Can camber be adjusted on the front wheels for a 1979 4wd wagon? I have some positive camber issues(Both tires are wearing on the outer tread). I haven't measured for toe-in, but the wear marks don't look like this is the issue. I have a new set of meats and i'd like to get it sorted out before mounting them.

 

Any ideas?

There is no adjusmtent. Is it stock suspension? Not lifted or anything?

It is stock, no lift. I'm thinking maybe it had the wrong ball joints put on it???. Both front tires are leaning out (pos. camber). I actually blew out a tire the other day from it riding on the outer half of the tread. Nothing looks bent, and the car has never been hit, and both front wheels are out of camber. No shimmy or shakes on the highway either.

 

I'm stumped.

Hmm. Something aint right.......

This generation of Subaru came from the factory with positive camber!

 

The early 4WDs can be very hard on tyres, particularly at the front. Tyres with stiff sidewalls usually last longer. Also something to check is the rubber bushings for the leading rods where they mount to the body. If they are in bad condition they dramatically increase tyre wear.

I know there is supposed to be a certain ammount of pos. camber, but I can slip a credit card under the inner tread on both front wheels????.

It is literally riding on the outer tread edge, and I'm chewing up tires like crazy. I'll look again at the bushings of the lower arm.

I'm thinking about putting some fabbed up shims in the ball joint mount to the lower arm to get it to sit straighter up. Its either that or compress the front springs to get in to sit straighter.

 

P.S. toe in is fine, and it rolls straighter than most subarus I own.

EA Subarus run a positive camber, negative toe. Should have over 1 degree positive camber and -0.30 total toe in the front. Caster should also be 0 or negative, just make sure its even side to side.

 

Camber and caster is NOT adjustable and there's really no way to make it adjustable without custom parts or custom fab work.

 

Take it to an alignment shop and have it adjusted if need be. Then come back and let us know where it is.

Well I'm about to mount another set of front tires (again) from too much pos camber wear. I noticed there are 2 adjuster nuts on the strut tower(right below the spring cup bottom) Looked it up in the manual and they are identified as ride height adjusters. Since the sping bottom cup/plate is sittig right on top of the nuts, it looks like the only adjustment is up(compressing the springs up). I need to lower the car to move more towardz zero camber. Anyone have experience with these adjuster nuts? How can I make the front end lower to get rid of this pos camber chewwing up my tires?

I got really tired of messing around with the same issue. The simple fix to this is adjust to toe OUT. I am unssure as to wether is stock or not. I could never figure out what the manual was trying to tell me.

 

Toe out will sort out the tire wear problem but you may end up with a car that drives a bit sketchy on the straight. Good round corners though!

 

In the end I lengthend my control arms. I now have zero camber and the car drives and handles very well indeed. Probably not good to reccomend this unless you have the mod certified.

 

As you pointed out, lowering the car would work too. Cut springs? or new struts.

 

There is no room on my 79 dl to move the top of the struts inwards. Is there any room in your towers?

 

One more thought. If the back of the car is lower than factory spec (saggy old springs) that with also affect the front geometry.

 

Also the orientation of the strut tops is reversable. not sure if this would help.

 

Regards

 

Dirk

Not sure if I want to cut and lengthen my control arms, I'll probably end up ruining them. What about using control arms from a EA81 era gen 2 car? I'm realy hesitant about making mods because aside from the tire wear issue the front end is super tight and straight. The car rolls down the highway at 75mph with no wobble or drifting issues, the allignment is nuts on. I do have an ample supply of tires and rims, I guess for now I'll just keep rotating them.