Are your RTABs tight?

#1

3 of my 4 eccentric rtabs were lose. LR wheel had drifted to 3/16" toe out. Dern thing.

#2

Why do these loosen up? I think I am just going to go with the non adjustable ones and live with whatever the alignment ends up being.

#3

i literally just came in from the garage where i’m playing around with my eccentric rtabs, seeing if i can get toe and camber to reasonable values. naturally the adjuster is 18mm and i have only 17mm and 19mm gearwrenches. i hope santa hasn’t gone home yet…

#4

jtower wrote:

We must have different brand ecc rtabs. Mine takes 19mm to tighten and I use a severely cut down thin 1" wrench to adjust.

Chuck Baader made me up a subframe with solid adjusters. When I get my hands on it, I’m hoping that I will finally be in charge of my rear alignment. It’s currently rule-by-committee.

#5

the nut is 19mm but the bolt itself has a 18mm head, i can get a wrench on it but there’s so little room to turn it that a gear wrench is pretty much essential. i’m not crazy about this setup but if i can get it close enough to my desired specs i’ll be satisfied, if not it’s weld on tab time like RP suggested.

#6

Ranger wrote:

I’m having a hard time envisioning what you mean by solid adjusters. How are they different from RTabs? Got any pics?

#7

FishMan wrote:

[quote]Ranger wrote:

I’m having a hard time envisioning what you mean by solid adjusters. How are they different from RTabs? Got any pics?[/quote]

i think he means the weld on kit.

#8

kishg wrote:

[quote]FishMan wrote:

[quote]Ranger wrote:

I’m having a hard time envisioning what you mean by solid adjusters. How are they different from RTabs? Got any pics?[/quote]

i think he means the weld on kit.[/quote]
He does.

If you’ve not seen this, go to the Performance Steering and Suspension section of Ireland’s site and find the adjustable rear toe and camber kits. I don’t think their site allows direct links. Other outfits sell this too.

Chuck knows how to weld the tabs on which is why I enlisted his aid. Al K was able to provide enough guidance that a local welder was able to do it. Since I assume that locating the tabs has to be done perfectly, I’m not dead sure how Al did that.

#9

Try AKG their weld-in kit is good quality and less expensive. Install is not difficult but it takes time.

#10

Ranger wrote:

[quote]kishg wrote:

[quote]FishMan wrote:

[quote]Ranger wrote:

I’m having a hard time envisioning what you mean by solid adjusters. How are they different from RTabs? Got any pics?[/quote]

i think he means the weld on kit.[/quote]
He does.

If you’ve not seen this, go to the Performance Steering and Suspension section of Ireland’s site and find the adjustable rear toe and camber kits. I don’t think their site allows direct links. Other outfits sell this too.

Chuck knows how to weld the tabs on which is why I enlisted his aid. Al K was able to provide enough guidance that a local welder was able to do it. Since I assume that locating the tabs has to be done perfectly, I’m not dead sure how Al did that.[/quote]

Just making sure… I have a bit too much camber for my liking and have no adjustment remaining. Planning to attempt to shift the tabs up.

#11

I’m building a PRO3 car up here in the Northwest and I bought my race subframe from TCMotorsports. Comes complete with AKG weld-in Camber and Toe Adjusters installed and includes AKG Race Urethane Subframe Mount Bushings already installed. For me the $450 cost was worth it considering I didn’t have to bother with pressing the bushings in and the welding is all done perfectly. Also it’s cleaned up and painted and looks like new!

http://www.tcmotorsports-store.net/tc-motorsports-race-subframe-bme-e30.html

#12

Man that does look like a great option. I didn’t know it existed. Another part to add to the list.

#13

Here is a little on our experience the AKG adjustable RATBs for what it’s worth.
We installed them last winter. So we have one season plus Nationals on them. If the poly bushing is too tight around the metal (so it can not turn freely) then the metal part will rotate around the through bolt even with the serrated washers in place. The serrated teeth in the metal part of the bushing are just about worn off as result of the rotation of the metal part. The bushings are going to move as the trailing arm swings up and down. I found we could not get the through bolt tight enough even with car on a lift with all my weight on an 18 inch breaker bar. We even tried to weld the adjustment nut to the sub-frame tab. It still did not hold because the poly is too tight around the metal. If there is more friction between the poly bushing and the metal part than there is on the washer surface, the metal part will rotate and your setting is lost. If you have to press the metal into the poly then it is too tight and I will bet your set up will not hold. Even after a full season of use we had to tap them pretty hard to drive the metal part out of the bushing. This confirmed the fit was too tight. The metal needs to act as a fixed axle and the bushing needs to rotate freely.

Oh and the best tool I’ve found for adjusting them is a 1 inch carb wrench from Mac Tools S141. It lists for $65. I found one on EBay for $15. Just the right size, thickness and offset openings at each end.

I’m going to see if the manufacturer will replace the metal part and washers. I will sand down the inner sleeve of the poly bushings so the metal shaft will spin freely. Then holding the shaft in position for a set up should be easier with less force trying to rotate it.

#14

photos

#15

more …

#16
#17

more …

#18

once the grip is lost on this part it will rotate

#19

That was good info. Gold star for you.

#20

I wanted to upadte everyone on our AKG RTABs. I contacted David at Harrison Motorsports and explained our experience. He said he would contact the manufacturer and see what they say. In less than 24 hours I heard back from David and he said AKG was going to ship us another set of bushings.
There are changes in the new units. The poly bushings have square slots in them. They will take a lot of grease and have less contact surface against the metal adjustment bolt. Sorry I did not take pictures of the new units. We got everything installed and adjusted. Our opener was at VIR two weeks ago. Robert took first both days. He said the car felt good. We confirmed afterwards 3 of the 4 units were still exactly where we set and marked them. One of the inner units slipped a bit and I attribute that to not getting it tight enough. There is a lot less friction between the bushing and the adjustment bolt. Now it’s working they way it should.

We are encouraged by our early results and hope we solved our moving alignment settings.