Is This A Bigger Problem....?

[1971ssls1]

Ive Got A 71 Camaro With The Stock A-arms, Poly Rebulit Steeing And Bushings With 18" Wheels. Its Been Aligned And The Camber Is Set At 0 +/-. There Is Maybe Roughly 1" Maybe A Little More Of Shims Between The Cross Shaft And Mouting, Yet The Tires Aer Wearing Badly On The Outsides. Ive Re-check The Camber On A Laser Allignment Rack And It Check Out Good, Wheels Look Straight Up, Butr Bad Tire Wear. Thanks For Any Help Or Info.

[baz67]

Toe?

[1971ssls1]

everything check out good. toe, camber, caster(even tough its not very adjustable). the allignmetn machine checks for eveything, and it was all good. and adjusted to make it withing the specs... i cant figure it out?

[ProTouring442]

Stop taking exit ramps and back road curves as fast as you can? If it's only the outer edges of the tires, sounds like the driver to me. You're rolling the tires by cornering too hard on sharp turns... ask me how I know!

If there is a gradual wear from the outside to the inside, it's a camber issue, or maybe toe if it's way out of whack.

An increase of tire pressure can help, but watch the wear in the center of the tire.


Shiny Side Up!
Bill
'72 442 "Inamorata"
www.FQuick.com/ProTouring442

[1971ssls1]

its more or less a gradual; wear with little wear to the insides. how strange thought thar the allignment is good?

[paul67]

tire pressures?

[David Pozzi]

How hard do you corner it? Stock alignment for those cars use very very little positive caster, manual steer second gen's use some negitive caster which tilts the tire the wrong way when cornering hard.

Do you drive in an area with mountain roads?
David

[1971ssls1]

tire pressures are about 32psi. it is a power steering car and i dont corner too hard. every once in a while around a nice tight curve but not constantly.

[z65mm6]

Could it still be a toe issue? The original 1971 spec for toe may be too aggressive since it was probably formulated for use with Bias-ply tires instead of radials. Just a thought.

[MonzaRacer]

So does the tire feel baby butt smooth or if you run you had as if tire rotating forward ( ie slide hand front to back) does it feel like a cheese grater?
If its cheese grater you may have too much toe.
Honestly if the alignment tech doesnt have enough experience to read the tire you need to find another tech.
Can you take some good clear picks of the tires and post them/pm them to me.
I have done alignment work for close to 20 yrs and have set up a lot of cars including a lot of ACR Neons to SOLO race.
In my experience i need to see how the tires are wearing to judge it. another thing is with that much shim pack you may be getting bolt flex (ie some better arms would be in order)
Another thing is with car on alignemt rack and a jack under the coil spring take a long bar and lift up under the tire(brakes locked) IF you have very wide tires the combination of large shim packs and some wear on ball joints might be causeing problems,, also look at your idler arm and centerlink, in hard used cars I like to check them with a pair of vicegrips clamped to the centerlink. it tells me wheather the parts can take abuse.
If the tires are smooth just wearing more on out side you might need to swap out the upper control arm and go for say a -0.10 to -0.25 deg camber (and try to figure out how to get more positive caster too as this will make it handle much better, just remeber that the right side needs 0.50 deg more positive casterthan the left)
I will bring home my older spec manual and see what specs are. PM me with your complete car specs and what the reading they got from your car and Ill try to help you as best as I can.
Lee Abel

[1971ssls1]

i appreciate all the info, i will get some pics of the tires asap and post them, i have bneen looking at fully adjstable upper arms which could possibly get rid of the majority of the shim packs.

[novanutcase]

http://www.scandc.com/spcarms.htm

[1971ssls1]

yup, those be the ones, anyone know about the quality, fit & finish, and strenth? these are the ones thought, you can make more adjustments without using shims, which would be nice, plus the look better.