Question on adjusting camber

[mountain33]

The inside of tires are wearing. I had replaced the bushings on the entire front suspension. I brought it to a shop had it aligned. He stated that do to the play in the steering wheel. That he could only get close to the proper settings. Does play in the steering wheel effect alignment? I had marked my adjustment bolts on the upper control arms and never saw him adjust anything. Younger guy. I'm assuming he didn't know older cars. Everything seems fine except for the inner wear on tires. If I adjust camber myself. Do tires need to be on the ground? Is the adjustment done at the bolts in the upper control arm? What direction changes camber. Does towards the engine increase negative or is it reversed. Do you adjust both at same time. Plus does it effect caster? The shops are not familiar with older cars. The one shop that has someone that knows how. The tech refuses to work on the car. He's stated to difficult to do. I could go to the manager but do I really want a aggravated person working on my car. Lot of questions, sorry but wanted to correct this without making something else worse

 

[j-c-c-62]

You never mentioned toe, which is the easiest almost to check and set and could be a factor and worth checking first to see where you are at.
The settings are all interdependent.
Its only "difficult" relative to today's cars and tech's skill set, it was a common everyday task for millions of cars for decades.
Get your ride height dialed in before you start, so as not to be chasing your tail.
Negative chamber is achieved by moving the top of the tire inwards relative to the bottom of the tire. The reverse is also true. It's possible to move the bottom of the tire outwards to achieve more negative camber, but rather difficult and has little need in most cases.

 

[chrger1967]

The inside of tires are wearing. I had replaced the bushings on the entire front suspension. I brought it to a shop had it aligned. He stated that do to the play in the steering wheel. That he could only get close to the proper settings. Does play in the steering wheel effect alignment? I had marked my adjustment bolts on the upper control arms and never saw him adjust anything. Younger guy. I'm assuming he didn't know older cars. Everything seems fine except for the inner wear on tires. If I adjust camber myself. Do tires need to be on the ground? Is the adjustment done at the bolts in the upper control arm? What direction changes camber. Does towards the engine increase negative or is it reversed. Do you adjust both at same time. Plus does it effect caster? The shops are not familiar with older cars. The one shop that has someone that knows how. The tech refuses to work on the car. He's stated to difficult to do. I could go to the manager but do I really want a aggravated person working on my car. Lot of questions, sorry but wanted to correct this without making something else worse

I'm pretty sure you have radial tires on the car on not bias ply? I'm asking because I'm wondering what specs he used. There are some specs on this forum for radial tires.

 

[Frank Mopar]

Both tire worn on inside? Toe much toe out.

 

[mountain33]

Both tire worn on inside? Toe much toe out.

Radials on the car and both tires on the front are worn equally on the inside edge.

 

[R413]

ask around at cars shows and cars and coffee, who is good at classic car alignments.

Sorry for bold type.

Tells us more about steering play. Is. It because of a loose box, or worn pitman/idler arm/ tie rods? Toe out could wear the tires. Also what about the upper control arm bushings? Condition of them?

Basically yes adjust camber at top eccentrics. Move them the same about to change camber only, caster is adjusted there also. That is the only adjustment place for caster and camber.

Now a problem is that the position of the eccentric moves the specs more or less for same amount depending if they are in the center of travel or at the end of travel?

 

[toolmanmike]

Radials on the car and both tires on the front are worn equally on the inside edge.

 

[mountain33]

View attachment 1902413

I was just searching for the spec's. Thanks

 

[mountain33]

ask around at cars shows and cars and coffee, who is good at classic car alignments.

Sorry for bold type.

Tells us more about steering play. Is. It because of a loose box, or worn pitman/idler arm/ tie rods? Toe out could wear the tires. Also what about the upper control arm bushings? Condition of them?

Basically yes adjust camber at top eccentrics. Move them the same about to change camber only, caster is adjusted there also. That is the only adjustment place for caster and camber.

Now a problem is that the position of the eccentric moves the specs more or less for same amount depending if they are in the center of travel or at the end of travel?

Loose power steering box. Need to rebuild or get a new one

 

[toolmanmike]

Loose power steering box. Need to rebuild or get a new one

You might be able to tighten it up with an adjustment. Download a factory service manual on MyMopar.com for the proper procedure. Carefully check the coupler which is often the cause of the problem.

 

[chrger1967]

View attachment 1902413

I plan on changing my pitman arm, hopefully this weekend. And if all goes well, I can bring my Charger to an alignment shop. I'm going t use these specs. I think the second one would be good. Is that hard to get +2.5 caster with original stuff?

 

[j-c-c-62]

Both tire worn on inside? Toe much toe out.

Big negative camber is also a possibility

 

[chrger1967]

Loose power steering box. Need to rebuild or get a new one

Is it worth sending them to firm feel for a rebuild? I see they have different stages now.

 

[Frank Mopar]

Big negative camber is also a possibility

I agree but that would really be noticeable. Not it’s not.

 

[chrger1967]

I agree but that would really be noticeable. Not it’s not.

But I think you can send them your box to rebuild, no?

 

[Kern Dog]

Both tire worn on inside? Toe much toe out.

Absolutely.

Big negative camber is also a possibility

You'd have to be more than 2 degrees to have camber itself be that destructive to the tires.
From what I understand, most shops seem to have poorly trained mechanics that do not perform alignments correctly.
TOE is what eats tires faster than camber by a long shot.
Negative camber helps with handling and roadholding capability. Look at the specs of a late model Challenger:

Right side is well over a full degree yet these cars don't chew up the tires.

You can do this all yourself. I wrote about it here:

Alignment at home and aftermarket UCAS too.

Good luck.

 

[Frank Mopar]

What I find with stock or aftermarket bushed front ends is you dial in as my caster as you can. Then, as you set camber (.5 degree neg)you will lose caster then you are done. Set the toe in 1/8 ish and go. IMHO

 

[Kern Dog]

That is how I do it.
The UCA eccentric bolts are adjusted as follows: The rear most is adjusted so the head of the bolt is IN toward the center of the car and the frontmost bolt is adjusted OUT, away from the middle of the car. This gives maximum caster. From there, the UCA bolts get turned to get camber equal.
I aim to get both sides to the same number. There is very little crown on the road here so I don't see the need to have different readings from left to right.
Others may disagree, that is fine.
Sometimes, it may be hard to get to the numbers that you want so you have to dig deeper to get there.
In the thread topic I linked above, I was able to get great caster on the right but the camber number wasn't where I wanted it so I "shimmed" the lower ball joint to kick out the bottom of the steering knuckle. This had no effect on caster but did give me more negative camber.