Hey guys,

I'm in need of the group's collective thoughts on what's acceptable rear tyre camber...

I recently replaced the springs, shocks, bushings, etc. on the back and front suspensions, including new steering bits. I've been driving it around quite a bit to settle all the parts in before having an alignment done and buying all new tyres. The front seems to have settled in nicely but there's still a lot of camber on the rear tyres. With my digital level, I'm measuring 85º. From this and the photos, does it look like it's too much still?

I'd really like/need new tyres for it but I don't want to have them wear prematurely if the rear end is still got a ways to go to settle in.

I measured the new springs before I put them in but I seemed to have lost that info... I bought stock springs from vdL and he lists them as being 215mm. The old ones I pulled out were 197mm.

Cheers,
-bob

Looks right to me Bob. They are meant to be
wacky angle.

Morning Bob;
According to the 'book of words', factory rear springs have a 'free' height of 221mm, so your new springs are just a bit lower, whilst the springs that you took off had settled quite a lot. Peter's description of rear wheel camber as 'wacky' whilst not quite technical is very descriptive! Try checking it with 2 people in the car. The only camber measurement given in the book is what it should be when the sump is a particular height from the ground and the distance between the centre-line of the drive-shaft is a certain distance below the body. If you wish, I will copy the appropriate pages and pop them into the post for you.

Hi Bob,

My car is fitted with a lowered suspension (190mm rear springs with standard spacers) and the rear wheels have an unladen camber angle of 88 degrees. As I have no intention of ever loading up the rear seat, I'm happy with this.

Chris

OK, thanks for that guys. It just seems like the outside edges of the rear tyres are bearing the majority of the weight compared to the way the weight was centered across the tyres with the old springs. Just don't want to buy new tyres and have them wear prematurely on the outside edges...

Thanks Hobbler for the willingness to provide the specs. I think I have those, too. But since I have 126 wheels and a larger sump, I wouldn't be able to use the dimensions without having to fudge the numbers so, any results wouldn't be particularly reliable.

Here's a side view showing a comparison between the front and rear.

Does the camber change a lot between forward and reverse. I had a friend with a Fiat 850 and the amount of toe in meant when going forward it created more positive camber and in reverse the opposite, so maybe the wheel alignment will help.