Lower Control Arm Eccentric Eliminator Kit - DIY?

[Steve McMahan]

I see they’re available from $60 to $90; 4 plates with three holes in each, and two bolts. Seems kinda pricy. Has anyone made their own LCA eccentric replacement plates? If so, can you post the specs?

 

[rcadd1ct]

I see they’re available from $60 to $90; 4 plates with three holes in each, and two bolts. Seems kinda pricy. Has anyone made their own LCA eccentric replacement plates? If so, can you post the specs?

I would suggest these.

You can swap them without having to remove the bolt.

https://opentrackerracing.com/shop/lower-arm-camber-kit-1967-1973/

 

[tony-muscle]

I would suggest these.

You can swap them without having to remove the bolt.

https://opentrackerracing.com/shop/lower-arm-camber-kit-1967-1973/

I had the plates with holes before these came out. I ended up cutting one side of the hole to make the groove to allow replacing the plates without removing the bolt. The groove is a clever mod that greatly simplifies the alignment process.

 

[tony-muscle]

I see they’re available from $60 to $90; 4 plates with three holes in each, and two bolts. Seems kinda pricy. Has anyone made their own LCA eccentric replacement plates? If so, can you post the specs?

I agree. These could be easily made. No great precision needed as long as they fit snuggly in the crossmember pocket.

 

[giantpune]

I agree. These could be easily made. No great precision needed as long as they fit snuggly in the crossmember pocket.

I would say a certain amount of precision is required. Otherwise you could end up with the holes in different spots on the left and right side. Then your wheels would stick out different amounts from the center of the car, or you would end up with different length control arms to compensate. The set I got had multiple holes and could be flipped forwards or backwards. Giving you like 6 11 different positions to lock your lower control arms into. I think that is part of why they cost what they cost.



When I put my front suspension together and dialed it in, I was measuring things with thousandths of an inch. For people who are putting that much care into their steering and suspension travel probably do care about the precision. But there are tons of people out there just assembling parts together like legos and letting it be how its gonna be. For those guys, I agree, no great precision is needed.



If you didn't need any great level of flexibility or precision, I would think you could pick up a piece of bar steel from home depot. Cut it into a few sections. Stack them up together and tack weld them. Then drill a hole through all of them and whittle them down to size with an angle grinder all at once. Make sure the hole is as close to the size of your bolt as possible, or the bolt will flop around in the hole and defeat the whole purpose. I bet you could knock out a basic set of these for $15 including the steel and fasteners and an hour of your time.

 

[tony-muscle]

I would say a certain amount of precision is required. Otherwise you could end up with the holes in different spots on the left and right side. Then your wheels would stick out different amounts from the center of the car, or you would end up with different length control arms to compensate. The set I got had multiple holes and could be flipped forwards or backwards. Giving you like 6 11 different positions to lock your lower control arms into. I think that is part of why they cost what they cost.

View attachment 86725

When I put my front suspension together and dialed it in, I was measuring things with thousandths of an inch. For people who are putting that much care into their steering and suspension travel probably do care about the precision. But there are tons of people out there just assembling parts together like legos and letting it be how its gonna be. For those guys, I agree, no great precision is needed.



If you didn't need any great level of flexibility or precision, I would think you could pick up a piece of bar steel from home depot. Cut it into a few sections. Stack them up together and tack weld them. Then drill a hole through all of them and whittle them down to size with an angle grinder all at once. Make sure the hole is as close to the size of your bolt as possible, or the bolt will flop around in the hole and defeat the whole purpose. I bet you could knock out a basic set of these for $15 including the steel and fasteners and an hour of your time.

Don't disagree. What I meant with not great precision was the location of the hole within the plate from set to set, but I agree that each pair should be well aligned. My experience has been that 0.1" affects about 1/2 degree of camber so that can give an idea of precision. One thousands shouldn't affect camber that much, but keep the hole aligned within each set.

 

[Steve McMahan]

I think I like the slotted ones better, but would be more difficult to replicate. Drilling and maybe reaming those holes would not be difficult. A competent machinist could do it; what do you think Hemikiller, you have commercial metal fabrication experience?

 

[rcadd1ct]

Betting you could send cut send the plates.

https://sendcutsend.com/

 

[Steve McMahan]

Quick story, on my 2014, my last 4 new tires change came with an alignment at my goto shop. They wanted to install an alignment plate in the LCA to replace the OEM cams arrangement. When I picked it up, plates with 3 holes. I guess Ford didn’t learn from the 1970’s.

 

[Hemikiller]

I think I like the slotted ones better, but would be more difficult to replicate. Drilling and maybe reaming those holes would not be difficult. A competent machinist could do it; what do you think Hemikiller, you have commercial metal fabrication experience?

If I were to make those, I'd want to have them laser cut. I could punch 3/16" steel, but it just doesn't look great.

 

[giantpune]

If I were to make those, I'd want to have them laser cut. I could punch 3/16" steel, but it just doesn't look great.

I've got a mill in my garage. It wouldn't be hard to make a set on that, just a bit time consuming.

@Steve McMahan says he would want a set of the slotted ones. The set @rcadd1ct linked to is 4 sets of 4. 16 machined plates and all the hardware. Somebody would have to be a real good friend for me to go through all that effort to make a set for less than the $90 you could buy one for.

 

[basstrix]

I made several sets of these a while back, but I haven't installed them yet. I can see where the slot would be handy for the inner position. To get the holes placed consistently, I clamped several together and drilled them at the same time. Before drilling get them all the same LxW.