I've been looking for an easy way to increase negative camber up front on a Vantage for quite a while. Stock I was only able to get about -1.75deg which just wasn't quite enough for racing slicks. Last fall I found out that Valiant Ecosse was offering offset camber bushings that insert into the lower steering knuckle (where the LCA ball joint connects). It looked easy enough to give it a shot. Along with the bushings I also purchased some extended inner tie rods to make sure the tie rod ends had enough threads to hold onto with increased camber. Figured I can't be the only one who would like more camber for track days so hopefully this will be helpful for someone else too.

The only issue I came into on the install was getting the lower ball joints out of the knuckles...I've changed several ball joints in the past but these were extremely stuck, a sledge hammer would probably have broken them free but I didn't want to risk damaging the knuckle so I resorted to cutting them off. After making this commitment I decided to do a full rebuild of the front suspension, all new polyurethane bushings in the control arms/swaybar and new ball joints.

To press out the old knuckle inserts I ended up getting a 12 ton press, made easy work of removing the old and installing the new inserts, also really handy for the control arm bushings. Here are some pics from the install, minus the stuck ball joints it's really not that bad, aligning the car is daunting but this was my second time doing an alignment and it's definitely easier the second time.


Pressing out the old bushing using the stuck portion of the ball joint


Pressing in the new bushing


New bushing installed, make sure the hole is to the inboard side of the knuckle to enable max camber gain


Upper control arm rebuilt


Lower control arm rebuilt


Extended inner tie rod to account for extra camber


My garage has a slope to the floor so I built some leveling stands using slick melamine shelving, melamine board, lots of 2x4s, and leveling feet.


I was able to rig a makeshift turn table using a thin piece of melamine board, under the tire there's anti-slip strips adhered to the board to keep the tire from slipping when turning the wheels to get caster. I had to add a trash bag between the "turn plate" and stands because the shelving material wasn't slick enough to allow easy steering rotation.


Measuring caster was a little tricky because I have steering stops that prevent a full 20deg turn angle. Marking the edge of the plate at each steering maximum it looks like I have about 14deg of rotation in each direction so 28deg in all. There's a cool SAE paper that shows relations between camber and caster, by just measuring camber at each steering extreme you can calculate caster. My calcs came out to about +7.4deg of caster which should be good for stability.


Dialed the camber into -3deg on each side


And lastly got the toe in line using the string method, I shot for about 2mm of toe out.

Next I'll need to adjust the rear alignment to balance out the front, I'm thinking about shooting for -2.5deg camber to see if that keeps the car fairly balanced...won't know until it stops snowing though so I have a while to think about it lol.

 

Very nice! I was thinking about these Valiant Ecosse offset camber bushings as well.
Curious to hear how the steering feels afterwards.

 

Thanks! Will do, hopefully the streets will be clean enough to take it out in the next couple of weeks.

 

Finally got the car out on the road for the first time since the camber bushing upgrade. Car still feels fine on public streets, in a straight line I’m not sure I’d be able to pick out the difference. In corners though there’s noticeably more grip and turn in and out feel very stable. Look forward to seeing how it does on the track, all in all very happy so far!

 

were the inner tie rods custom made or a generic match.

 

I’m not sure, they were supplied by Valiant Ecosse. For the tie rod ends, an Opel Frontera matches so I picked up a set of those while I was at it.

 

Good to hear, thanks for the feedback!

 

were there any part numbers on the inner tie rod shaft. as you know ,those things are not available on there own under the AM part number
and the ones you have probably could be used in normal replacement also. as opposed to the other method of having the ball refurbished $$$$$
cheers

 

I didn’t see any part numbers on the old or new ones unfortunately. However, I bet if you took one to a decent part store they could find a replacement that would work or just find one with similar measurements online. So long as the threads match, there is a little bit of wiggle room on overall length.

 

Finally I found time to install the Valiant Ecosse excentric lower bushings as well.
Camber went up from 1° 20" (max stock) to 2° 35" so a negaive camber gain of ~1° 10" from the bushings.
For the moment I have it set now to 2° 10" camber and 5° caster - drives like a dream!
Much more grip on the front but also added precision.

 

Who/Where did you get the replacement bushes from?
I am looking for a complete front set for my 2010 Rapide.
Thank you!

 

Here:
https://www.valiant-ecosse.com/

best to ask if the bushes fit onto your Rapide.