Hey guys,
This is purely information based as more then likely i will send my car for an alignment when its back together. My questions are, i noticed on removal that just for kicks i tried tightening them up again and the cam thats on the nut side want to turn some. I noticed that the cam bolt with the flat side has some wiggle room between it and the cam. Is this normal? I have new ones coming anyway but just want to see what's normal. Also, the FSM says to adjust caster first and tighten the nuts up but then it says to break the nuts again and adjust camber, am i reading that correct?
Last question, i was going to nickel plate some other bolts that attach the upper control arms on and also the lower strut onto the LCA, but there is this green stuff on it, you think this nickel wouldn't interfere?

Thanks,

Eddie

 

you have an FD? the FD has two adjusters, as you've seen. the camber adjustment is achieved by moving the lower ball joint outwards, and the castor adjustment is achieved by moving the ball joint forwards and backwards. so the two adjustments relate to each other.

the racers just max out the camber, and then you'd trim it up to get the castor you wanted, as thats easy.

 

so when you look at the camber plate of say the front bolt and the attached camber plate shows the mark on say the 4th mark then the plate that's beside the nut should also be located on the 4th mark as well?

 

give or take, yes

 

and is it normal to have a bit of wiggle room in the movable index cam (nut side) and the bolt flat spot?

 

Yes, it's normal. Holding it (LCA) in place is done by the nut. The back cam is mostly just a washer.

 

awesome, and what you think about putting a nickel plate on those bolts i mentioned above, uca, lca, strut and anti sway bar link, it has a slight green tint to it but doesn't appear to be rusted. Or are they factory conditioned in some way.

 

the bolts are coated in a grey plating, and then i'm not sure what the green stuff is. its either locktite or some kind of corrosion inhibitor.

top tip: tighten these bolts to the tight end of Mazda's spec. these bolts come loose and move around on the race cars, and so we actually torque them tighter than spec. in the last few years we've actually gone to bigger bolts, so we can go tighter

 

ok awesome thank you very much for the info
i will keep them the way they are.