2019 Adjustable Camber Plates - Cluster $$#%$@

[svassh]

Another day without my car. Emailed the tech this am telling him he needs to unload the front suspension to adjust and part number is correct. His response

"But I do understand how they are supposed to be adjusted. I’m just wondering if the kit I got is defective somehow. Because even with the front end unloaded the front struts cannot be adjusted. Now I could put it into factory specifications tighten them down. But the next time you go to adjust them it will not adjust and that wouldn’t be right to you. I am waiting for a response from FP"

So who knows. I hate to call the poor tech out cause he may be right about defective parts. Plan to call them tomorrow and tell them have it ready for pickup Friday with or without the damn adjustable camber plates installed. Can't believe they have floated me a loaner for 2 weeks today.

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[jmn444]

I can see why they would't want to install in the factory, they only have to verify camber is in spec and adjust toe w/ normal mounts and these add a significant amount of time comparatively. PLUS... not every purchaser wants the same alignment specs, some of us want max, some want what's in the manual, some want a more street freindly camber... so while it's a pain kinda, I think most buyers probably didn't even know why they'd "need" the camber plates.

 

[JAJ]

Another day without my car. Emailed the tech this am telling him he needs to unload the front suspension to adjust and part number is correct. His response

"But I do understand how they are supposed to be adjusted. I’m just wondering if the kit I got is defective somehow. Because even with the front end unloaded the front struts cannot be adjusted. Now I could put it into factory specifications tighten them down. But the next time you go to adjust them it will not adjust and that wouldn’t be right to you. I am waiting for a response from FP"

So who knows. I hate to call the poor tech out cause he may be right about defective parts. Plan to call them tomorrow and tell them have it ready for pickup Friday with or without the damn adjustable camber plates installed. Can't believe they have floated me a loaner for 2 weeks today.

This is really sad, actually. Adjusting the camber on the front of a GT350/R is very easy if you take advantage of the geometry. Turns out that every 1.0 mm of movement of the top of the strut in or out yields almost exactly 0.1 degrees of camber change. When I'm setting my car up, I take whatever the current camber is, mark the position of the center of the strut top, unload the car, move the strut in or out by the right number of millimetres to get the target camber, torque the strut bolts and I'm done. For instance, if you're at 1.5 degrees and you want 2.2, you move the strut top in by 7 mm. It's not perfect, but you'll be within 0.1 degrees every time. You have to readjust the front toe every time you change the camber, but changing the toe doesn't affect the camber setting, unlike the rear where the two adjustments interact in a most offensive way.

 

[shogun32]

He's doing what normal alignment guys do - he's doing it at static ride height with the suspension loaded on an alignment rack. No wonder it won't move.

so are the instructions missing the part about "unload the entire suspension FIRST"? Also, this seems like a needlessly stupid design by Ford. The rest of the aftermarket apparently had a clue when designing theirs.

 

[JAJ]

so are the instructions missing the part about "unload the entire suspension FIRST"? Also, this seems like a needlessly stupid design by Ford. The rest of the aftermarket apparently had a clue when designing theirs.

Not clear on this. I've watched first hand while a top-tier race team did this adjustment with the suspension fully loaded, so it's not a dumb move. But the S550 is easy to set up with this method. We'll see.

 

[jmn444]

so are the instructions missing the part about "unload the entire suspension FIRST"? Also, this seems like a needlessly stupid design by Ford. The rest of the aftermarket apparently had a clue when designing theirs.

What aftermarket designs are different?

 

[svassh]

Just heard from the dealer. They still tell me they don't think they are getting correct info from FP. What they did was slightly widen the holes so they would slide. They said before that they would not slide. Video won't upload so link attached. Hopefully have my car back tomorrow.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AgHazkWpX4iXgvQplWEJo0RJ6hNkRg?e=paoD9X

 

[JAJ]

Glad you're getting your car back tomorrow - finally!

Ford probably put a knurl at the base of the studs so that when it was tightened up, it couldn't slide. Undo the nuts, let it drop a bit and it'll slide just fine, but once done up it won't move. Ford does this with many things that are designed with a sliding adjustment. For instance, the inner bushings on the rear camber arms have radial raised lines on the bearing faces that cut into the metal of the subframe to keep them from moving once they're torqued up. The outer bushings on the toe links have this feature too. This could be that strategy applied to the front camber adjusters.

Aftermarket adjustables don't have this feature, and a set I had years ago self-adjusted during the course of a track day.

 

[svassh]

Glad you're getting your car back tomorrow - finally!

Ford probably put a knurl at the base of the studs so that when it was tightened up, it couldn't slide. Undo the nuts, let it drop a bit and it'll slide just fine, but once done up it won't move. Ford does this with many things that are designed with a sliding adjustment. For instance, the inner bushings on the rear camber arms have radial raised lines on the bearing faces that cut into the metal of the subframe to keep them from moving once they're torqued up. The outer bushings on the toe links have this feature too. This could be that strategy applied to the front camber adjusters.

Aftermarket adjustables don't have this feature, and a set I had years ago self-adjusted during the course of a track day.

Yeah, that is my only concern as well is that now they may slide too easily.

 

[JAJ]

Yeah, that only concern as well is that now they may slide too easily.

Don't worry about it - the torque spec for the nuts is the same as I use with my Steeda upper plates and they haven't shown any inclination to move even a tiny bit in three years of track days.

 

[shogun32]

Yeah, that is my only concern as well is that now they may slide too easily.

or put star washers underneath.

 

[Snoopy49]

The knurled section of the stud is not suppose to extend past the fixed plate, the knurled section is suppose to lock the stud in the fixed plate so it won't rotate when tightened. If you look closely at the knurled section above the fixed plate you will notice that the knurling has been removed.

 

[luc]

The knurled section of the stud is not suppose to extend past the fixed plate, the knurled section is suppose lock the stud in the fixed plate so it won't rotate when tightened. If you look closely at the knurled section above the fixed plate you will notice that the knurling has been removed.

As on mine you can clearly see that about 1mm of the knurled section is above the plate and not flush with the stud hole. It’s designed that way to lock the adjustment in place

 

[luc]

Just heard from the dealer. They still tell me they don't think they are getting correct info from FP. What they did was slightly widen the holes so they would slide. They said before that they would not slide. Video won't upload so link attached. Hopefully have my car back tomorrow.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AgHazkWpX4iXgvQplWEJo0RJ6hNkRg?e=paoD9X

Don’t think that is a good idea because the close side tolerance between the slotted holes and studs is there to keep the caster as desired

 

[svassh]

Don’t think that is a good idea because the close side tolerance between the slotted holes and studs is there to keep the caster as desired

I don't disagree but at this point 16 days later I want my damn car back. I'll fight this out personally with FP if I have issues. I feel like the dealer has done their best but FP support of their dealers is not nearly as good as it seems to be for us.

At this point its a good trade loaner Fusion for GT350R with camber plates that may or may not slide under load

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