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Sector 111 V2 Steering Arms - installation

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Installed my V2 steering arms yesterday as well as my new tie rod ends. All went well, upper a-arm ball joint on the passenger side released without any interaction, the driver's side needed very slight manipulation from a ball joint pickle fork. Not a big deal. Make sure to keep the nut secured to allow the ball joint to uncompress or release its energy. It may pop, without the nut still on it can fly up pretty hard as found in the Lotus link below. I put the V2 arms in without any shims or ABS plate, in theory I should have achieved 1.6 degree more camber than the stock steering arms. I was at -1.0 (running a 1mil shim per side) so that should have put me around -2.85 degrees on the front with maxed out negative camber. I also removed all my shims (including the abs mount) out of my drivers rear and added a 1 mil shim to the passenger rear. (1mm shim plate alters camber by approximately 0.25degrees°.) That should put me in the -2.6 degree camber range for the rear. Since I the Roadster seems to love a 1.0 camber offset between the rear and front wheels, I'm going to add about 5 mil of shims to each front wheel [ 2mil, 1mil, 1mil, 0.5mil, 0.5mil]. That should bring my front back down to a -1.6 degree camber. Will schedule an alignment appointment this Thursday and see what actual numbers come up and fine tune if necessary.

Also its good to sand / file lightly the surface at where your shims meet the wheel assembly. Also sand your shims if you didn't buy the V2 shim pack which I highly recommend. Steel parts like to corrode and build up high spots and give nonuniform results. The hardest bolt to get to is the rear wheel inner camber bolt, the one close to the shock. Most of my allen sockets, ones you can put a torque wrench to, contact the shock spring some. Does not get an ideal fit. I had to drop the Roadster some onto a 4x4 block to allow the wishbone move upwards to compress the spring when unbolting / tightening. Easy way to strip an allen head so be very delicate and careful here.

Some tips, while the ball joint is free on the a-arm, move it around to feel its condition. Also it helps to keep things mobile / lubricated if you move it in its full unimpeded range of motion. Spin your wheel hub to feel the condition of the wheel bearings, feel if any resistance between drivers/passenger side hubs. I noticed on mine, my passenger hub has a sticky / higher resistance compared to the drivers. I may pull these hubs off one day soon, verify the grease/pack, and re-grease if necessary. Also would like to look into possibly a lighter grade high temp bearing grease to replace with.

References:
V2Arms Install Log (pics questions too) - LotusTalk - The Lotus Cars Community
Lotus Elise Maintenance, Suspension Alignment
http://www.sector111.com/parts/performance/suspension/v2arms2.cfm
http://www.sector111.com/parts/track/v2arms.cfm

V2shims



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Finished my alignment today, front camber with the v2 arms and 4mil of shims (no abs shim) came out to be -1.4 on the drivers and -1.6 on the passenger. I'll remove a 1mil shim from the drivers by this weekend to reach my target of -1.6 for the front. My rear driver side camber came out to -2.5 and the passenger came in at -2.3. Will remove a 1mil shim from the passenger to -2.5 (actually should hit -2.55). My target is 2.6. Wish the alignment machine's camber readings would read into the hundredths like toe, but a tenth off a degree shouldn't affect too much in feel I guess. Loving the way everything has progressed and improved. Stoked I have a wider range of camber to play with.

I also like that the v2 steering arms are in aluminum, I feel that since aluminum is a more rigid material over steel which flexes more, that the feel of the wheels and what they're contacting becomes more clearer through the steering wheel. On that note my next upgrade for the suspension will be the MONOballs, which are spherical bearings that help eliminate bushing deflection, tighten up the a-arm / suspension in terms of slop or looseness, and transfer the wheel's feel to the driver as well as a quicker and efficient response to the drivers input transferred back to the road. Sector111 has the MonoBalls as well as the Nitron spherical bearings:

MONOballs - Spherical Bearings

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Nitron Wishbone Inner Bearing Kit

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And after that throw in the poly bushings all the way around. Again its nice having the lifetime alignment so I can verify and re-adjust if anything has shifted after an upgrade.
 
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looks like some great mods. How does it drive now?

Tracks like an arrow, holds the line taken into and out of a turn very well, and the arms helps address bumpsteer which I can really feel that going fast across highway bridge divides that are in the turns. Since I commute daily half on a very twisty windy mountain road and the other half on the highway I can gauge changes pretty well which is nice.

Found some Sector111 videos from a seminar explaining alignment principles:

Part1:
Sector111 Alignment Tech Seminar Part 1 - YouTube

Part2:
Sector111 Alignment Tech Seminar Part 2 - YouTube

Part3:
Sector111 Alignment Tech Seminar Part 3 - YouTube

Part4:
Sector111 Alignment Tech Seminar Part 4 - YouTube

Part5:
Sector111 Alignment Tech Seminar Part 5 - YouTube

Part6:
Sector111 Alignment Tech Seminar Part 6 - YouTube
 
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Thanks, that's what I ment to say. Just made the edit. Also an important take from the alignment seminar links above, your vehicle has to be ballast to your / driver's weight in order to achieve the proper spec. I forgot to mention, when I had my last drop of my alignment done I asked to ballast my driver side/seat. They came back saying they don't have any ballast/weight. That I can stay in the car. I didn't do that since its one of those shops that it becomes a big insurance liability if you do. I'll just drop on back again after I mess with my shims again. However, this means that my original camber settings is not a real or true number, for example since I wasn't ballast the driver's rear tire will have a false negative degree swing and will shift in the positive direction when more weight is added. So I think I'm not going to mess with the shims. What I need to do next is get a new reading from the Hunter machine / Roadster when properly ballast, then make the shim adjustments. I just need to bring my own weights. At least I know the front toe is correct after replacing the tie-rod ends & completion of v2 install.

Another point from the video is the tension that swaybars exhibit on the car's suspension and balance points. The v2links look very appealing to do proper weight balancing. That's another experiment I'll need to run/play with using the adjustable spring perch on the Nitrons. I'll also need to pick up some scales to get the proper lbs exhibited per wheel in order to do the proper calculations.
 
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