Hi all,
So I am working through my car still working on the winter revamp and I took all of the back end apart to get my half shaft reinforced. I snapped one last summer and needed to get the other side done.

Anyway, When dismantling I noticed there were a number of washers used to space between the rear hub and rear upright. About 3-4 per bolt. This seems a weakness, unnecessary and an all round poor show on RAW behalf but as I am yet to get the car back together I don't know if it is due to spacing the wheel outwards. Does anybody know about these washers and why?

I have taken them out for now and bolted the rear end back together with no major problems but yet to actually get it on the road. I also dont know what model of Striker it is but it is an IRS approx 10 year old design. I also think its using a Sierra hub set up and RAW custom uprights.

Please advice, either way I am now going to have to pay to get the wheels pointing in the correct direction because I don't know how many washers there were on each bolt!!


Thanks in advance,

Biz

It's a way of changing/setting toe and camber on the rear wheels. So someone has set it up in the past and you have just undone it!

There is no particular way the washers should fit as each car is different....

Have fun working it out

DOH!!!

I'm struggling to visualise exactly where the washers are, but it is possible these are used to adjust the suspension to make sure the wheels are all square on the chassis? Maybe worth checking that the distance from the rear of the main chassis to the hub is the same on both sides, and also the wheel base is the same on both sides.

It's a known short circuit, lightning rod fix for the Sierra.
Works perfectly ok, some people have camber wedges machined up.

As above, it's a "method" of changing the rear camber and toe on an otherwise non-adjustable set-up. I did this on my old Indy to try and equalise and centralise the rear toe in of each wheel about the centreline of the chassis as there was quite a large tolerance on the chassis brackets. IMHO it's a bit of a bodge to address a built in inaccuracy in the chassis/wishbone/upright set-up, but from experience it can provide a noticeable improvement in the cars feel and handling.

If the cars over 10 years then its pre Raw?, they took over in 2002.

If the washers were evenly distributed then it might be a way of moving the wheel out.

There is a spacer on some Furys for this purpose, I made one on my Phoenix and it took ages to file!




there are two big ones on this car (not mine, but from the BGH picture library)

It's a Striker Mk2.

Doesn't matter if it's pre or post RAW takeover as they're the same anyway - though most of the ones that are now IRS are RAW built.

To put the washers back in the right numbers just ring up RAW and ask them, they'll be able to tell you what measurements you'll want to end up with.

[Edited on 6/4/11 by JimSpencer]

Thanks for the feedback gents.

It is deco a RAW chassis as it's got a RAW chassis plate but I am also under the thoughts process that the chassis design has not changed. The car is the same as the pic posted by Matt above but the washers did not space the hub out that far! Maybe 10mm at most. The other strange thing is that I do have adjustment available on my wishbones so there should be no need to use the washers.

I'll phone RAW and see what they have to say. I hope it's an easy fix.

[Edited on 7/4/11 by bi22le]

quote:

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Originally posted by JimSpencer
It's a Striker Mk2.

Doesn't matter if it's pre or post RAW takeover as they're the same anyway - though most of the ones that are now IRS are RAW built.

To put the washers back in the right numbers just ring up RAW and ask them, they'll be able to tell you what measurements you'll want to end up with.

[Edited on 6/4/11 by JimSpencer]

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Hi,

They are to space the hub away from the wheel upright to stop the driveshaft from binding. You are correct in saying they look like a bodge as ideally the driveshaft should have been shorter or a fully faced shim should have been made. The driveshafts were usually made in batches so are a fixed length. The chassis sometimes had small differences and and also I believe as my hubs were drum converted to disc that also introduced a variation.

For piece of mind get a solid shim made up like a wheel spacer to provide a full mounting surface but as RAW told me at the time it was a common method and never caused any issue. They have been that way for 6 years and 11K miles before I sold it to you

RAW did continually make changes to the chassis design so you will spot small changes in bracing locations and diff carrier arrangement across the years.

Cheers
Justin

[Edited on 8-4-11 by bimbleuk]

I made some spacers for the rear of mine,similar to matgsxr's photo, as when using drums,the preformed sierra backplate dustshield thing wouldn't bolt up to the larger flat surface area on the raw hub if that makes sence.
if your on disks it probably isn't an issue if your arms are adjustable enough to get your required geometery and your driveshaft doesn't load up at its shortest length.

Thanks for the info peps.

Just for reference Ill give you the low down of what RAW said.

Essentially if it is an IRS with rear disks then it has been converted at some point due to the age. If that is the case the washers are used to prevent the push in drive shafts from dismantalling the bearings and binding. They should all be the same length because I do have the abilit to change the rear wheels set up on my car using the factory adjustments.

So following this info and Bimbleuk (previous owner) it seems I just need to get 8 equal length spacers made up to give the drive shafts some play.

I will drive it for a week and see how it feels. Depending on this I may do a track day with it early next month.

Thanks for your advice all.

Biz

quote:

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Originally posted by bi22le
So following this info and Bimbleuk (previous owner) it seems I just need to get 8 equal length spacers made up to give the drive shafts some play.

I will drive it for a week and see how it feels. Depending on this I may do a track day with it early next month.

Thanks for your advice all.

Biz

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