mkriete

I had my '80 in the alignment shop yesterday. I was told the rear could not be aligned as the eccentric bolt was just spinning with no arm movement (I believe the camber adjustment) He thought the inner sleeve was loose from the bushing. I've been reviewing the PET and cannot figure out the mechanism that this kind of failure could occur. The washer has eaten into the slot on the driver side. The passenger side looked fine. I've read FredR post

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...nt-pocket.html.

Do I need Carl's bracket, or is there something else I should be looking for?

OTR18WHEELER

Can you post some pics of yours?
I also read that a while back, seems to be the best remedy.

FredR

That is a rather extreme condition but possible I suppose. The expectation s that the shoulder is degraded rather than the bolt itself which is [much harder] steel.

As already suggested, a photo of your situation taken from the bolt side of the cross arm would help- on my example I had to remove the exhaust to clearly see the problem but then I have a custom exhaust system.

The eccentric bolt has a travel of some 8mm [if my memory serves me correctly] so to degrade to a point of no adjustment you would have to lose quite a chunk of metal. The metal loss seems to occur on the outboard shoulder. I suppose it is possible something has been lost on the inboard side as well if the thing was very loose and thus "bashing around".

You should also eliminate the obvious and ensure that it was the camber adjuster and not the toe adjuster they were turning. I doubt an alignment shop would make such a mistake but ...? The camber adjuster moves the upper rear link in and out and thus very easy to see.

Rgds

Fred

mkriete

Pictures are below. I took pictures of both sides. The pictures are in the following order:
1. Drivers Side Camber
2. Drivers Side Toe
3. Passenger Side Camber
4. Passenger Side Toe

The Drivers Side Camber has some damage.

Thanks again for the help!

FredR

Clearly you have damage on the camber adjusters. On the driver's side it does not look like enough to completely eliminate any adjustment possibility the damage being roughly similar to what I experienced. The picture is not so clear on the toe adjusters due to shadows.

The nut side of the camber adjuster is somewhat irrelevant.

I suspect that what is happening is exactly what happened to mine- the shoulders are damaged that reduces the range of adjustment by about 2 to 3 mm, and during the alignment process they could not get the camber down to the normal spec range of 0.5 to 0.8 degrees no matter where the adjuster is. The rest of the problem is being caused by compressed bushes in the upper arm [banana link] and/or possibly by compressed bushes in the lower arm. In my case most of the problem seemed to be with the compressed upper arm bushes. I fixed the adjuster problem and replaced the upper arm bushes and I am now happy with the results but then I run wit more camber than stock typically in the range minus 1.25 to minus 1.5 degrees. To get down to minus 0.5 degrees [or lower] you might have to look at the lower arm bushes as well.

Regards

Fred

mkriete

Thank you for the explanation. I know the bushings on the PS banana link are shot. I never thought about how they would impact the alignment. I'm up on jack stands now. I'll see if I can get a better picture of the toe eccentric.

I have not given the bushing at the eccentrics a good review, so I'll look at those as well. Are the rocker bar and bushing NLA? Is there a source for these bushings? It looks like I can get the other bushings. FWIW, the bushings around the bearing pin looked to be in good condition.

mkriete

Life's been pretty busy lately. I found a couple hours this afternoon to look a the rear passenger side. The inner pin on one of the upper control arm bushings was separated from the bushing...not good. I plan to replace the bushings on both sides. I did not find anything loose or moving in the lower control arm. I went ahead and removed it to give it a closer look. I don't see any damage around the eccentrics on this side. The arm moved in and out when I adjusted the eccentrics and I did not see any damage around the eccentrics, so I think I'm in good shape on the eccentric pockets. The bushings around the pivot pin and the inner rear bushing are still flexible without cracks. The front bushing on the "rocker bar" is loose though. After I removed the LCA, I was able to rotate the bushing inside the control arm. I see this part in NLA and I cannot find that anyone makes a replacement bushing. What are my options here? New control arm? Standard aftermarket bushing?

mkriete

Since my rocker bar bushings were bad and NLA, I picked up a couple rear control arms from eBay from an '87. The parts number match MY80. The arms need a little TLC, but the bushings look to be in good condition. I cannot find information the rocker bar beyond that noted in the WSM and hope some experts would weigh in. I figure I have two options:
1. Remove the rocker bars from the '87 control arms and press them back into mine. I'm not certain if this will destroy the bushing though?
2. Clean up the '87 arms, repaint, and install them in my car.
Here are picks of the bushings from the '80. I'll post pics of the '87 in the next post.
What say you?

mkriete

The '87:

GlenL

I don't think you'll be able to move old bushings between the arms. Go with option #2.