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Adventures for Rear Camber


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So I need to start this by thanking my two best mates, Kieran and Flint.

They are amazing and make my stupid ideas not so stupid and actually do things, otherwise my ideas would simply remain ideas.

Kieran is an engineer/welder by trade and Flint is just Flint, give him any power tool and he'll get on with it.

So I've wanted rear camber on the GT for quite a while, and have looked at the way that other people have done it, Grant and Mikey and taken some inspiration from that. Originally I was planning on just following the way that they have done it, but with Kieran's help and advice, the way it was done has changed slightly and I think its for the better, resulting in more strength and a safer set up.

So, I had a set of stub axles that had been roughly chopped off a glanza beam by grant and sent to me a year or two ago.

Last weekend, I finally got the rear axle down the workshop and Kieran and Flint got straight to work, whilst I pranced around asking stupid questions and taking photos:

Here are the stub axles in question recived from grant. The first thing to do was to remove the majority of the material from the back of the stub axle chop and then get it in the lathe.

6XbsWWB.jpg

at that point Kieran then lathed material off the back until we had a completly flat face:

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This was then checked with a micrometer to check it was even across the whole face. Kieran took several readings, and the average came out at 21.7mm, there was a discrepancy of less than half a mm across the face, We decided this was within acceptable tolerances.

The next part was to chop the beam off, So again Kieran got cutting and removed the stub nose from the stub axle on the beam:

1XW5lQu.jpg

Flint then got the grinding disk out and being careful not to touch the rest of the plate flatted down the last few mm of the stub axle

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Once these were ground back they were checked with engineer layout fluid, and found to be flat

xb1MgXn.jpg

The next thing was to get the stub axles in the pillar drill and drill them through so they could be bolted back to the axle

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This is currently as far as I've got. I am currently waiting for some High Tensile bolts to be delivered - m12 x 1.25 - 12.9 Strength.

These will be used to bolt the stub axle and the braking backing plate to the beam.

The alignment will be adjust by use of a shim like the example below on a lupo:

post-7689-0-94545300-1474478386.jpg

The advantage of doing it this way and utilising two rear axles are as below:

Increase in track, like spacers, but much less load on the bearings

When inspecting the stub axles, it appears the nose of the axle is welded right the way through, so attempting to cut the stub axle from the beam may compromise some of the strength in the stub axle, this could potentially lead to your whole rear wheel assembly falling off in the event of a catastrophic failure. This method means all the material is still there and should hopefully result in the maximum strength

I will update this post once the bolts and my polybushes have arrived. Then hopefully the modified axle should be going on the car in the next week or two

again its necessary to thank Kieran and Flint for all their help/doing it for me.

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Same route here, swapping EP82 GT stubs to EP70 axle. Only thing that slows project is how to do camber, how agressive, adjustable or solid? Before that I change modified EP91 drumbrake axle to EP70.

FB_IMG_1446809234231_zps4qkmseqn.jpg

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I think mine were done the same way Tris, you'll love it when it's done! Been running mine 3 years hard road and track use, such a worthwhile mod.



Went from -1.25/-2 F/R to -2/-1.2 rear to help negate understeer and it feels great. Some toe out on the front would help but I want to minimise tyre wear while the GT is still my daily


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How does that blue shims work, plactic adjusting mold for metal plate? My country not legal anyway, can't modify anything, so have to do very original looking patent. Any links for that VW Lupo system?

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I think mine were done the same way Tris, you'll love it when it's done! Been running mine 3 years hard road and track use, such a worthwhile mod.

Went from -1.25/-2 F/R to -2/-1.2 rear to help negate understeer and it feels great. Some toe out on the front would help but I want to minimise tyre wear while the GT is still my daily

Did yours require two axles too Amjad?

or was it all done with one?

How does that blue shims work, plactic adjusting mold for metal plate? My country not legal anyway, can't modify anything, so have to do very original looking patent. Any links for that VW Lupo system?

The blue shim is two plates, one adjusts camber and one adjusts toe. you spin the discs to be aligned to the spec you want and then install it like a spacer between the axle and the stub axle

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I just realised you're using two. I'm not sure it was two, but it looks like mine bolts up the same way as yours.

That's the way I was originally going to do it. Cut down the middle and bolt it back on

But when some stubs for quite cheap came up we revised the method. Also on inspection it looks like the splines are welded from the back. So by only using one I would be slightly concerned about the strength of it

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They are made by Eibach who know what they are doing generally

And they are TUV approved. So I think the risk is mjnimal

Okay, maybe TUV approved to VW, but not legal to Starlet anyhow, because it shouldn't be possible do any cut and paste modifation to factory axle. It is possible and can be done, but MOT inspector can't allow that modification in any EU country. If inspector sees that blue plastic in solid orginally welded hub, it fails. Only wanna remind people this gray area, dangerous things to modify when talking about street legal cars, trackcars are different story. Just wanna say that be carefull and know what You are doing :)
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Okay, maybe TUV approved to VW, but not legal to Starlet anyhow, because it shouldn't be possible do any cut and paste modifation to factory axle. It is possible and can be done, but MOT inspector can't allow that modification in any EU country. If inspector sees that blue plastic in solid orginally welded hub, it fails. Only wanna remind people this gray area, dangerous things to modify when talking about street legal cars, trackcars are different story. Just wanna say that be carefull and know what You are doing :)

That's not true of the UK system. You can change anything you like as long as it's completely a high standard and is safe. You can change any mounting points, suspension characteristics, body shape anything. As long as the quality of the work is good

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That's the way I was originally going to do it. Cut down the middle and bolt it back on

But when some stubs for quite cheap came up we revised the method. Also on inspection it looks like the splines are welded from the back. So by only using one I would be slightly concerned about the strength of it

Ah sound, I see what you mean now! I suppose your one sits wider then? Or have you kept the original track?

Had no issues with strength tbh with my use of the car, 4 high tensile bolts as I'm sure you've seen if Mikey sent you pics

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Ah sound, I see what you mean now! I suppose your one sits wider then? Or have you kept the original track?

Had no issues with strength tbh with my use of the car, 4 high tensile bolts as I'm sure you've seen if Mikey sent you pics

No. 20mm wider track with my method.

Do you know what rating bolts Mikey used? Hoping he might pipe up with some details

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Okay, maybe TUV approved to VW, but not legal to Starlet anyhow, because it shouldn't be possible do any cut and paste modifation to factory axle. It is possible and can be done, but MOT inspector can't allow that modification in any EU country. If inspector sees that blue plastic in solid orginally welded hub, it fails. Only wanna remind people this gray area, dangerous things to modify when talking about street legal cars, trackcars are different story. Just wanna say that be carefull and know what You are doing :)

just have to say theres not much chance of it failing m.o.t here, as an m.o.t tester on a daily basis and producer of independant vehicles i know the i.v.a, s.v.a and m.o.t tests pretty much inside out.

an m.o.t tester will not look any further at the rear beam besides play in the bearings, leaking shocks, mounting bushes (i.e trailing arm bushes, panhard rod bushes) and brake effeciency (which we use brake rollers to test imbalance and that the compensator isnt seized ) other than than the rear beam its just a really conveniant jacking point. unless the disk is removed and the stub axle exposed we wouldnt even see the shims being there, even if we did see that because of the shape and holes in the stub axle it would be presumed that its bolted to end the end of the beam as standard...... theres other mods on starlets that are more likely to effect picky m.o.t testers like screamer pipes or a lack of cat.

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