1G 1g Rear Toe Adjustment

[Pro3racer]

While trying to lower my car further and finally get a GREAT alignment, my rear toe bolt has been "reported" to have frozen. The alignment tech told me this, but i never checked myself as he got me as much rear camber as he could with my toe in check. I am wondering what my options are for rear toe on a 1g. I'm running adjustable upper control arms, and coilovers in the rear, as well as a RM swaybar(just for the sake of information). Thank you very much.

 

[underradar92]

Toe eliminators of some sort or other are the way to roll: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/254735-dss-trailing-arm-toe-eliminator.html

 

[Pro3racer]

Looks like DSS has left the scene, or at least the toe-eliminator part. I'm trying to picture in my head though, aren't there two different arms in the rear, one with the "active-toe" crap on it, and the other subframe piece that has the eccentric bolt on it, or am i just plain wrong? WTF

 

[underradar92]

The "trail arm" has a rubber sleeve and a rubber bushing. All the adjustments for "rear toe" are on the excentric on the trail arm.

Are you trying to make it "right" or make it "better"?

 

[kscott]

Mine were frozen too (the eccentric bolt that you see in the pic). I ended up using a sawzall to cut out the bolts.
The blade also cut into the "housing" around the bushing, effectively destroying the crossmember as well. It was
pretty rusty anyway, so might as well. I'm not sure how to get it out less destructively. Depends on whether the bolt
is frozen to the inner sleeve of the bushing. On mine, I got the impression that they were frozen together; I could spin
the bolt, breaking the rubber bushing, but it wouldn't pull out. But on the new bolt & bushing, there's reasonable clearance
around the bolt, so it might be possible to press the bolt out somehow if your crossmember is still worth saving. I got a
replacement crossmember from M&S Recycling, much much better condition than my old one.

 

[Pro3racer]

I need to get under the car and really check things out, but my crossmember is in great shape. I guess if the suspension doesn't bind, i'll eliminate the rubber bushing and make a solid joint, possibly a heim joint?

I'm trying to make my rear suspension simple and solid, factory is the best, but for what we're doing, active toe just sucks. So i'm trying to make it better for my case.

 

[underradar92]

The pic's that kscott posted are the toe adjusting bushings. If you can sawzall the bolts out without damaging the crossmember that is cool. It's easier to remove the crossmember to do so, however this opens up the door to learning that the crossmember bushings are shot. At least that was the case on my car. The x-member is fairly easy to drop, just big and clumsy.

The heim joint setup that DSS used to make is easy to reproduce and works well.

Eric, are you "knee-me"?

 

[Pro3racer]

Yes I am "knee-me" on the other forum. My only problem is the amount of time i have, as I only have a week to get ALOT of stuff done on the car, and have it back in daily driving order by the end of the week. If I would drop the crossmember, then i might as well change the bushings out, which means more work, haha.

 

[underradar92]

Heim joints won't bind. They work brilliantly. The only real reason to drop the crossmember is access to cut the seized bolts from the trail arms. It's near to impossible to get a sawzall blade in there from underneath the car. If it seems possible to do so without dropping the x-member, then by all means go for it.

 

[Pro3racer]

Guess i'll have to search up how to drop the rear crossmember, my suspension will be off anyways. Maybe i'll just get a torch and see if i can break it loose myself. Have to search where to get a new bolts too then, this is going to be alot more work than i wanted to really do in one week.

 

[turboAWDfanatic]

Just for reference here's a pic of the old DSS toe eliminator setup. I had John Mueller install this on my car. The results were phenomenal.

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[Pro3racer]

I can't wait to get under the car and figure this out. That picture does help, and a heim joint will more than likely be used. I am still confused how the toe is adjusted, but i'm sure i'll figure that out once I get under there.

 

[underradar92]

Eric, look at the angle the trail arms are on, when the arm moves foreward on the eccentric bolts, they also move the front of the tire inward.

 

[Pro3racer]

Hmm, trying to understand that. When you turn, the inside tire pushes the arm forward, bringing the tire in(toe-in). Am I correct in the idea? I wish somebody made a kit for this still, i know I would understand it while installing parts, but i'm trying to think it through and its confusing(rear suspension sucks).

 

[nufoundglry5]

Yeah I had to cut my bolts out last year. It was a bi*** without removing the subframe but I did eventually get them cut out. I had pm'ed Underrader and he sent me some prints of how to make the bushings for the rear toe eliminater. I re drew them just to clean up the print (I'm a designer anyway) so if you need check out these links:

Picasa Web Albums - Steve - Rear Toe Elim... This is the plug that gets welded into the trailing arm.

Picasa Web Albums - Steve - Rear Toe Elim... These are the bushings for the rod ends. I made these from 304 stainless.

 

[yokotabrat]

Yeah I had to cut my bolts out last year. It was a bi*** without removing the subframe but I did eventually get them cut out. I had pm'ed Underrader and he sent me some prints of how to make the bushings for the rear toe eliminater. I re drew them just to clean up the print (I'm a designer anyway) so if you need check out these links:

Picasa Web Albums - Steve - Rear Toe Elim... This is the plug that gets welded into the trailing arm.

Picasa Web Albums - Steve - Rear Toe Elim... These are the bushings for the rod ends. I made these from 304 stainless.

Awesome, thanks for the drawings. A question on the spacers, though. Does it have to have that taper from 1.0625" down to 0.957"?

Also, did you get the rod ends from McMaster? Thanks!

 

[nufoundglry5]

No I dont think it has to, maybe underrader has a reason for this? Yeah you can get teh ends from mcmaster or from summit. Maybe I'm mistaken bet I thought the summit ones were a little cheaper and I think they were QA1 brand.

 

[underradar92]

Awesome, thanks for the drawings. A question on the spacers, though. Does it have to have that taper from 1.0625" down to 0.957"?

Also, did you get the rod ends from McMaster? Thanks!

No I dont think it has to, maybe underrader has a reason for this? Yeah you can get teh ends from mcmaster or from summit. Maybe I'm mistaken bet I thought the summit ones were a little cheaper and I think they were QA1 brand.

The taper is to get a more stable interface against the mounting points near the slots in the crossmember and to allow clearance for movement at the ball. You could just as well put a 45* chamfer to do the same thing. That's in fact how mine are.

 

[nufoundglry5]

Oh yeah I forgot about clearance for the rod end to swivel.