Cut and Camber rear Axle.

[roiderpolo]

Im planning on cutting an cambering my caddy Mk1 rear axle. Any body done one or something similar before? Ive serched a few forums without joy. Ive looked into using washers/shims but id rather somthing a little more solid and permenant

Any imput welcome along with opinions etc cheers!

[roiderpolo]

Anybody?

[Bruno730]

personally, i would rather work on the outboard ends of the axle (hubs) than cut the axle. Unless you have a real knowledgable (and talented) welder that has proper experience in cutting and welding axles i'd recommend against it.

i'm sure what you has been accomplished before (althought by varying methods), have you tried other sites or just straight up googled it?

fyi i'm a mechanical engineer.

Robby

[roiderpolo]

Hi robby, thanks for th reply. Im a mechanic and pretty handy with a MIG. Um i have a spare axle i may have a fiddle with. Ive thought about how to go about it, theoretically it works well in my mind it does :P

Um ive googled and searched specific forums but to no joy. Think its just and experiment as long as i can make it safe il be happy. One thing im not sure one, is how to actually figure out the neg camber produced in degrees?

If i measured from centre to the top of each hub plate i can get both sides identical but im not sure how this would pan out once a wheel is actually fittted. Any ideas on that?

Thanks again for your response

[Bruno730]

EH i don't know about MIG'ing it... I've cut an axle and stick welded in a spline because i needed extra movement due to suspension compression, and it seems to be sufficient but i wouldn't recommend MIG. once again though, with the proper wire, etc. i'm sure it could be done...

i'd probably try laying a ruler against the hub and then use another ruler to measure the distance from the ruler to the top of the hub (i.e. making a triangle) and then use trig to get the angle. the equation would be arctan(x/y) where x = horizontal distance and y = vertical height. isn't going to be as exact as an alignment shop but you would get a decent idea of where you're at.

[roiderpolo]

Ah thanks, good idea on working out the angle. Sounds reasonable.

Hmmm about using a mig, why do you think it wouldnt be any good? im handy with a welder but dosent mean i know much about it haha i may tack it then get it stick welded and the Fab shop.

[Bruno730]

depending how the material is hardened using a MIG won't get sufficient penetration. and without penetration the weld isn't strong. when you weld you want the surrounding metal to fatigue or fail before the weld does. this is a standard test to see how your welds are.

[Minty_Fresh]

whats wrong with camber plates? bought my caddy with rear drop plates, and camber shims. onld owner had them on there for like a year. i had it for a few months new owner had had it for like a year. they are fine to use if your worryed about that.

[Byron]

Bruno, the MK1 rear axle isnt anything amazing, its just a stamped piece of steel. There shouldn't be any problem welding it back together.


As long as google isn't failing me with this picture, the way I would go about it is to cut the hub blocks off perpendicular to the centerline of the car, then stick a magnetic angle gauge on and rotate them to the angle you want and weld them back up. Shouldn't be too hard, just make sure the cut is straight so you don't mess up the toe when you reweld it.

[Minty_Fresh]

the caddy axle looks diffrent then a normal mk1 rear axle. they have a leaf spring rear.

branchworks makes a camber plates. drop plate and camber.

[Byron]

Ah didn't realize that.

2 Different ways then. You could cut the middle and reweld the leaf brackets on the beam to match the new angle, or you could cut pie cuts outside the leafs on each side and weld them. The first option may put the center of the axle too low to the road, the second will be more work getting the angles matching.

[Bruno730]

Bruno, the MK1 rear axle isnt anything amazing, its just a stamped piece of steel. There shouldn't be any problem welding it back together.


As long as google isn't failing me with this picture, the way I would go about it is to cut the hub blocks off perpendicular to the centerline of the car, then stick a magnetic angle gauge on and rotate them to the angle you want and weld them back up. Shouldn't be too hard, just make sure the cut is straight so you don't mess up the toe when you reweld it.

I know it isn't an amazing design but without knowing what metal it is / nickel content you can't assume that MIG will give sufficient penetration. I agree about your technique for getting the camber, that'd be the easiest way IMO.

Robby

[S-line-Jon]

I have not dun camber but chopped 4" out of rear axel to fit my 10" by 15 on my mk1

[aar0n.]

Elliot @ PVW did this with his MK4 project car. They documented the process a good amount in the past few issues