Compbrake Arms Continued ..

[projectpug 0]

Well as you know if you have read Spikys trackday thread then i have been struggling to get any negative camber from the rose jointed arms. Well today i got up early on a Sunday to have a go at adapting them again.After grinding thisa and that adding nuts and washers to the inner arms to shim them up as tight and as close to the droplink/rear arb as possible. So tommorow i will be getting it retracked again, i have gained a good bit of extra length to the outside hub so hoping to get up to 1.5 negative i want. Failing that i have just bought a set of 309 arms and poly bushes as a backup.

If i do gain the required neggy camber i will tack weld the nuts in place to prevent any loosening on the hub end.

Another thing i noticed though is the arms are definately not equal and opposite hence why when fitted equally(ie all the threads on the RJ turned in the same the allignment is different)

Spiky i dont know if your were the same but i had more negative on the drivers side when they were set all the same. Its easy to tell that the arms are different exactly how im not sure, might be the angle of the bend even. The reason why i know is that the clearance to the arb and droplink was vastly different from side to side. I barely had to grind any off the nearside to fit the arms when they were set up identically compared to taking a lot more off the offside D/Side.

 

Thats all for now all important results tomorrow

 

Phil

Edited September 7, 2008 by projectpug

[TVH 0]

Well as you know if you have read Spikys trackday thread then i have been struggling to get any negative camber from the rose jointed arms. Well today i got up early on a Sunday to have a go at adapting them again.After grinding thisa and that adding nuts and washers to the inner arms to shim them up as tight and as close to the droplink/rear arb as possible. So tommorow i will be getting it retracked again, i have gained a good bit of extra length to the outside hub so hoping to get up to 1.5 negative i want. Failing that i have just bought a set of 309 arms and poly bushes as a backup.

If i do gain the required neggy camber i will tack weld the nuts in place to prevent any loosening on the hub end.

Another thing i noticed though is the arms are definately not equal and opposite hence why when fitted equally(ie all the threads on the RJ turned in the same the allignment is different)

Spiky i dont know if your were the same but i had more negative on the drivers side when they were set all the same. Its easy to tell that the arms are different exactly how im not sure, might be the angle of the bend even. The reason why i know is that the clearance to the arb and droplink was vastly different from side to side. I barely had to grind any off the nearside to fit the arms when they were set up identically compared to taking a lot more off the offside D/Side.

 

Thats all for now all important results tomorrow

 

Phil

 

Wow, I was just about to buy the Compbrake arms but...this doesn't sound good. I have 309 arms, polybushes and eccentric top mounts, it is very nice and responsive setup for occasional trackday, but in my opinion not suitable for racing because there's just not enough neg. camber available. I hope you get it sorted!

[projectpug 0]

Do you run a front ARB? If you dont the compbrake arms will fit fine.

Also what negative camber do you have at the moment?

Edited September 7, 2008 by projectpug

[Spiky 37]

dude. Did you measure them?

 

If they are wrong length. Ring them and send them back. Thats just wrong.

I think mine will be going the same way. As im going to make my own. See my thread for pics

[projectpug 0]

Yours look sweet Spiky- Il be keeping these if i get my required camber if not 309's it is for me spent a fortune on the car recently eeeeeeeeekkk. What camber to 309 arms give i cant remeber ?

Theres something not right with the dimensions on the arm but will that matter because ive shimmed them now to make it all even if you get me? Using washers etc.

 

I will post up tomorrow what the max i can get off the CB arms.

 

Thanks

Phil

[tom_m 0]

measure them before relying on the arb postion to write them off as different lengths.

[Spiky 37]

my new one's aren't mine to keep

 

but just to copy.

 

but dude, you really need to send them back as they are NOT fit for purpose and not doing the job they should

 

i wish i never did thie group buy , or wish i had a set sent to me to test then do the group buy

[Alastairh 47]

Yours look sweet Spiky- Il be keeping these if i get my required camber if not 309's it is for me spent a fortune on the car recently eeeeeeeeekkk. What camber to 309 arms give i cant remeber ?

Theres something not right with the dimensions on the arm but will that matter because ive shimmed them now to make it all even if you get me? Using washers etc.

 

I will post up tomorrow what the max i can get off the CB arms.

 

Thanks

Phil

 

Send them back. Sounds like a big waste of money.

 

In my experience of the last couple of 205s with full 309 GTI running gear i've had on the same 4 wheel laser alignment that i use for all my 205s, they given 1.5 degrees negative camber on 205 1900 hubs.

 

What hubs are you running? There is a myth, which i also have experienced that 306 GTi / XSI / S16 hubs reduce this.

 

Al

[projectpug 0]

Hi,

 

I will do some more measureing when i take the arms off to weld the joints in. I would of returned them earlier but like you spiky ive done a lot of mods to them, we shall see if it has helped. Can definately see some visual improvements

[Spiky 37]

still say send them back

 

i'm going to be sorting mine out today.

 

will let you know whats happening

[TVH 0]

Do you run a front ARB? If you dont the compbrake arms will fit fine.

Also what negative camber do you have at the moment?

 

Yes, standard front ARB. IIRC Neg. camber is around 1.5deg on both sides. I have to measure it again when I get the car back home. 4-6deg should be enough static neg. camber when running on semi-slicks.

