Castor and Camber adjust

[Shayne]

My local wheel alignment centre said the caster is seized and adjustment is impossible quite some time ago so i've been regularly soaking them in GT85 , yesterday i tried without success to free them off so i took the truck to a garage i trust but unfortunately does not have alignment facilities and they put the truck up on a lift and loosened all the nuts for me . Booked in for this afternoon to get the adjustments done at the original place and was told again everything seized and can't be adjusted with the added advice that the rear camber cannot be adjusted anyway .

I must conclude they just don't want to do it . I have found another place not to far away with the right equipment so i'm gonna try there but before i do i wanted to ask on here if it's true that the rear wheel camber cannot be altered ?

 

[cavanmick]

Rear is a solid axle so no adjustment in it, most likely the bolts in the front bushes are seized and will need new bushings.

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[Shayne]

Thanks Mick would i be right in thinking new bushes will only increase the positive camber in rear wheels ? one rear tyre is running with full contact to the road while the other has a positive camber as do both my front wheels so despite rotating them i'm starting to see very definite tyre wear on the outside tread while the inner is still new .

 

[cavanmick]

You womt be able to alter the rear at all buddy, the front is adjustable but the bolts do seize in the bushes so need to be cut out and repla ed to make any adjustment.

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[clivehorridge]

In theory Shayne, because of the solid axle, the rears should be vertical, with the exception of some slight variance due to movement in the bearings. If there's a measurable "positive camber" then the axle must be bent.... IMO.

It's the same on my 80 (again solid rear axle) although the computer print out of measurements that I got from the service shows both rears with slight negative camber, but roughly equal. Negative camber is understandable IMO due to gravity, but I can't explain positive camber, other than a bent casing.

None of the following is relevant on the 90 series, but I have the same problem on the front, one wheel measures slight negative camber and the other is 1.5 degrees positive Not good and annoyingly quite visible. I've even sourced some offset bushes from the USA to correct it. I haven't ordered them yet, but I still think it's due to a bent front axle casing.

 

[Shayne]

Well just collected my truck and by some magic they managed to alter impossibly seized parts slightly and say the front wheels are well within the guidelines . I think maybe the difficulty that can't be overcome is "it doesn't say that in his book" . I wanted the maximum caster setting possible which allows a little more room for the mudflaps . I'm sure others have encountered this at different garages for different reasons - modified vehicle can't do that . On the plus side the front camber now looks ok to me now .

Not sure about the rear though it needs some investigation if they are supposed to be vertical because the + and - camber appear to run parallel to each other which suggests the axle is somehow squif ?

Heres the data sheet i was given anyway -

 

[Beau]

Shayne, at one point I had terrible inside wear on my rear tyres (Both sides, one side worse than the other). What it turned out to be was the control and panhard rod bushes were in pretty bad shapes and when swinging around roundabouts the axle wouldn't track dead straight and this became more apparent with the eye with one wheel sticking out the arch more than the other side.

Changed all rear suspension bushes and all is good! Camber wise, nothing can be done.

 

[Shayne]

Yeah thanks for that Beau new bushes is common sense really but i was thrown by the alignment guy saying the rear is messed up coz the trucks lifted , he said and i quote "lower a car and the top of the wheel will fold in and raise a car and the top of the wheel will fold out" . Obviously this cannot apply to solid axles that can't be adjusted at all but that's expert opinion for you

I'm still having trouble working out why - even with worn bushes - the tyres would not sit flush with the road , i wonder if one rear wheel is slightly forward of the other so the axle is not quite at a right angle to the chassis because the left hand bush has worn to the rear and the right hand bush has worn to front ?

 

[Beau]

With worn bushes shayne most of the time the wheel will be straight, however when cornering from low speeds to high speeds you're in theory dragging the rear axle around the corner even though the Diff is doing it's Job... Now with worn bushes it's allowing the entire axle to twist against the force applied when going around the corner.

Imagine you're turning right sharply with some speed. The rear axle twist on it's bushes and it's still pointing straight where as it should be pointing inline with the car. Now obviously the bushes can put the axle out by a couple mm but that's enough for bad tyre wear ect. It's worth going underneath and checking the bushes. Some bushes are harder to tell is they are worn. They tend to crack up very badly. One of mine didn't look bad but I could see where the metal arm was rubbing on the inside bracket meaning it would swing about 10mm and touch it.

 

[Shayne]

Makes sense Beau but i could be worrying about nothing , i've done a fair few miles on these tyres rotating them whenever is convenient and the front camber has been out all along , so coupled with the fact 4 tyres were bought part worn and 1 brand new , things might balance out now the fronts been sorted . What bushes do i need for the rear ? trailing arms and panhard rod are the only ones i can think of .

 

[cavanmick]

Yep the four trailing arms and the panhard rod buddy.

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[Shayne]

Took a friendly garage 4.5 hours to replace the rear bushes and when in commiseration with him i said i bet it was a bugger , lots make the mistake of trying to remove the rubber not realizing the steel collar has to come out too , The look on his face was a picture . So if your thinking of having a garage do this job for you make sure you mention the collar it might save him some time and you some money .

 

[clivehorridge]

Unbelievable...