I need to adjust the camber on the rear suspension. I know about the RB adjustable link, but I needa wider range than that offers.

Now the question. On the outside link of the trailing arms, the bolt is placed off center, and it is marked. I know it can be rotated to affect the rear suspension geometry, but how exactly does it affect it? It looks like it would adjust, but I suspect it would have more effect on the rear toe.

 

That bolt you see only adjusts the tow. But if you adjust tow then you also effect camber. If you get that adjustable bar then adjust tow you should be OK just as long as you tow stays within manufacturer limits.

 

Thanks. Thats what I was thinking, but theres one little thing. The bolt is at the top center. The toe is changed when the bolt moves forward or back. But if I moved the bolt to the bottom center, it wouldnt have moved forward or back much at all, so therefore it shouldnt change the toe much, but that would give me a good bit of positive camber, which Im looking for since I lowered my car.

 

the rear link should be enough adj for you. you want some neg camber in the rear. stock spec is -1. I'll be running around -2 when I finish my setup in the spring time.

 

Mazdaspeed7 - I might be missing something here but it sounds like you are going to do the alignment yourself. I would highly recommend against that. I've been doing alignments about 6 years and I don't care what enyone says but you can't eyeball the adjustments. Very small adjustments that you can't see with the naked eye can make huge differences in the way the car drives. The bolt on the outside of the rear lower control arm will not affect the camber enough(maybe 1/16 of a degree at the most) to make a difference. It is strictly for setting the toe. Someone may disagree with me but I don't care.

Natedogg - Its toe setting as in "this little piggy" not tow setting as in "my name is Bubba and I drive a tow(wrecker) truck." Just picking on you man.

Later

 

the large eccentric bolt on the trailing arm is for toe, the link for camber. if you lower the car 4" or more then you may need to look into some more adjustable pieces on the rear. on the trailin arm the is a small link towards the center of the car on each side and a radius type rod the comes from the center to the rear hub. using adjustable heim type links in these areaa will alllow more camber when the car is lowered dramaticly, also helps toe adjustment and bump. this involves alot of custom machining and some fabrication of parts. you can try Tony at AWR Racing http://www.awrracing.com/ as they have built these parts for an E-production race car. these are all roller bearing suspension and would not be suitable for a street car, but if for a race car give them a try.

 

I im friends with a mechanic who owns his own shop, and he lets me use his shop and helps me out when I need it. I would be doing the work, but he would check the alignment for me.


Tims, I was looking at that before, but I was unsure just how much, if any, that would help. I did a lot of weight reduction to my car, the the back of the car raised up over an inch from stock height. I had 4 1/4" fender gap between the rear wheels. From that, I dropped it 3 1/2", leaving me with a very nice 3/4" fender gap all around. I did the front to, but Im not having any camber problems there(I love the off center strut mounts in the front).

 

Upon closer inspection, the outside link has no affect on camber at all. The hold for the bolt is only a slot, and the bolt cannot go up or down, only forward and back. Time to look for other ways adjusting camber. I am going to mess around with the inside link, and see if I can get anything out of that, and get a center link made.

 

just buy one. mazdacomp one is like $80. RB is more like $110. you'll be able to change the rear camber more then enough.

 

Yeah, thats exactly what you need to do to adjust the camber on your car. I took the suspension off my FC and I have a pretty good knowledge of the rear suspension.

 

mazdaspeed7 - If you have access to an alignment rack then you shouldn't have any problems. Have fun with it.

 

Not sure what you're setting the car up for (street, auto-x, track..?), but in my limited experience, the FC likes a little rake. Are you using coil-overs? If so, has the car been corner-weighted? Using the original bushings?

With an adjustable rear camber link you should be able to correct to whatever camber you want. Not sure about the RB piece, but the Ground Control unit handles the task well. As an aside, the rear camber link corrects the whole rear subframe (duh). On some cars, there will be slight variation right wheel v. left wheel. To do fine tuning, you can purchase adjustable control links (Mazdatrix) and make adjustment to each wheel.

All best,
Steve C.

 

QWCK10TH.....I read you loud and clear. I just the lasts couple of hours installed the Mazdatrix camber link in the rear and could'nt help but notice during the adjusting, that the r/h and l/h(camber angle) were not exactly the same. Pure shade tree stuff in a flat parking lot and a level, but I could see there is a diff in the two. Recon I'll get the links soon to complement the camber link. Found a bad r/h lateral link(loose slop etc) so I'll correct that before getting a real alignment. Ever notice that there is no such thing as a flat and level parking lot? They like to put in a little angle for drainage I guess.