camber problem

[clutch]

hai guys, picked up a vh the other day, and im blessed with a camber issue on the front wheels, i assume because its been lowered, the front wheels have massive camber, and have worn the inside of the tires pretty badly, the last owner has drilled new holes for the left hand strut so the shock sits further out to straighten the camber out a bit.

questions

should i do the same to the other side to lose some camber? IE drille new bolt holes?
how else can i fix this camber issue?

[DANNY8]

Wat about adjustable strut mounts? They have a bit of camber adjustment in them....much like rotating a normal strut mount around the 3 holes.

[old mate]

Wat about adjustable strut mounts? They have a bit of camber adjustment in them....much like rotating a normal strut mount around the 3 holes.

i went adjustable strut mounts on my VB when i had front end alignment issues. its fine now and no irregular tyre wear.

[clutch]

where should i start looking for cheap adjustable strut tops?

[ari666]

omfg! he drilled out holes where??? on the body???

you can just turn the strut tops to get the camber right!!! either that or swap left to right. you dont need to buy anything

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Once the suspension has been lowered, the control arms move up and push the bottom of the wheel out, this results in the negative camber issue. Adjusting the top strut bearings will sometimes correct it, but only if they were in the most negative position to begin with. Have a look at the plastic cap and see if it is in between the two most inside bolts, or either forward or back. In my experience, the best position is back.

There are a couple of different things you can do, one is to fit adjustable strut tops, another is to fit a camber adjusting pin to the lower control arm bush.

[clutch]

he drilled 3 holes in the top of the tower body where the strut bolts to, more outwards so the camber evened out. i hope road worthys arent affected by this...

what do you mean just spin the strut to even out camber?!?!

[ari666]

HO-HO-HOLY shit mate. he drilled the strut top???? yikes, i reckon you may have an issue there with a rwc guy.

stock strut tops are offset, so by turning it, the center of the strut moves either forward/backward/sidewards. turning the top till the center of the strut is on the outermost side of the strut tower will bring the camber back in to where it should be, at the cost of a bit of castor.

its a free mod and will stop your tyres from chewing out. when you save some dollars you can spend the outrageous prices that k-mac charge for adjustables.

[clutch]

yea theres 3 small holes, hopeful isnt an engineering issue. do strut top adjusters cover the top of the struts? maybe i can put them on to hide the holes???

ok so to adjust the strut, i just undo the bolts, and spin the strut from the top? untill its favouring the outer most side to lose some camber?

[180sc]

HO-HO-HOLY shit mate. he drilled the strut top???? yikes, i reckon you may have an issue there with a rwc guy.

stock strut tops are offset, so by turning it, the center of the strut moves either forward/backward/sidewards. turning the top till the center of the strut is on the outermost side of the strut tower will bring the camber back in to where it should be, at the cost of a bit of castor.

its a free mod and will stop your tyres from chewing out. when you save some dollars you can spend the outrageous prices that k-mac charge for adjustables.

Kmac are over priced shit!! i know several people who have had failures ranging from less then 5000klm to less than 20,000 when i say several i mean more than 10.
go the cheaper nolathane brand units they go for around $180 on ebay and have a bit more adjustment then the kmac and from my experience seem to last fairly well.

[wez84]

Make sure your wheel alignment its not out, lots of Toe out will wear the inside fairly quick
Also might pay to check that the strut is not bent on the left, Just wondered why he has drilled out the strut tower to move
one side and not the other

[ari666]

Kmac are over priced shit!!

couldnt agree more

[DANNY8]

Drilling new holes closer to the outside does work tho.....people re-drill holes there all the time in dirt circuit racing....it doesn't matter coz it's not on the road.

Definitely shop around....or if u are good mates with anyone from Repco see if they'll give ya staff discount coz u can get brand new Nolathane adjustable strut mounts for $113 a pair. Non adjustable Nolathane strut mounts go down to around the $80 mark if I recall correctly.

[vkberlina]

I had a cheap set on my VK and they failed pretty quick the rubber let go and sagged on trhe LH
try and find quality

scott

[180sc]

never seen any quality problems with the nolathane brand and less then half the price of kmac.

[Darren_L]

rotating the strut top around might fix the camber, but you end up with terrible caster... it's a tradeoff. That's exactly what the adjustable strut tops are designed to overcome
and don't drill holes in the strut tower, or you end up with a defective vehicle

the only straight forward answer for rectifying camber problems on a early Commodore is as suggested adjustable strut tops. There are some reasonable priced alternatives to k-mac around. Having said that, the k-mac's in my car have done over 70,000kms in this car and about 50,000km in my last car. But I agree they are way overpriced, for something that is so simple

it's a worthwhile investment, one area where trying to save $$ is only going to cost you more in tyres and/or poor handling

[180sc]

your one of the lucky ones darren.