Bloody-pointless question regarding camber and tyre-wear...

[Myles]

Ooookay. The real answer is - don't guess, measure...

 

Now, back in the real world - I have noticeable inner-3rd wear on the LH-front tyre (I did go through a period of knowing which was the nearside and offiside, but I've lost it again...)

 

Let's say that this tyre is close to running out the wear-bars on the inner side with perhaps a couple of mm extra towards the outer edge - after perhaps 4ish k miles on R888s (road use only, unfortunately....)

 

I have good reason to assume that this is due to excessive camber on that corner.

 

Now, if you had to guess - how many turns would you give the top joint? My guess is one or two... Anyone got a more scientific idea?

 

The reason for asking is that I will have to get some new boots in the next week or two in time for a tour of Spain and France. I simply do not have the equipment up here in Scottingland to measure and correct - and the best I can probably do is to ask my local tyre place (a small independant garage I've used a few times to fit R888s) to help me crack the joint and wind it out a bit.

 

I could nip out tomorrow and get accurate measurements of the remaining tread if that'd help...

 

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[Adrian Williams]

Could be toe out but more likely to be the camber. You should be able to see significant camber differences between left and right by eye (you didn't say the right hand side was also wearing).

 

A length of string will also tell you if your toe out is excessive, should have that in Scotland. 😬

 

If you don't fancy cracking the ball joint damaging the rubber etc take the arb off and pull the top wishbone off the chassis, gives you something to hold while you're unwinding the ball joint.

 

 

Adrian

[stevefoster]

Don't forget to adjust the toe to compensate.

 

 

Add lightness, says the man with a VX :-)

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[Jason Plato]

for the sakes of £20 of tyre alignment at a garage go and get it sorted why bother with a pointless guess question ? - you do have tyre and alignment shops in scottyland ?, they are even in Wales this year and have electricity between 3 and 5.10pm .

 

or find a dusty road and drive down it - the tread will be partly covered in dust and hence give a side to side indicator of camber

 

or measure the rearward and front wheel dimensions like adrian said

 

and finally does the tread "feather" on the inside wearing edge ? - if the tyre is scrubbing then you will see feathering of the tread.

 

does the car pull left or right ?

 

 

 

 

 

here is C7 TOP

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[Shad]

You can do this sort of thing at home... measuring camber is as simple as a piece of board with a straight edge and a plumb-line, and tracking just requires a few bits of string and some patience

 

Have a look round t'interweb, there were a few good guides when I looked a couple of years ago.

 

Simon

niknak.org

[Colin Mill]

I would do the measurements myself and sort it out. Someone with an interest in the outcome and a few straight edges, string and a tape measure will do a better job than some bored guy with the best kit in the world.

[Myles]

I knew it was a silly question...

 

I'll try and see if I can persuade the Red Cross to include some of this 'string' in their next delivery to the inmates of Scottingland...

 

But to answer a few of the questions...

 

...we redid the tracking and toe after replacing the rack last year - so that should be discounted. The car has always had quite a bit of camber (noticeable visually compared to other cars) and does get pulled around the camber of the road a bit. Drives fine though.

 

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Alcester-Racing-Sevens.com

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[Petrolhead]

Well said Dave J 😬

 

If you didn't waste sooooooo much loot on unessessary camera gear you would be able to afford to get it sorted 😬 😬

 

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[Mr Locust]

Could be toe out but more likely to be the camber.

 

Another factor could also be corner weighting i.e. that wheel running heavier.

 

Ian

 

Green and Silver Roadsport 😬 or Mrs Locust's Blue Roadsport Academy 😬

[Colin Mill]

If it were a problem with toe-in it would have to be too little toe-in and if it has mainly been used on road the tendency is for the opposite wear pattern - more wear on the outside edge of the LH tyre and inside edge of the RH tyre (due to the predominant camber of the road). In road use not enough toe-in would be more likely to show up most as excessive wear on the inside edge of the RH tyre.

 

So I would go along with your theory. You mention about a 2mm difference across the width of the tyre. 2mm in about 200mm width is about 1.7 degrees. The distance between top and bottom joints is about 220mm so increasing the length of the top by a couple of mm (which looks like about 2 turns on that thread) would be about right.

 

Edited by - Colin Mill on 8 Jun 2008 10:39:56