R33 Lca Into R32 - How Too Guide

[Simon-S14]

Thought i'd give it a go as a cheap upgrade... Thanks to Adelaide Jap for the parts. Pretty easy to do but i thought i'd help others by making a short guide on how to go about doing it.

First of all, take the wheel off

Castor rod needs to come off, undo the two nuts on the underside of the LCA, they are a 17mm.

Then undo the Bolt for the LCA on the crossmember, its also a 17mm. This will be bloody tight so use a spanner on one side and a big breaker bar on the otherside and undo it, take the nut off, you prob wont be able to get the bolt out easy yet so just leave it for now.

Then you need to undo the large nut on the bottom of the hub when the ball joint for the LCA is, there is a split pin through this so take that out first then use a 22mm spanner to undo the nut, once the nut is off, you will need a LARGE hammer to hit the side of the hub hard several times to make the ball joint pop out. Never hit the threaded section of the ball joint. once its popped out the bolt will come out of the crossmember easy. then your arm is out!

Here you can see the two arms side by side, the R33 one is longer

Here there are some slight differences, the lock on the R33 arm is deeper which gives a bit more angle, if your a drifter like me the lock stop on your r32 arm will be hammered out.. like mine Apart from this everything else is the same and the arm just bolts straight in. Installation is the reverse of the above.

Once installed, you'll have major toe out due to the toe being the same and running longer arms, I got a white texta marked the top of the tie rod's then cracked the big 22mm locking nut, i then turned the tie rod a total of 7 times (anti clockwise, to make them longer) on both sides, then locked the nut and measured it up... its close enough to drive to a wheel aligner on now. (took me a few goes to get the toe right, but the total number was 7 full turns)

I put some stock rims on with rubber i dont care about, my wheel aligner is 50 kms from where i live so i didnt want my 17's being scrubbed out on the freeway. I suggest that an alignment is carried out straight away as both toe AND castor will be out.

heres what it looks like with the R33 arms in,

As you can see theres a bit more camber, i took it for a drive and even the toe is out it feels really good.

Reasons for doing this was that my 32 is a drift car, so the extra track and camber would be benificial, there appears to be slightly more lock also which is a bonus.

Enjoy!

[XRAIDER]

Hey buddy great guide, just wondering if you have another pick of them side by side, as its a not working for me.

If the r32 one is smaller I want to put r32 items in my r33 to reduce the negative camber, I think it will help tyre wear somewhat currently have -2.2 degress each side now and lots of toe in isnt really helping.

Thanks!

PS: If you want to sell your old 32 items I'd love to buy em!

Edited November 1, 2007 by XRAIDER

[Simon-S14]

yeah they are quite a bit shorter then the R33 items, i would guesstumate around 30mm... i personally wouldnt put them in your r33 as you may wind up with positive camber... best bet would be to work out why you have so much neg camber atm (is it too low?) you could get some camber bushes from whiteline and adjust it this way?

[bryyy]

Hey simon, how does this go compared to just buying adjustable camber arms?

How much camber did you end up with after the alignment?

And most importantly how does it feel out on the track!

[Simon-S14]

i have a total of 3 degrees without adjustable camber arms, This is prob far to much for a street car but mine is track only and i didnt want to pay 500 for a pair of adjustable upper arms.

On the track its amazing! theres less bump steer, the steering feels a lot more direct and the car handles a lot better. Also ive found for drift it gives slightly more angle and it doesnt bind up when holding full angle slides.

Awesome upgrade in my books

[noisia]

hey simon

with ur 33 lower control arm install, you dont recommend doing this when the car is also a daily driver?

i dont have adjustable rear camber arms on the rear and i've got ridiculous rear camber atm due to the coilover height and my tyres havent really worn that much, would there be significant tyre wear with the 33 lca's on the road you think?

[Simon-S14]

3 degrees is a fair bit for road tyres, however if you have adjustable upper arms, or even camber bushes then you'll be fine and it would be awesome for a daily driver.

[bryyy]

Thanks for that, sounds like adjustable upper arms and r33 lowers is the way to go!

[ti2l]

hey did u also have adjustable tie rods?

wanting to do this mod just trying to figure out what other sus bits i need to make it work

[bryyy]

hey did u also have adjustable tie rods?

wanting to do this mod just trying to figure out what other sus bits i need to make it work

You don't need anything aftermarket to make this work. Standard tie rods are adjustable for toe from factory.