front camber

[roblake91123]

Does any one have any details or ideas on trying to restore a small amount of negative camber to the front of a marina based roadster when trying to get good ground clearance at the same time.I have heard mention of extended lower arms but cannot see a very easy and safe way of achieving this..

[stevejgreen]

Re: front camber

There were some very early modified trunnions available, produced in an effort to cure the Marinas handling problems. But I doubt that any have been in circulation in this millenia.

[monza6c]

Re: front camber

The main problem with the Marina set up is not negative camber but the lack of caster. The reason that Marin Engineering fitted lowering blocks to the rear axle was to try and increase the castor. I belive early Marina based cars had slightly diffrent geometery with the rear of the torsion bars and the floor lower, this gave more castor and self centering. The on the later cars Marin and YKC lifted the floor and torsion bar mount and the result was a lack the castor hence the very vague and sometimes (especially at speed) very hairy handling.
If you are not worried about ground clearance then increase the size of lowering blocks on the rear axle and that will increase the castor and improve handling. It may even make tthe car look more vintage. You cannot just drop the rear mounts of the torion bars as you will have to modify the top link (mini lower arm) mounting along with the tie bar mount.

Len.

[d.grose]

Re: front camber

robert

My Marlin is used for trials it has Mini top mounts & Marina on the bottom . this saves putting spacers between the chassis & the mounting bracket for the bottom wish bone.

Dave

[roblake91123]

Re: front camber

Dave thanks for that bit of info,as it looks to me that this is what is already fitted to my car which has previously been trialled,but with the front suspension as high as it will sensibly go i still have a small amount of positive camber.Regards Robert

[CosworthCabrioLee]

Re: front camber

Hi Robert,
When I built my own lotus powered roadster we set suspension with a 0.5 positive camber this involved machining the bottom lower arm mounting points. The mini top arms where machines down and a new pivot pin made to give correct caster angle and the tie bars are fully rose jointed. The front suspension is set up to the same geometry as my father’s Élan + 2 and is the only self centring Roadster I have ever driven.

[mlincsmit]

Re: front camber

interesting comments Lee, you mentioned these in our tel: conversation a time back - have you any more exact details or photos of what you did as I can well make up and alter my suspension thus - am getting on well with the fitting of the RTL link to the rear, mounts on the chassis cross beam after alterations to the link. Interesting brackets fitted above the lowering blocks to take the cross bars, will publish photos and more details when finished regards Mike