When I bought this car it had the 2 front tires really chewed off on the outside of them. I figured probably not rotated by the previous owner right? Well I put 4 new tires on and after about 50 miles of driving on them I can actually see that they are starting to wear a little. The car drives straight with no pull either way. Both ball joints have the rubber boots torn on them. I know I need to replace them. The struts are shot too. Will this cause the excessive tire wear? Will just replacing the ball joints help? Thanks,

Richard

When I bought this car it had the 2 front tires really chewed off on the outside of them. I figured probably not rotated by the previous owner right? Well I put 4 new tires on and after about 50 mile of driving on them I can actually see that they are starting to wear a little. The car drives straight with no pull either way. Both ball joints have the rubber boots torn on them. I know I need to replace them. The struts are shot too. Will this cause the excessive tire wear? Will just replacing the ball joints help? Thanks,

Richard

 

I am not a professional but i would say get an alignment. And there are some pretty cheap struts on Ebay i got a pair of rear ones for 35 shipped!

Excessive toe in.

 

First replace both balljoints. They are cheap. Inspect the tie rods, replace if needed, and have an alignment done.

Tie rods look fine. I think I will have to do the ball joints first. I was just trying to get this right so I could sell it. It seems like every time I think I am done something else pops up.

You can check the toe-in yourself - with the car sitting on a level, hard surface, wheels pointed straight ahead measure the distance between the inside edges of the RIMS (not the tires) 6" up from the ground at the front and the back - the difference is your toe. You can adjust the tie-rods to change the toe setting.

Gloyale has it. Wearing on the outside edges on the older Subies is from the toe being excessivly pointed in. Since we have positive camber on our car in stock form, it will wear the tires much faster with it being toed in. My advice, get an alignment done like, now. You can help it with using a tape measure but it will keep wearing them on the outside edges unless its set to where it needs to be.

Man it just keeps getting worse. I pulled off the lower control arm whlie I was down changing the ball joint. Did not like what I found. The control arm bushings are all but gone. The tie rod ends have a lot a free movement in them. Probably too much. What do I expect with a car with all the original front end pieces from 1985. I did not want to have to replace all this stuff too!

yeah but thats the pits of owning a 23 year old car:-\ Welcome to the club:rolleyes:

Just kind of funny, When I replaced the bushings in my 78 Brat they actually looked better than the ones in my 85. Go figure.

I'll still buy it off of you

I don't think you would be willing to pay what I am going to ask for it now. I have done a ton of work and put a lot of new parts in it. I will be putting it up for sale within the next 2 weeks.