HELP! Camber problems.

[SeeDub_17]

Anyone know if the 510 rear control arms are the same throughout all the years.

I have a 70 510 and installed Byron's brackets on the rear crossmember. One of the original control arms had some damage on it so I swapped it for another one from my collection. For whatever reason now that it is all back together, the passenger side cannot get enough negative camber. The tire is sitting tipped out on the top. Meanwhile on the driver side of the car, the tire is sitting perfect. That side has the control arm that came with the car, so I'm wondering if there are some slight measurement differences on the arms throughout the years. To the eye they looked the same.

At a loss as to why one side works and one doesn't. I made a jig to weld in the brackets so everything should be symmetrical.

[510rob]

Just another thought to consider. is it possible the recently installed passenger-side control arm hit a curb at some point in the past that would have twisted the relation between mounts:rear spindle?

[SeeDub_17]

For sure a possibility. Doesn't appear to be any deforming to the shape of it when I got it powder coated.
Need to lay the original one up against it and see I guess.

[Byron510]

That does seem very odd.
I can confirm that the geometry of all 510 and 610 rare control arms are the same. There are subtle difference in the shock mounts on 68 and 69 arms, otherwise they are geometrically the same.

As for your alignment issue, this is odd and there is plenty of adjustment on any lowered car. Are you able to post some photos of the brackets installed on the crossmember before and after assembly in the car? With over 300 of these brackets out there in use, it seems unlikely we just found something new. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of it.

Hear from you soon
Byron

[SeeDub_17]

Here are the photos that I have handy at the moment.
Mock up, powder coating and installed

Let me know what you think.

[icehouse]

Control arm is bent. You look at them wrong and they bend. We've bent 3 of them in our racecar. Super light taps and they bend. We have knock off wheels all 3 times the wheel has came out perfect but the arm is bent. I think I have a photo of the worst one and you can see the slight tweak.

This is the worst one we have done so far.

[icehouse]

New driver in a Miata got our new driver. It took some welding to fix it. haha

[SeeDub_17]

Icehouse, your saying if I take a square and run it off the flange for the halfshaft It should be square along the body of the control arm or is there a number that it should be? Looking at your picture say maybe 4"?

[icehouse]

I'm just saying it's probably bent. You can compare both sides but really I'm sure you just need a new one. Our car was a X circle track car, the arms were bent to turn one way better haha.

[Not Now]

I'm with Icehouse, they bend super easy. I had a similar issue as you describe on a car I bought once. Pulled the arm off to look at it and it looked perfectly fine. Only noticed it was bent when I compared it to another arm.

[SeeDub_17]

Spent some time, (ok a lot of time lol) under the car last night with a laser level and a tape. Tried to shoot a line down the center of the car and measure from side to side comparing things. It seems like the passenger side hub/wheel of the car is somewhere between 1/4-3/8 closer to the center of the car. No way of knowing exactly what's wrong unless I pull it all apart. Real shame as the restoration has zero miles on it and I'm already taking it apart. My spare control arm looks like it was dropped and the bearing housing is not round anymore, so that sucks. Not an easy fix to replace with what I have.

Will be looking to track down another passenger side control arm from someone if they have one. Will jump in the classified section to see what I can scrounge up.

One other thing I noticed was how the rear coil overs sit differently next to the inner fender. The car is as bang on level as far as I can tell based off the laser and a tape measure. Measured off of solid mounting points on the car. Mustache bar hanger bolts, rear subframe bolts, things like that.
I would think that if the control arm was bent it would push these coil overs closer to the tub of the car. Might explain the reason why the adjuster on the coil over is higher from side to side. If it was bent in it would measure closer, and potentially higher up which would reflect in the camber issue I'm having.

If there are any other pictures that someone might want to see for added info let me know. Headed out of town on vacation for a week or so, so this issue will be burning in my mind until I can get back to it.

[funwithmonkeys]

I had an issue with my car. I had 2 control arms. 1 was from a 69 and 1 was from a 71. The camber on them was different with the car sitting at the same height on both sides. Andy discovered it. He picked up another 69 arm and then the car was fine. He also got another 71 arm and it matched the one that he took off of my car.

[BEO 510]

funwithmonkeys, i have waited for a replay like your's. But in my memory i am thinking it was icehouse who had a post not many years ago saying "mix of trailing arms and crossmembers between 69 and other years can make strange geometry". Forgive me if my memory is wrong. And Byron's post indicate/confirm i am wrong. But still interesting to know the fact's about this.

[funwithmonkeys]

I only know there is a difference because I saw it. Looking at the rear of the car you could see a difference in the camber on the rear tires. I'm not sure if I documented it in my build thread but Andy was trying to do an alignment and it was pretty obvious as soon as he started there was a difference.