Rear wheel alignment

[angel]

The only thing I can think is incorrect drilling of the outer mounting holes...the best solution would be to use a jig similar than Clementine's in the first place. Now things are getting very complicated. Maybe redrilling these holes on the chassis?

 

[castorlex]

Re-drilling

In order to adjust rear alignment, I re-drilled holes of rear suspension arms this was done due to a bad mounted new parallel beams of chassis (they are placed too forward, one inch!). And I finally obtained a decent allignment.

 

[jjad]

Extreme mis-alignment

The rear tyres of our GTL are wearing very badly on the outer edges. There is quite a lot of "rear wheel steering" when going over bumps.

This has happened since we had the rear chassis rebuilt with new box section pieces. When the car was reassembled, I asked whether alignment was necessary, but told "no", as they only touched the inner rear suspension mounts.

I guess the thing to do is take it to a tyre specialist and hope that there is enough adjustment in the outer mounts? If not, will new inner suspension mount holes be required?

Does anyone know of a good garage/tyre specialist in the Milton Keynes/Leighton Buzzard area?

Many thanks!

 

[malcolm]

As a general rule if the car leans to one side it could be the holes are drilled in the wrong place in the inner rear chassis members. If the tyres are wearing on their edges or rear wheel steering over bumps it needs adjustment on the outer mounting bolts.

The adjustment technique isn't obvious even for a garage. Clementine's repair page describes the technique (at the bottom of the page). Loosen the 3 bolts on the outer chassis rail and hoik the wheel to the correct alignment. Needs doing whenever the suspension is removed.

Couple of decent garages in Bedford - Homan Tyres in Kempston, and Formula 1 Autocenter (amazingly) to the East of Bedford. Don't know of any decent ones in MK. Could be worth looking up a Formula 1 Autocentres though - I had expected them to be like Quick Fit, but ours has decent mechanics. Not sure if that's a company policy or just a lucky find in Bedford.

Wherever you go you'll need to copy them that page and give them the rear tracking setting from the manual. Nobody will have the settings or experience.

 

[jjad]

Thanks Malcolm,

great advice! I just hope that there is enough available adjustment left in the outer mountings! Have you (or anyone else?) got the tracking settings handy? My Haynes manual is in storage somewhere!

Thanks.

 

[jjad]

All sorted now!

With Malcolm's kind help, the rear wheels are now aligned. You can see from the photo just how badly the tyres had worn on the outsides. The rear wheel toe-in was about 20mm, instead of the 0-4mm it should be.

Richie now soaks up bumps again like he always used to

 

[malcolm]

Wow - that tyre was bad. It wouldn't quite adjust to 4mm, but should be close enough now. They really do feel odd with the rear suspension out, but it is getting common to have cars where the rear suspension has been removed for welding and badly need the tracking done.

Good to meet you both at the weekend. Very impressed by Freddie - super condition and immaculately clean.

 

[jjad]

Thanks Malcolm, though I think he prefers to be called Richie!!!

Maybe the next one will be called Freddie

 

[angel]

20mm toe????!!!! Maybe this should have been called "fixed-angle 4 wheel steering?!"

 

[alewis]

The problem I had was one wheel was pointing inwards too much so I tightened the bolts on the good side and used a Spanish windlass between the wheels (using the holes in the wheels to pass the rope thu) to pull the back of the other wheel in.

No idea if this is of any use for anyone but thought I might as well mention it.

 

[Andy McGhee]

It was very useful - I tried this method (but with ratchet straps) to tweak the rear tracking, and found it worked very well. It's certainly easier than trying to do with two hands what you need at least three for. A post of quiet brilliance - thanks, Andrew!