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Exmo TCA mod


LewisH

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I am thinking of changing the Track control arms for these https://www.compbrake.com/product/ford-sierra-mk1-mk2-pinch-bolt-adjustable-track-control-arms-pair-copy/

These can be made to any length,  so I'm thinking of making larger than OEM in order to push the bottom of the wheel out so to give more negative camber. Currently my front wheels look to have slightly positive camber, my thinking is that doing this mod, as well as pushing the caster forward as much as possible with my tie-bars (instead of anti-roll bar), will give me a better 'centering effect' on the steering, which was one of my IVA fails. 

Any thoughts/opinions on this would be appreciated. 

Lewis 

Edited by LewisH
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That’s exactly what I’ve done with my Exmo. It makes a decent difference. 
Make sure you get the right TCAs though as there are two types. I think mine were the nut type 

 

Edited by Dave Ed
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1 hour ago, Dave Ed said:

That’s exactly what I’ve done with my Exmo. It makes a decent difference. 
Make sure you get the right TCAs though as there are two types. I think mine were the nut type 

 

How did you go about setting up the amount of camber? Trial and error or did you have a tool for it that you can recommend?

Also, can you remember how much longer than OEM you made them?

Edited by LewisH
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Dave, I am interested in this, especially as you have them fitted, with a bit of negative camber the top of the wheel is going to move closer to the outrigger, has this been a problem ?, also has the self centering been affected ? also there must be a change in the angle at which the bearing at the top of the spring is loaded and some sideways pressure on the shock absorber shaft ?. I would be interested in your observations/experience and hear of what benefits this modification has realised.

Edited by Sparepart
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I did this about 5 years ago. I took a hugely scientific approach to it. 🤔
I used a known flat floor, (in my case a hangar) and used my iPhone as it has an inclinometer to measure the angle of the outside of the wheel. I used a tape measure on the forward and rear facing areas of the groves on the tyre to work out the toe in. 
Finally I took a few steps back and looked at it by eye. 
I work upon the assumption that if it looks right it will be better than it was. 

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Sparepart. As I moved the distance of the wheel outwards I had to be careful of the clearance of the suspension in the buttress. There’s not a lot of room for manoeuvring so there is no adjustment of caster as far as I’m concerned. 
Camber adjustment is obviously by the TCA and by moving the base of the wheel out it actually aligns the suspension strut to a slightly better angle. I do need to get a better solution for this though and I have some floating bearing top mounts from an escort that needs machining that should sort this eventually. 
Self centering seems quite positive but I need to play with it slightly as my suspension is set way too hard and this could improve it later on.

One thing to note however, was that I had to enlarge the TCA mounting hole on the chassis so once I’d done that, there was no going back.

 

Edited by Dave Ed
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Thanks for the info Dave. I've ordered and should have these by the weekend, I'll let you know how I get on.

The guy at compbrake was very helpful, I said that I wasn't sure how much longer I needed them to be and he said that the extension is interchangeable, so in the event of them not being quite right I could always swap this bit out for something smaller/bigger if needed.

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Dave, I agree, one needs to be highly scientific. Now you have posted these photos (great), I realise that if the original anti roll bar is still in use then adjustable TCAs are not a good idea as the anti roll bar will "fight" any change in distance between it's ends. In highly scientific terms it would be a pig's ear. Also, since your tie bars are not adjustable a change in camber will make a change to castor, not much, I know, I will come up with the equation any moment now, it involves Pi. 🧐

Edited by Sparepart
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While we're being highly scientific ;) remember the top mounts on the Exmo are not appropriate as supplied by the factory - the bearings were completely the wrong type and unsuitable for taking any sort of momential or axial load, so if you're adjusting the camber of the wheel by pushing the strut out you're going to be increasing that angle that the strut enters into the top bearing/buttress away from the 'ideal' 90 degrees. So I guess just bear in mind the load and stresses on that will be a little worse - but to be fair the life expectancy of Exmo top mounts was never great anyway :)

Or swap them for a proper spherical bearing of course ;) but then you have issues with the platform height probably changing/etc. Gawd nothing is ever easy is it :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've had a bit of a nightmare with this unfortunately. TCA's arrived but unfortunately the guy had made them 2 inches longer than OEM when not extended, rather than 2 inches longer when fully extended as I requested. I put them on and found that I had approx 7 deg of negative camber...obviously far too much. I've tried cutting the threads & shanks down as much as I can but still got approx deg.

So I've put the original TCA's back on and adjusted the tie-rod to push the caster forward as much as possible, which has also improved the camber a bit. I've now got approx 1 degree of negative camber, just a shame it took all of this messing around and wasting money on the adjustable one's. 🤦

20211111_093107.jpg

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