Do Mini Radius Arms Have positive camber, or are mine twisted?
Turbo Mini Forums

I've measured the position of the two pins. I worked out that when the arm is horizontal, in a top view looking down, the centre lines run parallel. But looking car forward, the stub axle has about 1.5deg of positive camber. does anyone know if this is deliberate or if my arms are twisted, which i've heard is not uncommon?

Dan

It is very common for standard minis to have pos camber on rear

I measured mine with a digital level on level ground and both sides were just under 1 degree positive - that's with 1.5 negative camber brackets fitted!

Maybe it's the pattern subframe? Either way I've got fully adjustable brackets waiting to be fitted.

Oh I'm not complaining, the subframes on it's second mini.

The first time I fitted it was in 1996 and apart from a blast, powder coat and a waxing it's been spot on.

As long as my fancy brackets can dial out the 9mm of toe in it'll be fine

I was always told minis had camber more one side than the other to deal with the b roads and way they camber.

how true this is beats me but i can see what they mean driving round linconshire/norfolk

I've got positive camber on the back of mine, I did on the original and still do on the new non gen subframe that went on about 6months go when my arms were refurbished too :)

They don't die, they just get faster!

On 7th Oct, 2015 Smackfiend said:
Oh I'm not complaining, the subframes on it's second mini.

The first time I fitted it was in 1996 and apart from a blast, powder coat and a waxing it's been spot on.

As long as my fancy brackets can dial out the 9mm of toe in it'll be fine

Edited by PhilR on 7th Oct, 2015.

I measured mine off the car on a flat table. Set up the main pin to be level, then got the stub axle as close to being level with it as i could, but there was a 4mm discrepancy between centreline of the damper side and centreline of the hub side, which i worked out equates to about 1.5 deg. So its definitely the arm, but im not sure if its deliberate or bent. Given the manufacturing processes of the time id guess it was originally straight as it would have been a much simpler process to machine two holes that are on the same axis?

The standard rear camber is positive.

Most rear camber brackets at best will get the camber to zero.

If you want negative (and -0.5 is as much as anyone needs, 0 deg is fine), then you generally need a big file.

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

If you build a new non gen subframe off the car, can you measure and adjust right there, or do you need the weight of the car on the wheels before measuring? Just wondering if this camber JetBLICK is seeing disappears under load.

The camber won't change under vertical load if the radius arm pin is horizontal. It will change a bit if the pin is not horizontal; but not much.

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

Like i say the camber i measured is soley in the arm, measured off the car on an engineers table. Like will said the camber wont change with travel on a radius arm set up. Reason i first asked was because i want to make sure i start with a straight arm to rebuild if its supposed to be straight.

I don't know the answer but it would be illogical from a manufacturing point of view to have to bore the holes at each end of the arm at a different angle to achieve what you are seeing as opposed to just chosing where to drill the hole in the bracket on the subframe to achieve the desired camber.

One thought that comes to mind, if it's the type of arm with one needle roller and one bronze bush, has the bush been reamed concentric ?

I once took a Metro rear arm apart which had some very strange angles and found a previous owner, instead of replacing a worn shaft and bronze bush, had wrapped a bit of steel part way around the worn bit and it had worked its way around to the opposite (un-worn) side putting the shaft way off centre.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???