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Paging Ray O

But anyone else can answer...

When reassembling my front sus after a bearing change, the hub-strut bolts (two bigguns) allow a good 5 degrees play in the camber of the hub and can be tightened in any extreme. Is there a 'toyota rule of thumb' on these - do i load the hub lightly to hold them in place while i tighten (most +ve camber) or do i tighten while they are 'dangling' (most neg camber position). The car isnt meant to have adjustable camber so one of the settings must be correct. I checked the BGB online and it just says tighten all bolts with fingers until all assembled then torque up - is this the method Toyota recommend do you know?

(5th gen celica alltrac)

I set it to max +ve camber but (naturally) have found it gives me nervous handling around centre, tramlining, but with nice cornering. I dont want to sacrifice the cornering but I'm sick of having to hang off the wheel to keep it going straight on a rutted motorway. 1st lane....70mph.......catch a tyre rut - wow, now im not only using the first lane but also sharing the second lane with another driver :-) But it did this before with the wheel bearings shot so im not sure if its normally like that ?!

Input much appreciated. J

Reply to
Coyoteboy
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Find yourself an alignment machine and make sure the camber is back where it should be. Some models claim that camber is 'not adjustable', but if there is free play when the two lower strut bolts are loose, then that seems adjustable to me. I always perform a wheel alignment after doing any suspension work on Macpherson strut setups.

Reply to
qslim

As I said I will be going for a full alignment check soon, though you cant adjust the clamp bolts with the wheels on so you'd have to strip, work, reassemble, test, strip, adjust.....etc so its a bit of a pain and not a usual adjustment method as far as im aware. But since I had it checked 6 months before and it was fine I am working on the premise that it was assembled 'correctly' before and so if I match that assembly it shouldnt alter the camber much at all (the lower ball joints all remained in place so wont have altered that side.

The manual suggests that if the camber is out at all a suspension component must be bent and to find and replace it, it mentions nothing of checking the clamp bolts etc which one would think it would do as a first check.

J J
Reply to
Coyoteboy

Are you the only owner of the car? The only reasons I can think of as to why there is that much play would be A) someone used special smaller diameter bolts to allow camber adjustment; B) someone enlarged the holes; or C) there are aftermarket parts in there.

To answer your actual question, I'm not aware of any actual Toyota "procedure" for tightening up the bolts because there is not supposed to be that much play. As qslm suggested, you should get it aligned before it starts to eat tyres.

good luck!

Reply to
Ray O

No, im about the 6th, however the bolts appeared to be normal size, they had that green toyota spray paint blob that a lot of the bolts on alltracs have and they fitted snuggly in the shock clamp plates, but the hub carriers holes appeared far larger than the bolt diameter. I'm going to have to measure them I think and compare to a known one. The holes in the carrier dont seem to be enlarged, no machining marks. The bolts arent cam bolts. Im fairly sure the shocks have been changed for standard replacements some time in the last 5 years so maybe they came with new bolts and they were smaller diameter..I am going to measure them and i have someone with another stock setup who is going to measure a bolt for me.

Right, looks like more investigation needed :-(

Fronts are knackered anyway, ready for changing, they're staying on until i sort out whats wrong so i dont waste another $250's worth of tyres :-)

Ta for the info! J

Reply to
Coyoteboy

IIRC, the stock bolts do not allow any camber adjustment but Toyota has special smaller diameter bolts to provide some measure of adjustment. They are not cam bolts, just smaller diameter.

good luck!

Reply to
Ray O

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