Can I do it? I am getting major uneven tire wear on the inside tread of my front tires. Outside tread looks brand new (which it is ) but inside is just about showing cable. The car tracks straight, I can let go of the wheel and it won't pull either way unless I hit a bump. When I do hit a bump, or a rut, brake hard, etc. it does want to wander a little. So before I put new tires on this thing I want to fix that. I know I could take it to an alignment shop and get them to do it, and I will if I have to, but if I can do it in my garage I'm all for it. Anybody know? Thanks!
I do have the braces in. I've taken them off and on a few times for various work I've had to do, but they've always gone back on within an hour or two. If it makes a difference, the driver's side has that funky power brake brace and that side does show more wear.
The inner wear is caused by excessive negative toe-out or negative camber settings. You need to look for worn out suspension components and get a good alignment done.
Find your self a nice open flat, leval area where you can park the car. Park the car with the steering wheel straight. Get out and look down the sides of the car using the sides of the tires for your straight line of sight... do it patiently and slowly. Sometimes looking from the rear to the front also helps. You are looking to see how the wheels/tires are sitting at what angles and or directions. Sounds to me like the right one may be pointing to the right or the left one is sitting in at the top. What you need to know first tho is if you have something worn. Alignments don't usualy hold to where they are set if there is something that can move. Alot of shops aren't familure with our type of suspension and do not check them correctly.
I'm told that a previous owner rebuilt the front end, and I can tell there are at least new bushings everywhere. I can't tell that anything looks worn, but that's just it - what do I need to look at? How do I tell? What's happening is either the bottom is out too far on both wheels, or the top is too far in. I think the top is too far in. I'm almost positive it's too much negative camber, if that's what it's called, 'cause at times I can actually see it. Where does one adjust the camber? Whatever parts are involved with that, I'd like to look for wear, damage or or just "looseness" on these before I take it to a shop.
The camber is actually adjusted on the lower control arms. The big bolt that holds the lower arm to the unibody has an eccentric washer on one side. Loosen the nut and rotate the bolt. You will be able to watch the bottom of the wheel move in or out as you rotate the bolt. The car will need to be jacked up to do this. It will likely change your caster too. I suggest letting the alignment shop do this as you will never get it close enough to be right without eating up more tires. If something is worn, they should be able to tell you. Oh yeah, I recommend an alignment shop that specializes in front ends...not Walmart or Sears where they just use kids.
Here are the ecentric bolts... You can also see (hope you can see the pic) the support bar going accross. Hope you have one in place.
Ah, yes. Thank you. I located those bolts and they look good. They're there anyway and not showing obvious wear. I do have the bar you mentioned too, Gene. But I'm going to leave those alone for now. I can see very slight camber on both wheels and they seem to be about the same. I'm not sure this is abnormal. (Sidebar - my lower control arms are about parallel with the ground, straight out. I assume this is okay.) Anyway, now I'm convinced the problem is toe-out, if I'm using the correct term. Both wheels point slightly away from the car, more so on the left. I wouldn't have thought this was the probem since it holds straight, but it makes perfect sense with the wandering, and I've seen it with my own eyes. Now that I know the real problem, I have been successful in the past with other cars aligning the wheels using a straight edge and a laser pointer. I'm confident I can get this mostly straight myself, then I'll have a shop do it right when I get my new tires. Looks to be pretty straightforward on this car. Any advice from the vets on this before I take it on? Thanks again for the help.
ive had good sucess adjusting toe on my own. what you need is two tape measures, some wheel dollys, some duct tape and they wrenches for the tie rod sleves. jack up the car and put the front wheels on the dollys. now take the tape measures and extend them the with of the car. stick one behind the tires and one infont of the tires. now tape them to the thread of the tires on line formed by by the tread pattern. One will be in front and one will be behind the tire. make shure they are low enough to clear the botom of the car. now goto the other side and see what the measurements are on the front and rear tapes referenceing the same tread bolcks on each tape. you can adjust the toe by turning the sleves on the tie rods. try for 0 or 1/8" toe in. thats where the front of the tires are closer that the rears. Ive done this method many times after assemblying the car and then goto the alignment shop and its allway with in spec. i do recomend going to the alignment shop but this way can get you by.
Thanks, Bryant! I adjusted it some last night, "eyeballed" it just because I could see it was so bad out of alignment I couldn't make it much worse. It's better now, but I know it's not precise. I will try to use your method this weekend. And I'll definitely have an alignment shop take a look when I get my new tires, but for right now I just need to make it stop eating up the ones I've got.
