Rear Wheel Alignment

[neil240970]

Morning all,


hope those that attended SClub had a good time - certainly some pristine examples judging by the pics on here today.

Right then, finally got my 8-spokes on the car after weeks of disappearing to the shed armed with wet & dry, drill arbors and cutting paste and the car looks fantastic. Thought I'd get the 4-wheel alignment sorted during the fitting process but the fitter said there was no adjustment on the rear and it was quite a way out. Mine's an S1.5, 1989(F) so i was wondering if anyone could advise on how to get this sorted? I thought it was adjustable via shims on the trailing arms......

[Adrian@]

Not until the S3 do you get tracking adjustment via shims. Adrian@

[neil240970]

Thanks Adrian, is there any way of sorting it out ?

[Adrian@]

What is he saying is out of alignment?
Adrian@

[neil240970]

HI Adrian,

I've got the print-out from the Hunter machine. "rear toe crabbing" and "o/s/r camber too low"
The readings are as follows :

Left rear camber : -0.02
Left rear toe : 0.27

Right rear Camber : 0.52
Right rear toe : -0.16

[CTE]

Neil, without going into the full story, I have had similar issues with my S1, which I have resolved more by luckthen judgment, by simple adjusting the ride height, and balancing the shock adsorber settings. However, you will not be able to do this if your car has the original spring/damper set up. The other possibility, is if the trailing arm bushes are worn.

[Adrian@]

I would as the previous poster says look at the bushes, but then I would never try setting the car up on a 4 wheel aligner esp for squareness, I rely on drive over alignment, which picks the wheel being checked and has no relationship to any other wheel for the tracking. You can if you want to, shim the wheel bearing to change these settings (something I have done in the past) then go back in and dress the face of the trailing arm to suit, once you know what it requires to get the settings correct.
Adrian@