Shortening RLCA

May 23, 2021

Shortening RLCA

I decided to have a crack at shortening a pair of rlca’s for Josh’s S15 since he wanted to reduce the rear camber and I felt like wasting hours of my life that I’ll never get back.

I’d seen a few lca’s that were cut and shut near the ball joint like below but it looks like s13 lca’s have a nice flat section next to the ball joint whereas r33/s14/15 are shaped differently.

On the r33/14/15 RLCA I couldn’t see a flat spot to cut out 15mm straight. I probably should’ve asked someone if they’ve modified these themselves before deciding to cut and shut at the bushes which was a pain in itself to weld due to all the smoke.

I decided to make a jig to make sure it bolts back into the subframe properly. It fits on both sides so you can just make one though two would probably be better to speed things up.

Just used some mild square tube and plate for the jig.

All tacked up. Time for the time consuming part.

I marked out where to cut, some alignment marks and I measured certain points with a straight edge too to make sure I’ve shortened it 15mm along the whole thing

I then cut it in the vertical bandsaw and ground in a nice bevel with a flap disk. Quickly checked the measurements were good, the join is flat and aligned then quickly tacked it.

Then it was weld time. This was the part that really sucked because I started cooking the bushes which was pumping out smoke. Ideally you should probably remove the bushes after tacking it. Note for next time if I ever do these again but I’m not overly keen (maybe for one million dollars).

After welding the joins and practicing holding my breath I quickly cut and beveled 3mm flat bar as a gusset to reinforce the join. The other side already had a gusset which I just welded back together.

Mmm 20 year old rubber marshmallows anyone? Probably need to replace the bushes. I was welding with a p99 mask on which hopefully helped with some of the smoke lol