Quote:
Originally Posted by pylet2000
Correct, camber is adjusted with the eccentric bolts you pictured. By twisting the bolt with the nut loose, the eccentric washer lobes will push the bolt and lower control arm in toward the engine to make the camber more positive (think tractor front wheels in a "\ /"), or adjusted the other way push the lower control arms out away from the engine making the camber more negative (think Japanese 'tuner' cars, bottom part of the wheels squatted out and away from the engine centerline "/ \"). Without seeing where your eccentric lobes are positioned it's hard to say which way you'd need to adjust.
I suspect yours would be set too much like an old tractor "\ /" with the wheel tops further from the engine and the lower control arms too "drawn in". Easiest thing to do is take it to the alignment shop, they get the whole balance act between caster, camber, and toe all sorted out and very likely get your ride height back to spec in the process. I was able to copy my caster setting "good enough" from the old guide rods for short term use, so I can't speak to the complexity that setting being out of spec adds.
Stretch on this forum did a great write-up on how adjust these settings at home as well as any home alignment can be done, he warns that it's slow and takes a long time to set up and get the feel for. My partial efforts to copy his work confirm that. If you feel like toe and caster are "pretty close", you could just follow the steps for adjusting camber and see if that helps. If you're not sure, the shop is the surest bet. Adjusting the camber even a little will change the toe noticeably.
How I adjusted the toe in / out, camber and caster on my W123 300D |
Yes indeed, mine is set like this, "\ /", AKA tractor mode. Okay, I think I get it now. Yeah, I'll have it professionally aligned after I replace the shims and give it a little while to settle. Thanks so much for the explanation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Überlandung Geländewagen
Yes, driving it will help it settle significantly faster. I drove mine around for two days before taking it to the alignment shop. I would do the shims as soon as you have the time, no point in getting the suspension to settle before you mess with it again. And you are correct the large bolts for the lower control arms adjust camber. When I did my suspension I forgot to mark the location of the bolt and washer, so when I reinstalled it I had lots of positive camber.
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Yes, I'll hopefully get the shims done this week and then give it a little bit to settle again and this time I'll drive a bit to help it out a little and then I'll have it professionally aligned.
I actually did a good job of marking the bolt and washer and making sure to replicate the other measurements I needed but I think that didn't work out for me because I didn't take into account that all the previous measurements/locations were based on bushings that haven't been changed since 1979 and had pretty much disintegrated. Every bushing was toasted behind belief so after putting in all the new bushings there's no way all the old settings would have worked out for me. Thanks for all the help!