Adjusting camber? How-to? Help?

[thejohnnyguy]

I rebuilt the front end of my Scamp a few years ago and it hasn't gone anywhere since. My front tires are way out of whack. the wheels look like this from the front: /-[0-0]-\ <-- sorry for the crappy illustration... lol. The front of the car also sit very low to the ground, as if I need to adjust the torsion bars a good bit. Do you think that adjusting the torsion bars will fix the wheel tilt? if not what else can I adjust to get the wheels straight enough to drive it down the road to get an alignment?

 

[thejohnnyguy]

Few pictures to help... Also the front bumper is only like 11" off of the ground, what's a normal ride height?

 

[1969dodgedartgt]

hehe, good illustration, get AAA for the tow to an alignment shop or where's your shop manual? it should tell you how to do some alignment...

let me look at mine...

mmm I think you may just be risking unbalance wear, and some poor handling, if you do ride on those. so maybe its safe to drive it to a shop. but dont take my word on it, lets learn from someone who knows ;)

the only thing I see in my shop manual which makes me worry about riding on that is the following. Not sure if this is indicating that damage will be done when the camber is not at recommended specs...

here are six basic factors which are the founda- tion to front wheel alignment; height, caster, camber, toe-in, steering axis inclination and toe-out on turns (Fig. 1).All are mechanically adjustable except steer- ing axis inclination and toe-out on turns. The latter two are valuable in determining if parts are bent or damaged particularly when the camber and caster adjustments cannot be brought within the recom- mended specifications.

 

[805moparkid]

well first thing i would do is put both rear adjusters all the way in (twords engine for max caster)

then on the front adjuster go all the way out (twords fender to 0 camber)...

then i would bounce the front end a couple of times... get fours peices (two for each front tire) of sheet metal and spray some really good lube between them.

roll the car on them and make the wheel straight and have somebody hold it, now adjuster the toe by making the center of the fronts 1/16 in compared to the back of front tires...

the camber/caster only takes a couple of minutes, but the toe can be fun...

get that stuff close and set the front ride height where you want it... if you camber is close to 0 and same with toe just drive it down and have them align it... saves money for the tow...

 

[thejohnnyguy]

Torsion bars did the trick! (enough to drive it to get it aligned!) Thanks guys!

 

[375inStroke]

Set the height where you want it. Get a carpenter's square next to the wheel and measure from it to the wheel at the top and the bottom. The tire will have zero camber when the two measurements are the same. Turn the front eccentric to move the front of the upper control arm out. If you run out of adjustment, turn the rear eccentric to bring the rear of the UCA in. Then adjust toe. It's really easy, and you'll get better results than an alignment shop using stock specs. I can tell you how to measure caster, and camber for angles other than zero, but nobody seems to care, so I won't tell you here. You really don't need lasers and such.