EA81 ride height & camber 'adjustment' with EA82 rear coilovers

[Diarios de Soob]

Hi, I am going on a 15,000 + mile road trip from Washington to Panama with my 83 Subaru 4X4 wagon. The car will be loaded with about 1100lbs-1300lbs+ including passengers. On a trip last summer to the Yukon I went through 4 tires due to my front wheels being too strongly +cambered since the rear was squatting with cargo weight leaving the car high in the front. Since then I cranked the rear torsion bar all the way up and installed 195/85/14 tires on Peugot rims- thanks ferox - in place of the 185/75/13 stock tires & wheels.

 

Unloaded the rear suspension looks good and the tires appear to have adequate clearance but when we loaded it with our approximate weight the rear loses 3.25" and lacks adequate fender clearance. Now we are looking into mounting coil overs from an ea82 that I picked up from a a wrecking yard. I saw someone on the forum mention they would add about 2" of lift with an intact torsion bar and mounted at the stock ea81 upper mounting height. This sounds like it will be about right with the load we are carrying. Does anyone have any other ideas to make the rear suspension stiffer? What about clocking the torsion bar in addition to leaving the adjuster all the way up? any thoughts on the coil over solution? or adjusting the camber?

 

The 2 goals I have are to maintain proper camber so I don't go through tires quickly and maintain sufficient fender clearance. I'm basically looking to control camber by maintaining proper ride height and attitude (slightly nose down).

 

Thanks

Jon

 

 

Below I have more details for those who care to read.

Unloaded i measured my front camber as +1.3 degrees drivers side and +1.5degrees passenger. In order to measure camber I used a T square that spans my wheels from edge to edge then i used a level that starts at the top of the wheel (held against the t-square) and at the bottom reads the distance out the side of the T square. Flat against the vertical part of the T- square would be zero degrees. I use the horizontal distance out the T-square with the vertical length so I have the opposite and adjacent sides of a right triangle then I take the inverse tangent of this to calculate my angle. We had to brush up on our trig to do this! The rear camber unloaded was +1degree drivers side and -.5degrees passenger side.

 

Next I loaded the approximate amount of weight we think we'll be carrying- 150#s on roof, 450#s behind the rear seat and 650 in the passenger compartment. The front wheels lost about 1/2" in clearance and the rears lost 3.25"! This is with the torsion bar cranked all the way up. Without moving the car I remeasured the front camber as +1.5degrees drivers and +1degree passenger. Rears were -1degree drivers and -.5degrees passenger. The roof of the car went from down-sloping .75" over 24" (slightly nose down) when unloaded to level when loaded. I wish I would have taken all these measurements before I adjusted the torsion bar! The change in the front camber doesn't seem that intuitive to me- perhaps i needed to drive it a bit with that weight or bounce the bumpers more for it to settle.

 

I read that up to 3 degrees positive camber in the fronts is within spec for an EA81 according to chazmataz

That seems like a lot to me as 1.5degrees is noticeable and I don't think i had a lot more than that on my trip that wore out tires.

 

In the manual (page 346) it shows there is about an inch of adjustment with the torsion bar so i should be able to fine tune the ride height with it.

 

I read this for ea82's rear toe and camber adjustment. Is there anything that can be done on an ea81?

[Idasho]

EA82 coil overs + torsion bar = VERY stiff.

 

I dont see you having any problems. Ive hauled 800lbs+ in my '84 GL (cranked up torsion bar only) long distances without any problems.

[pressingonward]

A few comments on suspension angles and tire wear:

 

I'm not sure you're reporting your camber angles correctly. Positive camber is when the top of the rim is angled OUT vs. the bottom of the rim, negative is when the top is angled in vs. the bottom.

 

When you load the car the suspension will push the tires outward slightly as it compresses. Because of this you need to move the car to settle the suspension before measuring your angles. You can push it about 10 feet, or drive it forward and let it coast to a stop. Do not use the brakes or engine braking to stop it as this will change the load on the suspension and change the angles.

 

Camber up to 1 degree positive or negative should not affect the tire wear significantly. For best handling you want it slightly negative, but in a fully loaded Subaru this probably isn't your primary concern. I'd probably shoot for -0.5 degrees fully loaded, that way if the load gets a little lighter you'll still have ok camber.

