bending strut housing to get more camber.

[romkasponka]

Do you know how?

[cecotto]

Do you know how?

I'd say thats a dangerous way to go about it. How about a crank streatcher for stroking the engine..? (ha ha)

How about some camber plates. They are not that expensive. And they are often adjustable too. The factory offset bearings gives you 30' i believe. This should equal ½-degree if i remember correct.

[romkasponka]

you can say it to your grandmother ;)

p.s.

Ireland Engineering

Stage 3 - Aggressive street/ driver school/autocross/club race - stock class
Ireland Engineering Race Springs
Adjustable Camber Plates for use with factory upper strut bearing (club racers use
fixed plates)
Factory offset upper strut bearing for more camber
note: some racers also bend the strut for max camber
Urethane Bushings - front control arm, rear subframe and trailing arms
Rear Strut Brace

[ak96ss]

Well, I sure wouldn't do it, but...

They are saying to bend the strut, which makes no sense, unless you were to bend it at the very top where it mounts at the strut bearing...

If you want to bend the strut housing, wouldn't you have to bend it at the very bottom, past where the strut cartridge sits in the tube? And, at that point, wouldn't it be better to just cut off the wheel mount part of the strut housing and reposition it, rather than bending (and potentially fatiguing/weakening) the metal there?

Hell, throw a strut housing in a big ol' vice and have at it, see what happens... :)

[D. Clay]

One option
http://www.toolfetch.com/Category/Automotive/Strut_Spring_Tools/SKFDLS50PF.htm
Still probably the best bet is the service offered by Ireland Engineering
http://www.bmw2002.com (http://www.bmw2002.com/)
for $120. They do this for racing cars where camber plates don't give enough static camber.
It's deja-vu all over again!

[2002maniac]

How much frigging negastive camber do those racers need? My Vorshlag plates go from -3 to -6 degrees at my ride height on my car.

[e9nine]

How much frigging negastive camber do those racers need? My Vorshlag plates go from -3 to -6 degrees at my ride height on my car.
Couple questions for ya.
How do you like the Vorshlag plates?
Have you used any other brand camber plates?
Did you have to get their spring perch?
Which spring are you using? I don't remember if you have Coilovers or Standard springs.

TIA

[2002maniac]

Couple questions for ya.
How do you like the Vorshlag plates?
Have you used any other brand camber plates?
Did you have to get their spring perch?
Which spring are you using? I don't remember if you have Coilovers or Standard springs.

TIA

I like them although I dont have any experience with other plates. I'm using thier 2.5" perches

Do you have to loosen the bolts from the bottom to adjust caster with GC plates? I like the fact that you dont with these.

The spherical bearing is quite beefy and they use a needle-roller thrust bearing between the Perch and the plate to keep the popping to a min.

springs are 400lb eibach

[e9nine]

OP - SOrry for the thread jack.

2002maniac -Thanks for the reply to the questions. I leave my caster at one setting so the con of the GC plates with you having to loosen the bolts to adjust them doesn't bother me. GC also uses the roller bearings (I rebuilt mine last year) but the Vshlag spherical bearing is indeed the biggest on the market. As to if it's of actual benefit on cars like ours from a purely technical standpoint or not...I don't know.

I might be in the market for another set of camber plates soon for my other e30 and I think these rank high on the list along with the SBI plates. For some odd reason - the IE one's don't appeal to me much.
These really do like like a well engineered product (I browsed their site).

[sheepdog]

Bending the strut is ok on a race car. It gets inspected after each race. A street car does not. This is asking for problems.

[M42boy]

:D How much frigging negastive camber do those racers need? My Vorshlag plates go from -3 to -6 degrees at my ride height on my car.

I got some fixed plates and used them in conjunction with the OE crash mounts (which add another 0.5 deg neg camber). So, I'm running like 2.5 to 3.0 neg camber up front. Zero toe, and turn in is AWSOME! :D

Toe it out 3/4 or 1 deg if you want more turn in.

I have a set of IE adjustable camber plates if anyone is interested. I decided I just want fixed.

[romkasponka]

toe out is good for slow corners only

[2002maniac]

I might be in the market for another set of camber plates soon for my other e30 and I think these rank high on the list along with the SBI plates. For some odd reason - the IE one's don't appeal to me much.
These really do like like a well engineered product (I browsed their site).

They are very nice. I would say the only downside is that the price has gone up tons. They were one of the cheapest options available when I got my set!

[318-is]

Do you know how?

I cant guarentee this method myself as i have not done it, but a cheap way to adjust camber that a couple of boys over here in the UK have done is to simply file out the three holes in the top of the strut housing. Obvioulsy you would need some sort of wheel alignment tool to make sure you get the camber correct on both sides, but you could move the strut around easily without bending any components that shouldnt be; remembr also bending components will eventually donate to material failure.