Excess camber on front wheel.

[jeremywilliams]

Hi,

I am hoping somone may be able to help....

The front drivers side wheel on my tr6 has lots of positive camber. One garage has told me to discard what the rear looks like in comparison cos its probably my eyes (!!) and another has said that the standard adjustment cant be adjusted any more.

There isnt any noticable tyre wear on one side (although the car isnt used loads) but visually it is obvious, especially compared to ther other side. I tried to check the vertical link to see if the stub axle was bent but the bolts are siezed tight.

Has anyone any ideas? It must be affecting the handling.

Many thanks,

Jeremy.

ps sorry i am a sporadic question asker - i dont have much tr advice/pearls of wisdom to offer anyone  

[Tom Fremont]

Jeremy,

 

By positive camber you mean the bottom of the tyre is kicked in towards the center of the car, right?

 

If the opposite is true, check to make sure the upper wishbone fulcrum bracket is installed the right way round ( it will go on backwards, giving pronounced negative camber ).

 

I've not heard of it done by anyone so far, but I suppose a positive camber condition could be cured by reversing the bracket to decrease it. A rough guess as to the offset value is 2-3 degrees translated to the wheel.

 

Hope this helps  ::

[Richard Crawley]

Hi Jeremy

If you’re convinced it’s not your eyes, I would say you need to embark on a program of investigation/overhaul of the suspension. You can carry out some basic tape measure, string & chewing gum alignment checks against measurements given in the BL maintenance manual & this should give you a good idea of how serious the problem is. But you need to eliminate any incidence/influence of wear before you can attempt to set up the suspension properly. Without wishing to ring any alarm bells, being able to see ‘the difference’ is, in my view, significant & you really need to establish weather or not the chassis is bent; some misalignment can be compensated as long as it’s not too serious & the chassis is still basically sound.

 

Eliminating wear is a simple matter of refurbishing each corner but the establishing chassis damage is a more difficult! Obvious signs of damage can be checked when the suspension is overhauled but if all appears OK, you need to search your locality for a garage/service bay that has a 4 wheel laser alignment capability; you should also check they are able/knowledgeable & willing to check & adjust the rather ancient TR suspension design - I was lucky that my local guy had an immaculate 2.5PI!

 

Based on my personal experience, setting up all 4 corners on a laser alignment jig should cost between £100 - £200, depending on how much fiddling around is required but there is no point in doing this unless you are certain the suspension is in A1 condition!

[saffrontr]

Hi Jeremy,

Have you checked that you have an equal number of shims on each side of the car on the lower wishbone brackets where they attach to the mounting on the chassis. Positive camber can be reduced by adding shims between the bracket and chassis mounting and is relatively easy to sort out. Without trying to worry you too much too much positive camber can also be caused by damage or corrosion in the lower wishbone mounting brackets which could have started to part company with the chassis. A strenghening kit is available from any of the specialists for this which is a well known failure point. On the other hand too much negative camber is more difficult to resolve and will involve you in the checking of all bushes, wishbones, ball joints, fulcrum bracket, vertical link, trunnions and chassis for twist or damage.

Hope this helps

Derek

[jeremywilliams]

Thanks for the help guys - all very useful.

I am sure i am right in saying its positive camber (top of my tyre more 'inboard' than bottom - seems like i could be incorrect though?)

I have ordered a new set of rubber bushes, which all need replacing and will investigate the problem then - there is clearly no easy answer. I am hoping it is as simple as the fulcrum bracket (been swatting up in my workshop manual since the replies came in!) but am sure a good overhaul of the suspension must be long overdue now (just got to wait until 25th Dec when my torque wrench arrives  :: )

Thanks,

Jeremy.

[Tom Fremont]

top of my tyre more 'inboard' than bottom

Jeremy,

 

This describes negative camber ( a common and healthy condition for the rear ).

 

A quick inspection of the fulcrum brackets on either side may be the ticket ( orientation should be the same ). I had this condition in the late 70s on my 2nd TR and ignorance on my part and the chassis shop led to a fix whereby the vertical link was heated and bent to compensate. Worked OK but when I rebuilt the suspension 15 years later I managed to spot the defect and correct it, replacing of course the bent link as well.

 

Hope the fix is as simple for you

[jeremywilliams]

d'oh - me trying to be a smart arse again

From your description it could be (and i hope) right - i bet the handling would benefit no end aswell. Passenger side is absolutely fine. It would certainly solve what has been at the back of my mind since i bought the car.

Going to check it out after work - fingers crossed!

Cheers Tom

[Richard Crawley]

I am sure i am right in saying its positive camber (top of my tyre more 'inboard' than bottom - seems like i could be incorrect though?)

Agree with Tom on the camber bit but having assembled my fulcrum brackets the wrong way around once years ago (due to incorrect information) I must say the difference was not that visibly noticeable so I would advise you carry out additional checks.

[Andy Moltu]

If you put the fulcrum brackets on the wrong way round you get too much negative camber.

The camber can be adjusted by adding or removing shims behind the lower wishbone attachment - fewer = more positive camber more shims = more negative camber

[Guest ron]

Agree with Tom on the camber bit but having assembled my fulcrum brackets the wrong way around once years ago (due to incorrect information) I must say the difference was not that visibly noticeable so I would advise you carry out additional checks.

I've also been down that road in the past due to duff info and would agree, it doesn't make a great difference visually, an easy way to check the camber roughly is to blow the tyres up hard, park the car on a known level surface [concrete garage base?] and put a large tri-square against the wheel.

Ron

[Guest Guest]

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it doesn't make a great difference visually

 

Well it made a quite noticeable difference on mine - anyway, I'm curious to know what you find, Jeremy

[Guest amdick]

My last reply got lost in cyberspace l think. Try levering the top wishbone fulcrum bracket about, the fulcrum bracket is bolted on to a plate by 4 bolts. that plate in my case is broken away from the welds at turret and vertical box section and letting top wishbone move towards engine. l am making a new plate, ready to weld back on, space is limited. Using masking tape on wing to find ride height before jaccking up, hpefully using a spirit level to posion plate for welding. Hope this helps.

Edited May 10, 2006 by amdick