speciality product camber problems. - Honda Prelude Forum

Lude[g] · 08-09-2002, 05:00 PM

hey guys, i'm having this huge problem with my camber kit.
installation went fine but the test drive afterwards wasnt.
ok the problem is that the kit is hitting my strut tower chassis pushing upward dents. and to make matters worse, its doing this on the slightest of bumps... so as of now the car is undriveable.

i have H&R shocks KYB gas shocks.. i know, i dont like the ride to begin with but i had to fix the camber. rides harsh and for some reason the drop is really low.
has anyone encountered this problem, and if so how did you fix it?

camber part# is 67165
its the sliding ball joint

thanks.

gills · 08-09-2002, 06:00 PM

Which H&Rs are you on? Did you take it to get professionally aligned? And are you 100% positive that you installed them correctly?

Lude[g] · 08-09-2002, 06:12 PM

i'm positive the installation was done properly. i mean, theres only one way to put it on, and besides i followed the directions it came with which included 2 images. and it looks right.
the ball joint kit sticks out about an inch over the original one, which is flush with the A arm. so thats the problem.
i spoke to one of the guys at speciality products. he said that my kit supports up to a 3in drop without any problems. he also stated that the only thing he can think of that might be causing this problem is the strut boot not being installed or whatever but, i;ve never had any problems with it b4. and it should be installed.

the H&R are part number is 29879 or 29879-2 which they state is a 1.3 or 1.4 drop.
i'm riding on stock 15's 205-50-15 so my car is really low.

anyone have any ideas?

these nyc potholes are killing me.

gills · 08-09-2002, 06:26 PM

Are you really getting dents from this? When i installed my ingalls camber kits which is pretty much works the same as yours, they actually pushed my A-arms out further. The noise they were making as you are describing was the point of the A-arm getting stuck on top of the inner plastic fender lining and when i would hit a bump, it would pop out under it and then back in causing a "pop" noise. What i did was cut a piece of the lining out where it was getting caught and the noise went away. And i also got the kits professionally aligned which helped a ton. Did you get your car aligned by a professional or not?

.

Lude[g] · 08-09-2002, 06:33 PM

the car has not been aligned yet. when i first drove the car out the garage and noticed the BANGING noise, i figured i would try to repair that first.
would an alignment actually fix this problem?
i dont know if it would.
my A arm is not rubbing anything, its just the upper ball joint thats causing the problem knocking deep dents in my chassis.

gills · 08-09-2002, 07:02 PM

A professional alignment would most definitely help your problem. Your specs are probably very off. Make sure you bring it to a reputable shop though that knows what they're doing.
As for the upper ball joint part, the only upper ball joint i can picture is the one that's in the upper A-arm(at the tip) where it connects to the knuckle. If i remember correctly, you can try turning the kits completely around(180 degree) so that it pulls the the arms in more rather than the way they are now. I believe that's what my alignment guy did, now that i remember so that it wouldn't hit as much. ****, i have to see..

viperguy1 · 08-09-2002, 07:32 PM

When you take the wheel off, check for your upper arm clearence. I know these camber kit say they can be adjust as much as 3 degree, but the upper arm is just going to go as far as it can before hitting the middle welded metal portion of the inside fender. Your problem seem to be that the arm is sticking out to far and it's hitting the middle metal part. Take the wheel of and seperate the ball joint between the control arm and upper arm and check for clearance by moving it up and down. The camber can only be adjust as much as it can before it hit that middle part.

Lude[g] · 08-09-2002, 08:06 PM

clearance is fine. the upper A arms when moved with my hands are not hitting or rubbing anything. i even jacked up the wheel rotor to see how much space it took til the camber started to hit the chassis. and it was alot. the left side a arm was sorta in this position \ but a bit less of an angle.
remember that this is a sliding ball joint, which means it adds an extra inch or so over the stock ball joint.
its the one in this picture. http://www.groupbuycenter.com/buy.asp?row_id=6228
2nd pic on the bottom.

gills · 08-09-2002, 08:25 PM

Ooops, the ones i have are like the ones in the first picture. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. Check out ingalls camber kits if you keep having problems with the ones you have now.

Lude[g] · 08-09-2002, 08:50 PM

not a problem at all. thanks for your effort, it was much appreciated.
if i cant get this resolved i might try and get them to replace the sliding ball joint with the upright one you have. or better yet have them send me one for free?
wishful thinking huh.

i must have re-read their directions 50x's now and i cant seem to figure out why mines is doing this.
http://www.specprod.com/PROD_DIR/PROD_PRODNUMBER.HTML

Lude[g] · 08-10-2002, 05:43 AM

can anyone help????

93VTEC · 08-10-2002, 11:17 AM

What generation prelude do you have? According to that chart you should have the upright unit replacement. Does the sliding ball joint kit work on the 4th gens too?

spin_r_g · 08-10-2002, 01:34 PM

I've had a problem with the sliding ball joint type camber kit as well. I've figured out the problem on mine though. Even though the kit gives you a range of how much camber correction you need the car is self will not. In the front of the car the sliding ball joint pushes that upper control arm further out correcting the camber. This can be done to a certain degree any further and the control arm will bang into the inner fender. This is not noticable when you are working on the car. Once you lower the car down it will seem fine. After that if you take a drive and hit any bumps you will feel the control arm hitting the fender it will feel like your car is bottoming out really hard. I have a feeling this is your problem. Its the problem I had.

Did you get an alignment before you installed the kit? What were your specs. Did you get an alignment after? If the correction made by the camber kit was too much then the control arm will not clear the inner fender.

Lude[g] · 08-10-2002, 03:21 PM

how do you post pics, i want to show you what my chassis looks like due to the camber kit..

spin_r_g · 08-10-2002, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lude[g]
how do you post pics, i want to show you what my chassis looks like due to the camber kit..

You need some web space to host the files and then use the vB Code image tag..

Lude[g] · 08-12-2002, 02:17 PM

any other suggestiong about this problem???