February 4, 201412 yr The other day I noticed the caster, or camber (I forget which is which) is off on my driver rear wheel. The top of the tire is in toward the body. I jacked the rear up and the wheel went straight again, then I tried shaking the wheel but nothing moved. Does this sound like the alignment is off or something is bent? I did notice I have some bushings that could be replaced, but I don't think they would make the tire do that.
February 5, 201412 yr If it's not the wheel bearing, it could be sloppy bushings on teh inner pivot point for the control arm. Could possibyy be a broken control arm if it's rusted through, but not expected in a PNW climate. Wheel bearings can be vague feeling as it has been documented here. See if the trailing link on the outside of the trailing arm is twisting when you put weight on the car, or if that bushing is smacked as well.
February 5, 201412 yr Bushings can cause weird alignment. Is it a ea82 car? If so there is adjustment in the trailing arm, the 3 bolts in the middle of the arm but it's been a while since I've looked at one, something about it moving foward and backward as well as for and aft adjusting toe and camber, the problem you have is too much negative camber on that side. Caster is non adjustable in the rear nor would you physically see the difference
February 5, 201412 yr Author Its an ea82, I've seen the diagram on how to adjust the caster/camber and toe in/out, I have it book marked on my phone. I just don't know if the caster was off, if the wheel would go back straight once lifted up, and crooked once put down. I'm not very familiar with the rear suspension on these cars, but it didn't really look like anything was bent. Ill try to get some pictures this weekend for you guys so you can better diagnose my problem. Thank you for the help y'all.
February 6, 201412 yr Its an ea82, I've seen the diagram on how to adjust the caster/camber and toe in/out, I have it book marked on my phone. I just don't know if the caster was off, if the wheel would go back straight once lifted up, and crooked once put down. I'm not very familiar with the rear suspension on these cars, but it didn't really look like anything was bent. Ill try to get some pictures this weekend for you guys so you can better diagnose my problem. Thank you for the help y'all. Link please for the alignment. These are old enough now that most suspension shops have no idea how to adjust them.
February 7, 201412 yr Theres a bunch of threads about this. The toe is adjustable...kinda, but the camber is not. The instructions say there is a way to do it, but look carefully at them. I've always found this part amusing: "Use a piece of wood as a lever", basicly, you shove a 2x4 in the trailing arm and bend it till you have 0* camber. Tightening the bolts doesn't do much, but you can shim them with washers if it really out. If your bearings are good, your bushings are good, and all the bolts are tight, than you have a bent trailing arm. At that point you have three options, live with it, replace it, or bend it back. Whether at rest, or jacked up, the tire should always be at 0* camber. Shops don't touch the rear because of how getto the adjustment procedure is and its a liability, but Schwab will still charge for telling you that. Josh
February 7, 201412 yr Check the condition of your rear subframe. Mine did this (see the rear wheel tiltin from inside from upper side): When this happened: Edited February 7, 201412 yr by -tombba-
February 10, 201412 yr Author So replaced the front half of my drivenine this weekend and drove around in the snow a little bit and the car started vibrating from the rear. I thought the balance was off on the driveline, but the vibration steadily got worse so I took the car back home and lifted the rear up again. The driver rear cv was getting pretty bad, it didn't even have the the clamp on the big side of the boot on the inner joint. My buddy had a spair which didn't work (auto parts store gave him the wrong rear axles), but I decided I'd check out the bearings. There was a little space between the outer bearing and the oil seal, but when I pulled the outer bearing it felt fine, and the race looked good so I just hand packed the bearing and put it back in with a new seal. The inner bearing I couldn't get out though, and my Chilton book didn't say anything about it so I just put a new seal in it for now and put the old cv back in. It there supposed to be a small gap between the bearing and the seal? Edited February 10, 201412 yr by espey_16
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now