studio camber roll center adjusters (RCA)
 

this thread documents my experience with studio's camber roll center adjusters aka RCAs. i will not go into much detail on what RCAs do in general, let alone camber RCAs. the following will show my results during installation, driving impressions, etc.

unfortunately studio only made camber RCAs for 95-00 LS models. these are the studio RCA kit version 2.1. from what ian, the owner of studio, told me, the previous versions had more offset by about 0.25in which meant more camber. they were also left in a raw state rather than deburred as shown below.
Attachment 427774

i decided to replace my lower ball joints with OEM while i was already there. my old ones had no play but i took precaution.
Attachment 427775

the RCA kit came with hardware:
- 4 bolts (12x50mm 1.25 pitch 8.8 grade hex head) to bolt the RCA to the ball joints
- 4 flat washers
- 4 bolts (12x50mm 1.25 pitch 12.9 grade allen head) to bolt the knuckle to the RCA
- 4 flat washers

with all the recent failures of bolts breaking and shearing off on other memeber's RCAs (also from studio) i took more precaution and replaced the 8.8 grade hex bolts with 12.9 grade allen bolts.
Attachment 427776

this was taken from another thread regarding my going with 12.9 grade. for now i have not changed my choice but am open for further discussion. this is very relevant information and worth the reiteration.
here is the RCA half way bolted up to the ball joint using the replaced hardware.
Attachment 427777

you can see the amount of offset the holes are in, which repositions the knuckle outward for more negative camber.
Attachment 427778

all bolted down, the RCA is 35mm tall. i torqued everything to 83ft-lbs evenly which is the factory spec.
Attachment 427779

IMPORTANT: from the above picture note by the RED arrow the bolt coming from the RCA then through the knuckle protruding upwards. on the other side of the knuckle, there is no exit hole for the bolt to protrude. the 50mm long bolt is probably 5mm too long so i will either need to cut the tip off the bolt or buy a shorter one. ian warned me that this may happen as some knuckles are threaded deeper than others. i have yet to fix this!

with the wheels on, the RCAs not only added camber, they pushed my wheels out by probably 10mm or so!
Attachment 427780

it's hard to see but from the height shown the camber is almost the same as the rear now. i want to get it all to tuck, but the tires are stopping me.
Attachment 427781

time to get smaller tires (currently 225/35/19), and/or do some fender pulling.
Attachment 427782
Attachment 427783

for comparison this is w/o the RCAs.
Attachment 427784

i have yet to do a test drive. the fact that the bolt is too long and probably did not tightened properly is currently stopping me from driving. when i was repositioning the car on the driveway, i got a few metallic creaks and squeaks :eek2: ! more to come soon.

Great info' Thank you for doing this, I really appreciate it since I just picked up these rcas from Dranom. Looking forward to more info.

specs may differ between manufacturers, but based on the bolts used you should be torquing them down higher than stock since they are longer.

I know on my Fig's Engineering Roll Center Adjusters (RCAs) (non camber-adding) the spec is ~90 something ft*lbs. (something something, stock +10%, i forget.)

For those hunting for bolts that mount the LBJ to the spindle (UCF2x confirmed):
(I recommend grade 12.9 or better)
M12x1.25 socket cap bolts. The factory bolts are ~34-35mm long

For my 17mm RCAs I run 60mm bolts and ~5mm washers.
for ~34mm RCAs (straight through, not offset) I used 70mm bolts with ~5mm washers.

I got replacement bolts from my local fastenal/mcmastercarr for cheap.

Ian told me before to torque it to 120lbs when I picked up the RCA

thanks for the info PD and dranom. i will be doing more research and reporting back on it all. i will definitely be re-torquing the parts when i install shorter bolts.

i was PMd stating that 95-105 ft-lb is a good torque for the studio parts. from what i gathered so far, i will be torquing at 95 ft-lbs.

i found this pic from elvis' build thread. the RCAs look to be the older version but it is stamped "version 2.1" as well. notice the raw finish! the offset does look bigger than what i have as i mentioned before.
https://img812.imageshack.us/img812/1346/85403206.jpg

my fav pic from his build shows the front negative camber setting! :thumbup:
https://img850.imageshack.us/img850/9941/47699642.jpg

Elvis has a custom one. Its wider than yours

Also has a ton of pull to clear his wheel sizes.

he's radius'd I thought? :uh:

RCAs dont really do that much in regards to clearance anyways

was thinking of picking up a set but not sure about it after all the people having issues with them. Don't they have 2 versions? one which cambers and add 10-15mm and 1 which just help it lower the car a little?

regular RCAs add more suspension travel. camber RCAs do that and give more negative camber allowing for more clearance of the tire. it's all dependent on your setup.

there are issues but they all have been covered so you can minimize it. i think they are wonderful and lots of other guys have had success with them (me included). this thread shows some roadblocks but nothing too overbearing.

it sounds like they are more than 2 versions which leads me to believe they can custom made. i know i have the standard set. any RCA will lower the car a little depending on the thickness of it.

small update.

instead of shortening one of the 50mm bolts, i was able to get a 40mm long bolt. to reiterate, the 50mm bolt was too long and did not thread in all the way into the knuckle.
Attachment 427683

as i was tightening it all, one of them suddenly stripped. i did NOT use air tools on it!
Attachment 427684

my guess is that debris fell into the threads and stripped even the nut.
Attachment 427685

i set my torque wrench to 95ft-lbs. good thing the RCAs have removable nuts.
Attachment 427686

and here is a quick shot from the nisei show this past weekend showing the final results. i had to run a different set of wheels since i had no time to play with my SSR Vienna Kreis. my buddy gladly loaned me his Weds SA-55M in a custom grey steel matte finish. sizing is 19x9.5 +24 225/35 and 10.5 +24 235/35.

with the RCA, the front fender perfectly splits the tire and wheel never touching anything! tsuraichi! and keep in mind i do NOT have my towers cut for the upper ball joint. this is with the upper a-arm resting on the tower. rears are tucked.
Attachment 427687

i drove on this setup (aired up of course) for over 200 miles this weekend with no adverse affects at full speed on the fwy! next is to get an alignment to correct the toe but overall i am very happy with the outcome.

when you you have the standard ones, you mean you have the set which helps you get camber?

looks great tim! Vlusty kit will look bananas on your car! *wink *wink lol