T-minus 13 hours and 30 minutes until D-Day.....

Time: 9 AM
Place: ProTech - Austin Tx
To Do List: disassemble suspension and verify installation matches TM Engineering provided illustration / spec sheet. Re-assemble hopefully with resolution and purchase new set of tires ( again ) and get another alignment.

( crossing my fingers and saying a prayer now )

 

It's a bad day in Austin....

first off, Pro Tech was giving me grief about the fact these springs / shox were for a Supra and thus since they thought it was a 1.25" drop, they probably set the camber kit as such. Now,...ok, they claim they took it apart and reset them for the 2 degrees,.... I get to NT&B and buy the 2 tires like always, get it on the alignment machine, for them to tell me my car is maxxed out and I have a -2.5 camber on the left and right,... which is more than it was to begin with!!! WTF is goin' on here!

The bushing with the assymetrical hole I think is the culprit. Does anyone know which direction the hole should be in to increase positive camber??? I am still in rat azz austin,...( supposed be back home problem resolved ). I can't stand it. So, first thing tomorrow morning, I have to be back up at that stupid shop,... spending money for labor, .... which i disagree with,...but I guess it's a risk ran with doing this stuff

 

Man, I feel for ya! The shop that installed my camber kit didn't have any problems like that, but then they measured the camber before they did the install, and then set it correctly afterwards.

Get a printout of what the camber is now (after their screwup) and take it to them. Tell them they have one last chance to do it correctly. If they can't get it right, you want your money back and you'll take it to somebody more competent.

I've got the Supra TT springs and shocks as well. All they had to do was follow the directions that came with the kit!!!

Good luck!

 

damn sorry to hear alll the crazyness.

I don't understand how the guys at the shop who installed the camber kit let you drive off with the car without getting it correctly aligned and that you have to go buy tires then find out that the alignment is not correct.

I mean there is only 2 ways the bushings can go in right? how about just flipping it then? that should reverse the camber effect.

 

Ok,... here it is.... the rear bushing of the rear upper control arm bushings are now singled out,.... they rotate from the position as shown in the illustration on the diagram to the opposite direction. The hole should be further inward, but once the weight of the car is loaded after installation, the bushing rotates 180 degrees thus causing the camber to increase in the negative instead of the positive direction. This is the case on both rear upper control arm sleeves closest to the rear of the car. They do not stay in place after assembly.

Going between the shop blaming faulty, out of spec bushings, and TM Engineering thinking the shop damaged the control arms during removal of the stock or installation of the aftermarket, I have just now dropped another $500 for two new control arms, on top of $100 for them to tear this apart and evaluate it, plus $400 in tires, $100 for the alignment when this is done, and now since I still have work to do in Houston, a car sitting up on a lift at ProTech,.. add $270 for a 3 day rental Expedition since all other vehicles are rented out and I didn't have a reservation,... so in short this bullshyat has cost me $1370 thus far this last 2 days on top of every pair of tires I've bought for the last 10 months, the cost of the parts to do this, and the labor to install.

I cannot say that I am glad that I made the decision to do this mod at this point and time.....

for $1370, that's SAFC, Dyno time, ECU and maybe exhaust,... not to mention a grand in tires....

i have pictures that i'll post when i get back to houston in a few hours,.....

....I'd say I'm pretty pist right about now....

 

here is the picture after the suspension is disasmbled only a day after installation ( again ). However, since I am tired of going back and forth between companies right now,... I have opted to purchase new control arms to see if that alleviates the problem.

 

bump due to CL database error not showing newer posts.

 

Sorry to hear about all the hassles. That SUX!

So, did the shop install the Daizen bushings in the new control arms? If so, did they work OK? If that's the case, it would point to them damaging the original control arms when they removed the stock bushings.

 

New control arms,... same problem,... so,... faulty bushings,.... and at this point, they've suggested using roll pins to stop the rotation of the bushings inside the control arm. Not sure how the installation of those are to take place, or the specifics of that.... but at this point, .... I've had it.

The repair of fix of this problem, plus costs incurred due to this problem have both well exceeded the cost of the mod.... so double

 

How were the stock bushings removed from both the new and old arms? Were the bores of the arms modified in any way? What about the bushing shells?

Why was the entire rear end lowered from the car? I removed my rear arms just fine with everything in place.

The mod is a good one, and it works. Don't knock a good mod because someone screwed up your install. I have them, and they are great. I installed them myself so I know it was done correctly.

 

I'm not hating on the mod,... I am saying, I have two bushings that are out of spec,... could be simply out of tolerance, and that alone was enough to cost me roughly $3000+.... and that I have gotten sick of the "who's fault it is" game that I had to endure between two suppliers of a service,... vendor blames installer, installer blames vendor,... customer stuck with a bill.

I had a total of 14 bushings changed,... and only two are problematic,... so I doubt it's the installation.

It's the same problem in the same location on both control arms in the same location, on both the new and old control arms.

In either case,... it wasn't my intentions to spend this much money,... hell, I could have done the coilover set up and walked away with change for this amount of money spent.

 

Does the camber shell spin inside the arm? If it does, remove it and mic it. See if it is out of spec.

I asked about how the bushings were removed to try and pinpoint any causes for the bores to have enlarged allowing the shells to spin.

Seems no one else wants to help you so just look out for No. 1 and lock the shells in there by drilling/tapping some set screws in there and be done.

 

The locking pins solved the problem. The car has finally been correctly aligned.

And to answer your question, the camber shell was spinning inside the arm.

Game over: 3G's in the hole.... but it's all good now I guess, and I appreciate the input / assistance with resolving this PIMA ( pain in my ..... ).

 

the only way the metal outer sleeve can spin is if they damaged the arms when removing the original bushings. it's impossible for it to spin 180 degrees since the arm only has a movement of around 30 degrees. it's very possible that the arms were damaged since they are made from aluminum and are very delicate.

 

I feel for you bro... I want to badly drop mine, but this is my worst fear... It dosen't appear that it happens often but their are some soties out there...

good look man!!!