6 years of daily drinking and I’ve yeah to get a perfect wheel alignment part of the issue is 18s. 285s and airbags. Ride height makes a camber difference. Lower it is more negative camber. I know that is an issue I burn through front tyres every 9 months it wears the inner edge I’ve removed all shims and still have slight camber also noticed that at full lock the rim is not vertical. It leans been to carious places and this really old school with a pit did the best job but they are over 2000 ks from where I live now so I’m going to start playing myself wheel bearings have a bit of play so going to fix those first then start looking at camber and caster then toe so those who do their own wheel alignments. School me. Literally never done it before I don’t mind making a jig 61 Buick Lesabre
Camber and toe can be done with a level and tape ruler, caster can't be seen needs to be done by feel. A simple level held next to the center of the wheel will tell you camber, bubble needs to be centered, toe is simply measured front to back of the front tires. toe needs to be ZERO, no toe in or toe out. This will give you a starting point, when you drive and car pulls right or left then caster needs adjuster, if you still get uneven tire wear then need to fine tune camber or toe, if both tired wear then toe need reset if only one tire wears then camber or the side of wear need reset, top of tire in is neg camber top of tire out is positive. Hope this helps, I did front end work for several years and think I'm good at it but 30 years experience it hard to teach in just a casual exchange
Chris, I've been doing alignments now for 50+ years. 1st. off caster has nothing to do with tire wear, BUT the control & stability feeling is much better with as much positive caster that you can achieve within the limits of your adjustments provided/designed by the factory. In your case your car started out with negative caster. One of the things I do with the older Buick's (I have a '61) the strut rods are NOT adjustable. I use poly bushings that I modify for a Mustang & shorten the inner bushing by a 1/4". What this does is pull the lower control arm forward for an increase over factory adjustments. Camber will cause tire wear, BUT the biggest wear factor is TOE settings. I don't have the book in front of me. Wait, let me grab one. Original settings are -2 Caster +1/3 for camber 3/16ths. to 9/32" for toe. Caster as far positive that you can go. Use of the bushings modified for even more positive caster over the factory adjustments. Zero ( 0 ) on camber + or- 1/4 degree, Caster & camber are adjusted with the shims. Toe-in is 3/16ths. which is .1875" to 9/32nds which is .28125". Now put these specs in the middle & you have .09375" total for both wheels. Now in the middle again for each wheel & you come up with.046875". On the alignment machine you'll have approx. .047" for each wheel for a total of .094" total. By your explanation you experience inside tire wear which means you don't have enough toe-in. I can modify these bushings for you as I have them in stock. Hope this helps. Tom T.
If your wearing the inside edge you are toed out. As your ride height changes the toe will move alot. You'll have to set a ride height for cruising and have the alignment done at that height. Always drive at the height after..
I've kinda figured running wide tires will never wear even. Camber by definition is going to cause uneven wear. Caster when turning "uphill" off center causes the same issue. I did have a chevy 2 that static toe could be in, but when rolling resistance applied toed out. Wide tires increase that load.
Chris when I first read this I immediately thought you might want to lighten up on the drinking! LOL Daily drinking can cause a lot of tire wear from cleaning out ditches, hitting curbs, and can contribute to that loose feeling front end!
Thanks for all the replies. I am certainly trying to find the right ride height that is a softish not bouncy ride but also looks cool (lower) yet minimises tyre wear. You know. I want it all !!! But I think I have it where I want it now. On the advice Tom, wow, that's awesome sir. Tomobile your feedback helped me a lot as well. Tom, I don't have a machine, but could take it to someone, but most guys around here don't understand old school. Thank you so much for the settings. I'll definitely take you up on those bushings. Will send you a PM. I'm assuming based on your feedback I should take it to someone with a machine as those numbers are pretty small, no way I could get that accuracy at home?
If you take your car in, Chris, one thing that we had to do with my Riv at work to align it was put on some 15" wheels off my Caddy. The 20s tuck into the fender and rear wheel well, so the machine's clamps for the sensors couldn't be put on the car with the big rims. Just a heads up for something to ask about before traveling to take it into someone with an alignment machine.
Thanks Lucas, yeah I have 18's front, 20's rear and different widths. I don't have any 15's but may need to source some. Hadn't thought of that
I've been doing toe in for 30 years using 2 oil cans, 2 yard sticks and a tape measure. Measure front to back difference.
How would using a modern radial the same size as say an original Polyglass affect the final numbers sought? In other words, would the construction of the tire make a difference in the final numbers sought?
I just go to the middle of the specs for toe for the car your working on. Seems to work just about every time.
I've done my own alignment the last few times I did any front end work on my cars. Make sure your ball joints and bushings are tight and your idler arm is solid. If not, it will be useless to even start. Find a flat level spot and park on a couple of WalMart bags with the wheels straight ahead. The WalMart bags reduce friction when turning the tires. I've got a pair of 4' levels that I filed a groove into the that two tape measures fit in front and back of the tire. It allows me to set the toe. To confirm it is good I drive it a bit and use an infrared temp gun to make sure there isn't a huge temp difference between inside and outside. Cold in the tire center is too little air and hot in the tire center is too much air. If you need more info, let us know. Caster and camber are not hard to adjust but they take a little more effort to measure.
Greg, that's fantastic, that is exactly the type of advice I was looking for. Love the idea of the infrared gun, never thought of that. My bearings do need to be replaced, everything else is tight. Thanks again
Good deal. positive caster is removing shims from the front of the A-arm adjusters and putting them in the rear. That causes the top of the spindle to be behind the bottom of the spindle. Measuring it isn't hard but it takes some setup. Remember that if you lift the car and set it back down on the ground, you have to roll it a foot or so forward and back to get it to settle. Here's the information from HotRod.com I generally followed to set caster and camber. https://www.hotrod.com/articles/ccrp-0910-diy-alignment-guide/
