• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Question on adjusting camber

mountain33

mountain33

Well-Known Member
Local time
5:29 AM
Joined
Mar 3, 2020
Messages
142
Reaction score
114
Location
NJ
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
 
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.
 
Last edited:
mountain33 said:
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
Click to expand...
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.
 
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?
 
mountain33 said:
Radials on the car and both tires on the front are worn equally on the inside edge.
Click to expand...
1755275597618.png
 
R413 said:
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?
Click to expand...
Loose power steering box. Need to rebuild or get a new one
 
mountain33 said:
Loose power steering box. Need to rebuild or get a new one
Click to expand...
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.
 
Frank Mopar said:
Both tire worn on inside? Toe much toe out.
Click to expand...
Absolutely.
j-c-c-62 said:
Big negative camber is also a possibility
Click to expand...
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:

2015 CH RT.JPG


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.
 
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
 
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.
 
Kern Dog said:
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.
Click to expand...
Checked out video. Very good. Need to buy some tools. Thanks for your help. At least I have a place to start and a understanding of what I need to do
 
The kerndog procedure is a fine starting point and wishful on max caster. Once a proper alignment is done the eccentrics rarely end up like that and there final positions are all over the board when the alignment settings are right.

Have to put them somewhere so that's as good of a start as any.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

68Satellite440
Alignment issues - QA1 Camber bolts
Replies
10
Views
1K
gtxdana
G
Charlie Brown
Home Alignment Results
2
Replies
21
Views
2K
WileE
WileE
gtxrt
negative camber negative caster
2
Replies
39
Views
4K
AR67GTX
AR67GTX
6T8 Charger
Lowered Ride Height Produced Too Much Camber
2
Replies
27
Views
3K
6T8 Charger
6T8 Charger
rww124
Steering not self correcting
2 3 4
Replies
75
Views
4K
rww124
rww124
Auto Transport Service
Back
Top