Help! My '72 Type 1 (Super Beetle) has too much (negative?) camber on the rear wheels...the inner 1-1/2" of tire tread wears out much more quickly than the rest of the tire. Does anyone know if this problem can be cured by adjusting the torsion bars/spring plates, or is this for sure an alignment problem. No one here in Atlanta knows how to align an old VW rear end. Thanks,
Mike
is your car lowered any Mike?....if the wear is indeed due to lowering(which does induce negative camber) then yes raising it to stock height will do wonders....if it is due to bad rear alignment(excessive toe-out since it is wearing the inner part of the tread) then having it aligned is the answer.....i wouldn't take my car to an alignment "tech" that couldn't figure out how to loosen three bolts on each diagonal arm to springplate mount and adjust it...they are slotted for that purpose....the best place to have a car aligned (in my experience) is an actual suspension or spring shop...they normally do trucks, vans, and such, and they are the real deal....cost a tad more than say sears, but well worth it....
------------------- Chris Perdue
*All opinions are those of the author of this post* "Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug"Thanks for the reply...I'll raise the rear end up a bit and see what happens.
Mike
lowering(which
Um, isn't that actually positive camber, if the bottom of the wheels are farther apart than the tops? Just wondering...I might have it backwards.
positive is top outward when viewed from the front or rear of vehicle (ie: \___/)
negative is just teh opposite (ie: /___\)
------------------- Chris Perdue
*All opinions are those of the author of this post* "Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug"Oh ok! I did have it backwards. Oops. Thanks for clearing that up. ~Anthony
I'm a Alignment tech in a collision shop, all day, every day, enough about that, to the point, camber in the least of concern here, as long as it is balanced, and hopefully less than two degrees negative, toe is what you really need to set for best wear and handling, caster is not adjustable in the back without a frame machine, and yes we do "bend" cars to suit alignment specs all the time, caster and toe are the most important in the front of any car, you can offset camber wear by tire rotation, both by front to rear, and rim to rim across the car, finally you need to consider thrust angle, which creates "dog trot", meaning are the axles in line with each other. This is a simplified explanation, and a air cooled VW is no more or less difficult to align than a Lexus 470. If you could bring your car to New Mexico, I'd be happy to set it straight for you, really, any body shop can advise you the best place to get your alignment done, they will know, they put wrecked cars back on the road. Douglas
you might want to also replace the rubber bushings in the spring plate cover and on the inside pivot... make sure to put the big washers back in the proper place... it does make a difference since the original rubber pieces are probably hard and worn out like mine were.
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