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Short shifter and camber

Whoodoo

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 11, 2009
Messages
927
Location
Binghamton, NY
First things first: I've been looking at options for shortening up the throw and improving shift feel. Here's what I've gathered so far:

-JNZ sells a short shifter (same design as the mofugas which is NLA), delrin shifter bushings that go on the transmission end of the cables, and a bushing kit for the shifter plate that also includes a bushing that goes in the bottom part of the shift arm (the side to side pivot).

-There is a member here (blue642) that will be making a run of delrin bushings that replace all the nylon(?) bits that came from the factory.

-The easiest, and possibly cheapest, route is to just get a 1g shifter, but this doesn't actually shorten the throw (i.e. reduce the angle required to change gear), it only moves the shift knob lower down towards the console.

I would really like to not only lower the height of the shifter itself, but also get a shorter throw and take out some of that spongy feeling. If you've used any of these products I'd greatly appreciate your input.

Second, I recently took advantage of tirerack.com's special on blizzak snow tires (thanks again RockGVR4 for the heads up!). The tires are 245/40-17's so that means getting a set of 17x8 inch wheels. I've looked around to see what kind of offset works. After doing some digging, the wheels I want to get have a 35mm offset. Turbowop (Mark I believe?) has this exact same wheel/tire size combo but he has his front camber at -2.3*. Do I need to have that much camber in order to eliminate rubbing? I have a completely stock car right now, so would that mean getting camber plates/camber bolts? Camber plates are expensive and the bolts only give +/- .5* right?

Sorry for the long post, but I figure you'd all rather see one long post than a spattering of smaller ones. Thanks a bunch in advance. You GVR4 guys really know what you're talking about! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worthy.gif

Alan
 

atc250r

Staff member
Joined
Sep 11, 2003
Messages
13,235
Location
Orange County, NY
The 1G shifter does shorten the throw a little because the length above the pivot is shorter but the length below the shifter is the same.

For wheels I would go with something more like a 40 - 45mm offset. They will still fit and won't require any camber plates or bolts. I have a 45mm offset on mine and it is really close on the back so maybe a 42mm would be a little safer unless you don't mind doing a little grinding. IMHO, unless you need the big wheels to clear big brakes you're better off running a narrow tire on a stock wheel for the snow.

John
 

Whoodoo

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 11, 2009
Messages
927
Location
Binghamton, NY
Yes... but therein lies the problem. The tires were on special and I have already bought them. I haven't been able to find very many 17x8's with a 4-bolt pattern. I don't really mind getting the parts required for camber adjustment as I will most likely be purchasing them sometime down the road. My question is with a stock suspension, do I need to have all that negative camber in order to not rub? BTW thanks for the quick response.
 

atc250r

Staff member
Joined
Sep 11, 2003
Messages
13,235
Location
Orange County, NY
I wouldn't run a 35mm offset on an 8" wide rim if I could help it, the front tires will stick out a little. With stock springs you'll probably be fine either way since the stock height is pretty high.

John
 

iLLeffeKt vr-4

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 26, 2004
Messages
2,153
Location
NYC
Go with a 1g shifter and get the metal bushing for the shifter base and rollerskate bearings for the linkage under the hood. You can find them on ebay for very cheap. Get a 2g "heavy" shift knob and you'll heave the best feeling shifter at a very low cost to you. Everything should be less than $75.

As far as the tires/rims go.......I agree with John that narrower tires will be ideal in snow but the wider tires will also work. I ran 245/40-17 on 17x8 with 35mm offset slipstreams for 2 winters. I never got stuck or had any issues even though I ran all season tires and not dedicated winter tires. Car was lowered on HotBits coilovers about 1.5" and camber was about -.5* front and -1* rear. The fronts did stick out about .75" but I liked that look. Never rubbed but the coilovers were fairly stiff.
Later on I went with evo 9 rims 17x8. 38mm offset so the fronts didn't stick out that much.
 

turbowop

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 29, 2001
Messages
11,971
Location
Yakima, WA
I run that much camber in the front to get the tires under the fenders better and as a bonus it handles better in the corners when driving hard. I dunno if I'd want that much camber when driving the car around in snow using snow tires though. Try to find something with more positive offset to keep from having to camber the front in.

One problem you'll run into when trying to camber in the front of the car with camber plates if running stock struts/springs is the large diameter of the spring interfering with the inner part of the strut tower. I'm not sure how far negative you can go before you need to run a full coilover for clearance issues. And if you use camber bolts, you might have issues with the inside of the tires rubbing on the stock strut spring perch at a certain point. Coilovers pretty much allow you to do a lot more when it comes to alignment and how much adjustability you have.
 

Whoodoo

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 11, 2009
Messages
927
Location
Binghamton, NY
Thanks for all the input. It looks to me that no one really knows for sure if 35 offset wheels will rub with my stock suspension, but it might. So, if I were to go the safe route and get wheels with a larger offset, which wheels will work? I've spent hours searching high and low, but there doesn't seem to be too many of them out there with a 4 bolt pattern. I'd really appreciate suggestions.
 
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