95 Ls400 Rear Camber & Toe After Lowering?

[gmacrae]

Hi guys. My LS400 is sitting quite low on Tein springs and new kyb shocks. My alignment guy says the front's ok but he's run out of adjustment on the rear and cant adjust the camber or toe to where it should be. There is too much negative camber and toe out. Both the camber arm and toe arm are adjusted as far as the cams will go.

We have an idea to effectively shorten the length of the camber arm (safely), but the more you bring the bottom of the wheel in, the more the toe arm pushes the front of the wheel out. So we've come to the conclusion that the best solution is a slightly shorter or adjustable toe arm.

Has anyone dealt with this problem before? I'm betting there is a replacement toyota toe arm that has 5mm(ish) less length. This, plus the minor mods i'll do to the camber arm will solve the problem completely. The car likely has similar suspension design to a bunch of late model toyota/lexus cars (im thinking IS/altezza, supra, GS/aristo etc).

I know there are plenty of lowered LS400's out there these days, more so the mk1 shape but still, has anyone come up with a solution?

Cheers for any input

Gene

 

[spf_lexus]

I take my LS to a special alignment shop with a drive on "flat" lift for slammed rides... they charge $100 per job, so I expect it to be very close every time.

I usually live with a 2'' drop but I got curious and slammed her anther 3/4'' and took it in and had the same issue... not enough room for any more camber adjustment. The answer was to take the arms out of the subframe mounts and I took a round carbine cutting wheel and made the "oval" adjustment slots wider. The subframe has enough meat on it so that you can squeeze some extra room out of them. When we slam our LS we take up all the slack in those slots... usually leaving some negative camber with the adjustments mounts fully maxed out.

-it's pretty safe, had mine like this for over 4 years so far. Hope this helps!

 

[gmacrae]

I take my LS to a special alignment shop with a drive on "flat" lift for slammed rides... they charge $100 per job, so I expect it to be very close every time.

I usually live with a 2'' drop but I got curious and slammed her anther 3/4'' and took it in and had the same issue... not enough room for any more camber adjustment. The answer was to take the arms out of the subframe mounts and I took a round carbine cutting wheel and made the "oval" adjustment slots wider. The subframe has enough meat on it so that you can squeeze some extra room out of them. When we slam our LS we take up all the slack in those slots... usually leaving some negative camber with the adjustments mounts fully maxed out.

-it's pretty safe, had mine like this for over 4 years so far. Hope this helps!

Cheers dude. Yea i'm probably going to do that to the camber arms (weld a bit more to round off the cam adjuster instead of flat), and slot the hole in the subframe - but with the suspension as it is, it would still leave me with serious toe out (killing tyres fast). After talking to a few other guys I've come to the conclusion that after 190,000kms, the control arm bushes are probably shot and im going to replace them all (new upper control arms/wishbones, new rubber lower control arm bushes). According to a few soarer/sc400 guys this makes all the difference and brings the top of the wheel back out to where it should be, and will make the factory adjustments enough to get it in spec, or very close to it.

SO, im about to drop a whole lot more coin in to this old girl but i'm sure it'll be worth it

 

[spf_lexus]

No prob, seems like the Soarers get all the attention when the LS is really the classiest of the bunch lol. But as for bushings they really do shave years off your ride, really brings it back to life. Here's some websites that sell bushings:

www.L-tunedparts.com
www.luxurymods.com
www.arnottindustries.com (OEM upper control arms)

 

[gmacrae]

Funnily enough, i've ordered the upper wishbones from a big toyota dealer here, same price as arnott industries (taking the exchange rate into account).

I'll be getting replacement rubber lower bushes from Andrew, here:

http://www.vftbushes.com/

His OEM style rubber bushes offer a nicer ride and no squeaks like many urethane bushes, i want to make sure it's going to ride like a limo, like it should.