I searched this forum and wasn't able to find a discussion on who makes a rear camber plate for the 4th gen, so I thought I would ask. If this has been discussed, just post the link and I'll read about it. I google searched and found a lot for the 7th gen but didn't find anything for the 4th gen. I need them bad. I know my car will be a little quicker if I could use more than the outside 1.5" of my rear tires!
How much camber do you need? I wouldn't buy cam bolts, just get smaller bolts than stock. Grade 8 bolts are key if you don't want them to break. Putting smaller bolts allows for more adjustment than just a single cam bolt. This is definately the cheapest, easiest option for camber. I have negative 7 degrees on my right front with this method. And IIRC I had about 3-5 degrees on the rear before I swaper the control arms for heim joints and swedged tube. Another option would be adjustable length control/toe arms for the rear. If all three are adjustable you can change camber, caster, and toe. And get as much camber as you want.
Cam bolts won't work because of how the trailing arm mounts to hub. I think it would really bind out much. I have been thinking about making some adjustable length control arms and trailing arm. That would require heim joints
You actually don't have to make the arms themselves - they are pretty cheap from a racing supplier. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/m/105_Rod-Ends-Heim-Joints-Sleeves.html Thats just for example. The rods and joints are easy, but making them work in the car is difficult. The major problems I had were: - seized bolts (the stock toe cam adjuster and the long bolt holding the control arms to the hub were the worst) -metric car vs. imperial parts - I had to drill a few holes out, mostly to convert them to 1/2" -trailing arm bushing (hub side) - the bushing is on the hub, not the arm, so you either have to make a custom end for the adjustable rod, or bolt a heim joint to one side of the existing bushing like I did. The metal tube in the bushing is very hard, I think I had to grind it to get a 1/2" bolt through it I ended up making some centering plates to replace the toe adjusting cams and keep the rod centered in the slotted hole.
Thanks for the info on the rod ends! As far as how much camber; I guess I really wont know that until I get the front end worked out. I have 500 lb springs on the way, to replace the 450s that are in there now. Once I get rid of most of the body roll, I'll know how much camber I'll need, but right now I'm guessing about 2* neg. I think I have 0* right now. I know I could push it a little harder in the corners if I had more tire on the ground. There's a guy in our auto-cross club that is a really good driver that is slowly helping me get my car sorted out. He is the person that takes the pix and is able to provide feedback based on the pix and his observations watching my car. He sent me a spreadsheet with a bunch of formulas that help determine how the car should be set up. Once I figure out how to get all the measurements, I'll share the spreadsheet with this forum. there's a lot of measurements that need to be taken and I want to document how to take them on the Celica.
If you only want 2-3 degrees I would go with the smaller bolts to attach the hub to the strut. It should work without any rubbing unless you are running wider tires. If you use bolts, it only costs maybe $10 in total, which is incredibly cheap compared to plates or lengthened rods.
I have thought about that and I do have an extra set of the cam bolts I planned to use on the rear, but, for now, I have poly bushings on the trailing arms and changing the camber would bind the bushings. I was already told I will want to remove the poly bushings assumedly replacing them with heim joints.
whiteline makes a camber adj. bolt kit for front and resar. wwwraptorracing.com is a seller of whiteline products. +/- 1.5 degrees
So I’m interested in hearing about the suspension set-up you had for your IIRC car. Did you take the stock control arms and hub bushing end off and weld on the rod end for the heim joint? Did you add any length of the control arms while doing that or kept the stock length bolt-holt to bolt-hole? If you left the bushing on the chassis side of the arms, then did you make a spacer for the hub end or bend the arm to make up for the width of the bushing? For the trailing arm, did you have to bend then arm to connect the heim joint to the outside of the bushing on the hub? This set-up is similar to something I was thinking about doing I was planning on eliminating the bushings on both ends. It looks like for $180, I could replace my rear control and trailing arms.
So I was under the car tonight and I was reminded that the rear hub is a 2 piece hub assembly; one piece being the part that the 2 lower control arms and the trailing arm bolts to that bolts to the strut tube. The second piece being the piece that houses the bearings, the brake assembly and bolts to the first piece. With my tire and rim combo., I don’t have space to use cam. bolts (which I have); but if I make a spacer that fits between the 2 pieces of the hub assembly, then I should be able to use the cam. bolts. The only problem with that idea is that I will be binding the poly bushings in the trailing arms. This is only meant as a temp. solution to getting more camber, used until I replace all the arms with arms that use hiem joints at the end, making a fully adjustable rear suspension.
Hmm sorry I haven't got back to you yet, I was meaning to send you some pics of my setup. You should post some pics of yours so we have a better idea of how you have things setup. I am still confused about the bushings binding.
