Slotting struts or other suspension pick up points.

Erik Halvorson hammer_down@hotmail.com
Fri, 12 Apr 2002 00:41:33 -0500


In regards to slotting suspension pick up points I will exptend my
experience.  With my Datsun 510 I slotted the rear cross member to get rid
of the large maounts of negative camber after lowering it.  We set the
desired camber using an alignment rack.  There was more slot than what was
necessary.  I was worried about it slipping but proceeded.  We torqued up
the fasteners to factory specification.  I put around 100,000 miles on the
car after that.  iNcluding 14 years of auto-x, an occasional gravel blast
chasing rally cars through the woods and 2 years of sports car racing in the
PNW.  IT NEVER SLIPPED!

I think that if the mating surface between the tow parts were clean and the
fasteners were torqued correctly, there will be enough friction force at the
joint to hold the parts in position.  If you did hit the assembly hard
enough to knock it out of adjustment it might actually help by "giving way"
and absorbing the blow.  I would do it and would be worried about it, though
checking for unusual wear on the tires occasionally is always a good idea.
You could always spend the $150 for a "Long Acre" type of "camber/castor
reference gauge" and check it a bit more accuratly that way though you would
have to have a base line from when it was first aligned after slotting...

Erik