Edited September 8, 2008 by TVH

[Super Josh 4]

What hubs are you running? There is a myth, which i also have experienced that 306 GTi / XSI / S16 hubs reduce this.

 

Al

 

Al, are you saying that Gti6 hubs don't reduce the front camber? If so, that's good news mate.

 

 

Josh

[Alastairh 47]

Al, are you saying that Gti6 hubs don't reduce the front camber? If so, that's good news mate.

 

 

Josh

 

Sorry, maybe the Erdinger had an effect on my wording. They do reduce it, or to me they do. It was really noticeable having one 306 and one 205 hub fitted to the same car.

 

Al

[projectpug 0]

Right i have some results,

 

Maximum equal camber i have is -1.51 each side much better than the half before

0 toe both sides

Probs i have slightly different castor from side to side would adjustable top mounts sort this? How important is it to have equal castor?

Car drives fine on the road for the record but obviously i wasnt going around like i would on track.

[Spiky 37]

cool

 

 

any pics??? and how much thread you got inside the arm?

 

if you had top mounts like mine, you can again alter the castor and camber, giving even more camber

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

To be honest if i had paid out a lot of money for adjustable bottom arms and could only achieve a degree and a half of negative they would be getting sent back to whence they came along with a turd in the box.

The words "fit for purpose" spring to mind, I think you have done more than enough to show willing, and think you would be perfectly reasonable to throw them back at Compbrake now.

[Spiky 37]

To be honest if i had paid out a lot of money for adjustable bottom arms and could only achieve a degree and a half of negative they would be getting sent back to whence they came along with a turd in the box.

The words "fit for purpose" spring to mind, I think you have done more than enough to show willing, and think you would be perfectly reasonable to throw them back at Compbrake now.

 

 

sadly i agree

 

which is what i've now done as of today

 

time to make my own, as per my build thread

[tom_m 0]

were they ever designed to be anything but rose jointed 205 wishbones? you are still going to need more wishbone between the RJs to get more neg camber. winding out the RJs isn't they way to go IMO because you're just introducing weak points. yes you can use them to dial out inconsistancies, but there is no replacement for extra meat on the wishbone itself

[projectpug 0]

Hi,

 

Spiky what kind of pics you want my c902 new phone has packed in at the moment that i was using to take piccys with i hacve a digital slr on the way though . What pics you want from the front or exactly what i did with the shims etc and how much grinding i did?

 

Regardng my RJ thread i have 12 mm in the arm so about half inch in old terms. I am going to weld it on though now as i think it needs strengthening.

 

Toms quote "To be honest if i had paid out a lot of money for adjustable bottom arms and could only achieve a degree and a half of negative they would be getting sent back to whence they came along with a turd in the box." has at least cheered me up for today

 

Back to the arms with adjustable top mounts would i still need to wind the RJ out or will it give more castor/camber due to the change in strut angle ? As i definatly aint risking winding it out any further on the hub end.

 

Thanks

Phil

Edited September 8, 2008 by projectpug

[tom_m 0]

Back to the arms with adjustable top mounts would i still need to wind the RJ out or will it give more castor/camber due to the change in strut angle ? As i definatly aint risking winding it out any further on the hub end.

 

Thanks

Phil

 

no the eccentric nature of the top mounts gives extra camber/caster by positioning the top of the strut. the one below is set to max caster at the moment. with them set to max camber and 309 arms i achieved close on 3 degrees negative, making it undrivable on the road

 

[Spiky 37]

what shocks you running?

 

do yo only run 3 boltswith the top mounts on top like that?

[Spiky 37]

Hi,

 

Spiky what kind of pics you want my c902 new phone has packed in at the moment that i was using to take piccys with i hacve a digital slr on the way though . What pics you want from the front or exactly what i did with the shims etc and how much grinding i did?

 

Regardng my RJ thread i have 12 mm in the arm so about half inch in old terms. I am going to weld it on though now as i think it needs strengthening.

 

Toms quote "To be honest if i had paid out a lot of money for adjustable bottom arms and could only achieve a degree and a half of negative they would be getting sent back to whence they came along with a turd in the box." has at least cheered me up for today

 

Back to the arms with adjustable top mounts would i still need to wind the RJ out or will it give more castor/camber due to the change in strut angle ? As i definatly aint risking winding it out any further on the hub end.

 

Thanks

Phil

 

 

pictures of the arms in general, and how much room you have between the ARB and drop link area

and a pic of the bottom of the hub, when the car is jacked up to see the clearance between the RJ and hub

[projectpug 0]

Ok Spiky i will do my best on the pics side of things can you pm me your email so i can send you high resolution pics. My camera is due on wednesday so might be saturday when i get chance to take them.

 

What effect will difference in castor have from side to side?

[Spiky 37]

dont know the answer to your castor question dude, i'm not up to scratch on that

 

my email is spiky.steve@btopenworld.com

 

cheers

[TT205 42]

Spiky

 

This seems rather odd

 

It was me you fell out with when I questioned if these arms would fit with the arb on the group thread as I had used comprake arms previously and they didn't fit with the arb

 

As a result of your assurance and Tony's assurance that these would fit I also bought some of these 'new' one's. Mine initially also came with a couple of wrongly threaded r/j's

 

BUT

 

Mine fit fine! and no problem setting camber

 

Is it possible they got their batches mixed up and you have the one's that don't fit with the arb?

 

Dave