 

The primary cause of premature tire wear is incorrect toe. Toe can be checked by measuring the distance between tread grooves on the tires on the front of the tire and on the back side of the tire. You want the tape measure as close to the center of the tire height-wise as you can get it while still having clearance for the tape (IE if you go too high you'll hit the oil pan/crossmember, etc)

 

If you have any play in the tie rods, steering rack, or ball joints your toe measurements will be pretty much meaningless since it will move around as you drive. You want to be pretty close to 0" of toe for optimal tire life and fuel mileage. Up to 1/8" of toe out (front of wheels further apart than the back side) is ok since fwd cars tend to toe inward under power. If it is toed out too far it will tend to feel squirrelly and follow every line and groove on the road. I don't think the rear toe is adjustable on our cars, but I'm not positive. You'd probably want it set as close to 0" as you can get it, maybe slightly toed in for stability.

 

You definitely want to upgrade your rear suspension to handle the greater load. It is important to maintain ride height to keep the suspension operating within the angles it is designed to handle on a daily basis. I think the EA82 coilovers might be the way to go (You can also change the springs on them to adjust to your specific needs), but I have no direct experience with any suspension mods on these cars. I am an ASE certified auto tech, which is why I am familiar with camber and toe settings.

 

Make sure you run your rear tires at 35 psi+ to handle the weight.

Edited March 8, 2012 by pressingonward

[Diarios de Soob]

Thanks for the responses guys. We finally had a break in the weather the past few days in Spokane so I have it about set as far as ride height goes. Instead of fabricating a mount for the EA82 coilovers I ended up clocking my torsion bar 1 notch 'stiffer'. It looks pretty funny empty with the rear pointing skyward but once I load the rear cargo area with 550+ #'s the car is level once again. I ended up cranking the torsion bar adjuster under the rear seat all the way up again (started with it all the way down when i clocked the torsion bar 1 notch) but after testing with passengers inside I needed that extra inch or so of height.

 

http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53979&highlight=clocking+torsion is useful but I would add that one needs a jack with a small cup to raise the plate in order to align your holes with the torsion bar once again. The is a royal pain (read nearly impossible) with a the large cup on a 3.5 ton floor jack so i had to round up a smaller one such that one is only raising the arm from the torsion bar rather than both it and the trailing arm. Also it is quite useful to disconnect the rear shock in order to allow for a bit more 'wiggle' in the system as you line things up. I also used a lever bar extending forward under the front end of the wheel well and running across the top of the trailing arm (pressing down on it) in order to rotate align the holes. When scribing or marking for alignment on the torsion bar before adjusting be sure to do so on the bottom of the torsion bar just inside the flange or part of the arm that runs down to connect with the trailing arm. Pictures would describe all of this waaay better!

 

Pressingonward thanks for the alignment tips! I've been checking and rechecking camber under different loads and suspension configurations. I'm pretty certain it was camber wear that did in a whole set of tires on my last trip to the yukon. looking at the front of the car it was pretty obviously cambered positively and the wear pattern matched. It's better now but i keep getting about 1.5 degrees + ( \ / ) in the front and about 0 drivers rear to .5 - or 1.0 - ( / \ ) in the passenger rear depending on how loaded i have the rear of the car. I haven't measured toe but I'd like it to be neutral. I spoke with the owner of Expert Alignment in Spokane and he said +.5 in the front (or 0) is optimal and mentioned plates as some do on the forum to adjust the front camber. I think for me adjusting the 'attitude' of the car (having the front end slightly lower than the rear) is my easiest option. Although perhaps it's easier than i think to "adjust" front camber.

 

I'm pretty happy that I've effectively increased the rear suspension spring rate in order to maintain the proper ride height and therefore the proper operating angles of the suspension. I'd still like to lessen my front camber. dropping the front ride height with the strut doesn't seem like a good option as these 14" tires are taller and i need all the clearance i can get.

 

I will look at measure my toe now that I have the ride height/ suspension pretty close to where I want it and will recheck for free play in the system.

[mcbrat]

since you're taking a long trip, you may want to at least be able to add on the ea82 coilovers if you have a torsion bar break. I clocked mine one notch in my old Brat suspension, and after hauling a lot with it and offroading, I had it snap on me, and sag that whole side until I put on the rear coilovers.

 

I've had 2 torsion bars break like that (one was not clocked).