Help - Bimmerworld/IE rear camber/toe kits

#1

Getting ready to install the Bimmerworld/IE rear camber/toe kits and have a few questions.

For those of you who have installed them, how did you mount the inner tabs for camber? Did you weld the plates with the slot aligned to the bottom to reduce rear camber per the instructions?

Or more to the middle?

My main concern is about being able to dial in the correct camber for the track. I’m sure the instructions reference correcting camber on a street car.

On the outer, I have an odd subframe mount that has a separate piece for the upper portion. I know most people trim the upper subframe mount. Though I worry about doing that with this mount as it could split…thoughts?

I welcome suggestions. I currently have eccentric RTAB’s and from what I’m hearing/reading, the weld-in kits are worth the effort. Comments?

#2

I am in the process of doing mine also. As far as the camber it depends on how much you had before you removed the sub frame. I will be mounting mine towards the top since I have -3 and -3.5 and hope to take close to a degree out of it. One of the “how to’s” I read the person had mounted his up high and got his camber to -1.5 with plenty of room to go more negative.

I do have a question for you though. I also have RTAB’s currently and are you leaving your RTAB’s in, or installing stock bushings back into the trailing arms?

#3

Sadly I wasn’t able to get a valid measurement on camber prior to removing the subframe. That said, I split the difference by going roughly centered for camber. Some folks seem to prefer as much as -3 degrees and others want to be closer to -1.5. We shall see what I get.

As for RTAB’s, I went ahead and installed static poly units from AKG.

Good luck with your install!

#4

I’m in the process of rebuilding the suspension on a SE30 (not mine), which also involves installing the weld-on rear camber/toe kit. This particular kit is from AKG, but it did not come with any directions (impressive). Apparently, I’m also too stupid to find the directions on AKG’s website. Aluminum subframe bushings and delrin/poly RTABs are also being installed, and I understand that I will need to trim the ASB flanges (and maybe clearance some sheetmetal) in order to allow wrench access to the RTA nuts. I also understand that the bushing axes will likely be different, and with the delrin/poly RTABs, there will be some bind. Note that I didn’t choose or order the parts; I’m just installing them.

With that being said, do any of you have a link to a set of directions (I suppose that any manufacturer will do, as the kits all seem to be the same), or do you have the directions in .pdf format that can be emailed to me? For the most part, I have figured out the installation just by looking at the parts, but I want to make sure that the orientation of the slots are correct at the inner and outer mounts, as well as the orientation of the bolts.

Thanks,
Mark
TurboShortBus at aol dot com

#5

I’ll dig through the boxes in my garage, but you should have gotten an install doc. If I can find it, I’ll scan/post. For the time being, check out the forum posts below for install examples:

http://www.s14.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21310

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56391

You may also want to hit up AKG…

G/L!

#6

I think I centered them for the camber and went to the toe out side for the other set. Lowering the car increases toe-in and negative camber. Call IE and talk to Jeremy. He knows all you need to know about every product they sell.

#7

Thanks for the links!

I already called AKG on Monday (my default action, unless it’s the weekend and I’m in a bind), and was only able to get a verbal description over the phone. Gee, thanks. Of the ~$500 worth of parts that showed up in the box, there wasn’t a single set of instructions. Fortunately, I was able to figure them out, but I wanted to be 110% sure that I was installing these camber/toe plates properly before making them permanent with the MIG, as the adjustment procedure looks like a real pain in the huevos even when things are installed properly. I’ll be notching the flanges of the subframe bushings for wrench clearance while I’m at it.

With no existing alignment data for this car, I centered the toe plate ovals on the existing outer holes (maybe toe the car in a little, maybe toe it out a little…hopefully), and set the camber plate ovals as low as possible on the existing inner holes (for maximum negative camber gain, which is what the owner has requested for this Spec E30). I even had to grind/bevel a corner on all 4 camber plates just to get them to sit low enough before hitting the subframe; as they sit now, the inner RTA mounting nuts just barely touch the subframe, so they can’t get any lower.

Mark