above the seats . This lowers the front approx 8-10mm bringing the crossmember height down reducing the control arm angularity and spreading the struts/track slightly .

Anyhow moving the tops of the struts back as far as possible and and pushing the bottoms as far forward as is practical gives a lot less negative caster . The result is more dynamic camber change which these cars badly need .
The static positive camber is really cruel and reducing that back to neutral or maybe slightly negative makes a HUGE difference .
Gannon I'm sorry I never had the opportunity to push it into my favorite off camber round about when you went in it but you had little time as it was .
My L is a quantum leap over what it was standard , not as good as the Skyline and a long way behind the Lancer . The Skyline had the Micky Mouse Whiteline/Bilstein works suspension kit fitted before I bought it and Ralliart had Evolutions nailed out of the box .

A .

[Gannon]

You havent spoken much of your new toy on here. Which car is your daily driver?

[discopotato03]

The RX does most of the general running around mainly because I can park it anywhere and its always there when I come back . It has the least market value and its no great issue if some clot opens a door on it .
Also I want as much mileage as I can get out of it because it owes me a heaps and there isn't much perceived value in RXs any more .

The Lancer mainly comes out at night though occasionally it goes for a spin in the daytime , depends if and where its likely to be parked .
I haven't said much about it here because this is a Subaru board .

The Skyline gets the least use but that will change when the RX is either sold or parted out . Its due for a mild dryer and front pipe update which needs to be done before it becomes the daily . With a run up on the dyno it should be a reasonably punchy thing and quite agile for its size and weight .
Its probably the most comfortable of the three though I like the Recaro buckets in the Lancer , and the Momo and the Brembos and and ...

A .

[discopotato03]

The control arms went in yesterday and unfortunately I forgot to take the camera with me , early start to beat Sydney's morning peak traffic .

These arms don't really look much different except for a few welds at their inner ends , they were plated underneath to make them stronger than original . As I mentioned the outer ends are angled forward about 15mm and the length has been extended 10mm . There was plenty of tie rod thread length to play with and it still has more than the minimum safe 14mm .

As suspected the bushes on the original arms were ratty but mainly at the rear sides where the steel mount tubes had been rubbing on the cross members mounting ears .
The surprise was that the silly noises and movement were because the offside caster rods through bolt nuts had somehow come lose allowing the control arm to move backwards and forwards slightly under driving/braking loads .

Unfortunately my favorite tyre joint is short of a mechanic ATM so I couldn't get a precise toe adjustment done yesterday . The Rally people did a near enough setting at ~ 1mm toe in but it needs to be set accurately .
The steering is still light and to look at I think I can see a tad of negative camber which is a minor miracle in an L Series given how much positive camber these cars have std .
More positive caster would be preferable because it gives dynamic camber change but this is as far as I'm going to go with this car .

If you like a car that handles Evo's spoil you rotten , its as simple as that .

A .