Inside wear on Front Tires

[clarkedj]

Any guesses on the cause of front tire tread wear on the inside of the tires. This is on a 78 124 1800. We just replaced the tires in October and should not have this kind of wear. This is my sons car and I had him put new tires on it in October. He told me that he had the guy align the wheels but we are looking for the receipt to make sure he did the job. My question is if the alignment was done and I know that alignments can certainly change over time. Is there anything I should look to replace in the front end that would cause this kind of wear.

Thanks

Ed

[TulsaSpider]

Usually you can take it to a reputable shop if you aren't familiar/comfortable with the geometry of a front end and they will check everything for you for no charge. It could be ball joints, tie rod ends, bushings, or wheel bearings. I am rebuilding my front end at the moment, not really hard if you have done this type of thing before.

[kmead]

You are suffering from too much toe out.

This can be caused by improper alignment, bad tie rod ends, bad ball joints, bad ends on the center link a bad damper and or bad rubber bushes as well as broken A arm studs to the crossmember. This would be one of those things where having a smart caring mechanic would be to your advantage.

Tie rods can be checked easily by turning the wheel all the way to the right and going to the left wheel and putting your thumb and forefinger tightly around the rubber cover compressing it so you can feel the metal within the tire rod end and the steering arm intersection. Have another person wiggle the steering wheel back and forth. If there is any relative motion between the two parts you have a worn tie rod end. Repeat this for each joint in the system (turn the wheel all the way to the left when on the right side of the car). There are six joints that are basically tie rods that can be checked this way.

To check the ball joints is a bit more involved (it is delineated in the Haynes manual) though I can describe it for you if needed. The damper can be checked in a similar manner to the tie rods, you are looking for relative motion of the arm to the body of the damper.

Hope that helps.

[So Cal Mark]

if the toe was that far out, there should be a feather-edge to the tires. Otherwise, I'd suspect negative camber or a combination of the two. Negative camber can be caused by failed a-arm bushings, but could also be a sign of the unibody collapsing inwards

[clarkedj]

I have an update to my tire issue. I took the car to Sears and they looked at. It seems that they can and do still use shims on the cars that need them. The camber on the passenger front side could not be adjusted as there were no shim to be taken out and adding additional shims would cause the tire to go mer negative. It seems that the driver side was ok. The toe on both sides was considerable out of wack and they adjusted that. The camber reading on the passenger side registered a -0.5 I believe. The older mechanic suggested that I go to JC Whitney and get an offset ball joint or an offset fork to allow for adjustment. The fork that is in place has no visible damage so can't imagine what is causing the negative camber. Any suggestions.

Thanks

Ed

[So Cal Mark]

the unibody can collapse inwards. Are they sure the upper bushings aren't off center?

[manoa matt]

Since you took it to Sears, I suppose they did not load the car with weights or let you sit in it while they took the readings. The suspension geometry changes considerably from an unladen car to one with a driver sitting in it.

[clarkedj]

Mark,

The bushings look like they need to replaced solid but torn up. These are the bushings where the shims would go. The edges were chewed up on the bushings or rubber washers but the system itself was very tight and firm. I can take it back to them in the first 60 days for further adjustments after I replace any parts.

Matt,

I did not think about sitting in the car. It was actually the end of the day Saturday and I think had I asked they would have let me. We crawled under the car on the rack to look at the forks to make sure there was no damage.

I will see if I can take a picture and post on the site of the underside passenger.

Thanks

Ed