camber plates

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dsldubn
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camber plates

Post by dsldubn »

Anyone have any recommendation for camber plates? They can be universal weld in, that's fine.

I had a very old bolt in set in my rabbit for many years. I broke one at Okemo. I got another ebay set, which actually appeared to be constructed well, but the spherical bearings in them were absolute crap and I ruined one within a week of driving my car to work and pounding it on some test roads.

I'm totally fine with cutting the strut tops off and welding in plates, but I'd like some input by someone who has a set that will hold up to hillclimb abuse. Also, as an alternative, a source for good spherical bearings that can take the load or racing would be greatly appreciated.

Trying not to go back to stock mounts, mainly because with plates and coilovers I can keep the springs away from the tire area which allows me to run a bunch of different wheel offsets and tire sizes without hitting the springs.
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Re: camber plates

Post by Rabbit Farmer »

I have a set of universal (new!) that I purchased for the Golf, but decided to use Evo or Subaru (I forget which) camber plates. A lot beefier that you would need for a MK1.

The universal set seems beefy enough for the MK1... I plan to use what I have (the new universal plates) on the Scirocco.

I got them from Ground Control.

http://www.ground-control-store.com/pro ... 148/CA=195

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Re: camber plates

Post by Rabbit Farmer »

I can bring them to Burke 2 if you want to look at them.
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walterclark
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Re: camber plates

Post by walterclark »

I have used (the now defunct) Shine Racing camber plates since I built the car in 2002-3 for rally. 1/4" weld-on steel plates with 1/4" steel slider holding the spherical bearing. The bearing is just a high quality steel on steel bearing, inch (5/8" ID 1 3/16" OD) not metric. Originally they were the simpler steel-steel type, but being clever I swapped them for Teflon lined types. The teflon pushed right out during the first rally so I switched back to the steel-steel type. I also tried the lube fitting type but found grease just collected grit which worked into the bearings and helped wear them out faster. The plain steel-steel type has held up fine. I m not sure how they would do if regularly exposed to road salt and moisture. Because Shine used an inch type bearing and chose one with an ID larger than needed for the strut top bolt, they pressed a bit of DOM tubing into them to fit the metric Bilstein Group A/B strut top bolt. The same type bearing was also used in their control arm bushing upgrade kit.

I have managed to bend both a weld-on plate once and a sliding plate twice over the years. The weld on plate was bent when I got tangled up with rocks and a culvert at Ascutney and the sliding plate got bent once at RNY and again at that Ascutney incident. Both times a BFH fixed them.

This a picture (I think one of Steve's) of the plates as well as the coilover kit and swaybar from back in the day:

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dsldubn
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Re: camber plates

Post by dsldubn »

thanks for the replies!

I like both of those options. I lean more toward the shine version, because they're simple and should be fine for my needs (and i can weld steel), but it's impossible to find those anymore. I have the ability to make my own, but not the time before Burke, and after starting to source all the parts it might not be that much more to just buy them made.

Rabbits have basically no caster, and I'm ok with that anyway, but it does look like the ground controls could add that adjustment. Tough call. I just want something that doesn't break, and that I can change bearings out for readily available replacements.

Eurosport makes some that are very similar to the shine version, just saw some sets of those. Might be decent enough for a mk1 too
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Re: camber plates

Post by walterclark »

The Shine product would be easy to duplicate with some 1/4" plate and a plasma cutter. Then just need to weld a tube to hold the bearing onto the slide plate. The bearign holder was fairly involved but is doing my own I would just weld the tube to the bottom of the slide plate and put a hole in it large enough for the strut top nut, then capture the bearing in the tube with an inside ring tack welded in place. Bigger issue would be making up a set of upper perches.

DIY one could offset the camber slot in the weld-on plates for more caster.
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Re: camber plates

Post by Rabbit Farmer »

I had the Shine plates in my Golf (Yes, that is picture of my car above) and replaced them because they were bent. They are not well supported (three points) vs. the Ground Control (the entire surface).

My current setup on the Golf is the best I have had thus far... of course, I have only had stock (no place), the Shine, and what I have now. Limited sampling of the overall population.

Current setup:
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Re: camber plates

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Re: camber plates

Post by walterclark »

The sliding part looks to be the same. The fixed plates look like they are offset to allow for a bit more caster than stock.

Your Mk4 weighs in at about 3000 pounds. Not too surprised the Shine type bent. Its a much better design for a 2000 pound car and FWIW Shine raced and rallied these on A1 and A2 cars for years with few issues.
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Re: camber plates

Post by dsldubn »

decided to rebuild my broken set for lack of time, not that bad of a fix. I found out why the original broke anyway...whomever built them did a poor job with a TIG (pretty, but no penetration) and I bottomed a spring coupler on top of the strut and broke that weld. I'll finish fixing these and run them for a while.

...but going forward I'm building a new set that is stronger.I ordered up some metal stock to make a set. I found weldable bearing retaining cups with a c clip for the sliding portion as well. After I get all the pieces cut and start putting things together, I'll share some pics.

I appreciate the input for sure. Steve, your current set up looks nice and rugged. I might do similar eventually, but don't want to do that in the middle of the season because I know I won't finish in time to race. Those do look sweet though
Jason Orzell
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