Steering and suspension help

[Modjoe]

Hi,

I'll start by saying hi, as some of you know I'm a new member on this forum as well as on the AE86 world, I own a 85 GT-S liftback with a ST 20v engine. I'm starting to figure out the details about the swap and all the other things about the car.

To give you some background, I purchased the car from a guy who crashed it into a sidewalk, no physical damage but the steering rack was bent as well as the control arm and the lower ball joint and steering arm (dunno if that's the appropriate name). long story short, I got all the parts replaced but the car now has a lot of negative camber on the side of the accident (passenger).

Does anybody knows if there is a way to tell if this can be corrected just by adjusting the camber/caster/toe settings or if the excesive negative camber is caused by something else bent/broken?? let's say the shock absorber, the mounts of the control arm on the chassis, or who knows the chassis itself

Also, I'm searching for a guide on how to adjust the camber/caster/toe on the AE86 steering, My previous car was an E36 M3 and both steering systems are extremely different.

Thanks and Regards,

[dr.occa]

the best thing is to just get the front end up on jack stands, pull the wheels and just inspect the passenger side and use the driver side as a reference.

it's possible the upper strut hat/tower may have been damaged OR possibly the wrong lower control arm?

[GTSRolla34]

I would check everything. Check the strut mount at the top, the spindle, the hub, anything that dictates the geometry of the tire. Toe can be adjusted with the tie rods, caster with the tension rods, and camber can be adjusted using a couple different methods (NCRCA's, adjustable control arms, camber plates).

[mooreofit]

i bet the spindle and or strut casings bent if they havnt been replaced.

[Modjoe]

Hi,

I took off both lower control arms (each side) and they didn't showed any difference they looked simmetrically the same, at this point I think the spindle must be bent, I'm planning on taking the entire steering down this weekend to compare one side against the other.

I'm still afraid of the strut tower to be bent, anyone know if there is a way for me to tell??

[mooreofit]

the shock case and spindle will bend before the strut mount.

[kevlar corolla]

Pretty good bet its just the spindle,you can most likely see it by jacking it up and removing both wheels and comparing side to side.You might be able use a small square in there and measure the out of squareness from bad side to good side.Maybe run the wheel nuts on to hold the rotor and measure the distance from the top of the rotor to the strut tube,that should show a difference side to side.

If the tower was moved you should be able to see cracks in the seam sealer etc,for negative camber to be there the tower needs to move alot.If the spindle/strut tube were to bend it takes less to move more because the spindle acts directly on the wheel and the top of the strut is a good distance above the wheel so its a projection thing.Make sense?.

[Modjoe]

Well, I compared one side to the other and it is indeed the spindle bent, that's a relief but in my country the spares for the AE86 platform are pretty rare.

Do somebody here have a passenger side spindle for sale??

Regards,

[dr.occa]

i have one. do you have a postal code there in costa rica? pm me and i can get you a quote if you're interested.