Rear wheels cambered in

[Ramtwo]

I recently noticed that one of the rear wheels on my '72 240 was cambered in. I took the car to have the alignment looked at but there was no adjustment to be made. My only thought is that maybe it's time to replace the coil springs. I haven't really looked at them that hard, and the car didn't look as though it was sitting lower, but I don't know what else would cause this. I couldn't find anything broken, and the bushings are all new on the back end. Any ideas would be helpful.

[2ManyZs]

If all the bushings are new, about the only thing it could be is the springs are sagging to a certain extent. What is odd is that it is on one side and not the other.

Perhaps, the side that has the most camber has a bad strut cartridge, that combined with the sag of the spring is making it appear worse than it possibly is.

The one thing, asides from the obvious problem, is that somewhere in its life, the car could have received a little damage from something as simple as a parking lot bump and either the strut tube is bent, or perhaps the frame in the rear is tweaked...

The worst case scenario would be hidden rust somewhere you haven't found that is compromising the uni-body....

[Ramtwo]

Thanks for the info. The left wheel is also doing the same thing, but not to the same degree. It's out of alignment by about 1/32 of an inch, the right side is 7/16 in. out.

I also thought about the strut cartrige, and I did take a look at it, looked like it may have lost some oil...but I didn't think that would allow for a sag. I'll look into is some more.

Last winter, I cut out most of the floor, and welded new steel into it, taking care not to cause warping, then sprayed bed liner inside, and hardend undercoating underneath. I also used a rust killing product on all the welds and any oxydized metal that I found. I hope I got all the rust.

If I was to put the car on a frame machine, do you have any idea were I could find the technical data for straightening the car?

Again, than you for your help!

Merry Christmas!

[2ManyZs]

The Factory Service manuals all have the body dimensions, if the shop can't find them.

But, before you go that far, you need to clarify a couple things.

You said in your first post the tires were cambered in, which led to the springs/strut cartridge replacement due to sagging..

Now you say that the rear is out of alignment too, which is a whole nother story.......

If the toe in is out in the rear, it leads me to believe there may be some body tweaking, or something may be bent, as the rear toe is non-adjustable unless you fitted the adjustable camber bushings on the lower control arm. You can change the rear toe with the adjustable camber bushings, as they can be changed independantly to change the toe in or out on the rear.

7/16's is quite a bit to be off by, which, if this is also the corner that has the most negative camber, leads me to suspect that corner may have been hit at one time and has some type of damage that is throwing it off. Even running through a large pothole or hitting a curb at some time in its life could have been enough force to cause a slight bend in the control arm, or one of the mounts.

I think, given your info, the first thing I would do is put it on a frame machine and check the uni-body before you spend any money replacing any more parts, as it could be the parts aren't needed. No sense wasting time and money on parts until you have a better idea of what is causing the problem to begin with.

If the chassis is OK, then you know for sure you have a slightly bent control arm on the right side that is causing the toe problem, which can be cured with either a used control arm, or the adjustable bushings. You can install the lower control arm bushings easily while the car is on jackstands, as they are the easy one to replace.

As far as the camber problem, it sounds like the strut cartridges are showing signs of leakage, which could be most of the problem in itself.

[Ramtwo]

Hmmm, maybe my terminology is incorrect. When I say camber, I mean the top of the tire, in this case the rear tire, is tilted in toward the center of the car. An alignment machine was used to determine the distance of 7/16 of an inch. To my knowlage, the car has hit nothing, while I've owned it, not even a big hole in the road. I'm going to make some measurements today to see if the car has a sag. Like I said before, the strut cartrige on that side looks like it may have lost oil.

[2ManyZs]

I misunderstood... usually the camber is given in degrees and the toe settings are given in increments of an inch....

If the strut cartridge shows any leakage at all, I'd replace them first.

[Ramtwo]

Thanks! I'll let you know what I find....