I don't like pulling the axles out of the knuckles. The recent clutch job on my car therefore involved pulling the knuckles off the struts. The clutch works but the car was pulling right and driving straight had the wheel like 1/2" down on the left. Today I pulled into the garage no fewer than 4 times to fix the obviously-visible large amounts of camber on the right side.



Attempt 1) Right side, adjusted using a screwdriver to pry out on top of the knuckle: better

Attempt 2) Right side, adjusted using a camber adjusting bolt and left almost no camber: WAY worse! Steering wheel down >1" to drive straight! Slight camber on left side became the dominant factor by a bunch!

Attempt 3) Right side, put back like in attempt #1: better

Attempt 4) Left side, just to check, pried out on the knuckle and tightened like the right side: Close enough, tired of fooling with this.



The wheel is almost-level when going straight and turning right and left feel like they should again. I was reminded that the suspension



Is

a

SYSTEM



and adjusting one side affects the way the other side's adjustments affect handling. I think next time I get tires I'll go to Firestone just so I can get alignments out of them. Suspension alignment without any specific alignment tools:

 

Do you already have camber bolts? They can require a lot of patience to even get visually correct.

 

That's way more effort than I've had to go through. I'm lucky though, on the Accents (in un-wrecked condition) mostly all you have to do is hold components in most negative camber position possible and tighten, then do toe adjustments to zero or just a touch out in the front.

 

I had a camber bolt, once upon a time. My dad helped during the auto -> manual conversion and held it up and said "Hey, what's this?" I said, "It's an adjustment, you wouldn't happen to know where it was before you pulled it out, would you?" and he just laughed.

 

Have you measured your camber of both sides after a test drive to see which one or if both need to be adjusted? I perform my own alignments in my garage. To check camber you can do it a couple of ways, but I use a plumb bob on a string line and measure the distance between the top of the rim and the bottom and run it through a formula. Im sure you can find one online to get the degree and adjust off that. After that I set the toe. I have the formula in the garage somewhere if you need it.

 

Thanks, but meh. I measured it at first by looking at the car and seeing the top of the wheel leaning in way too far.

 

I built some rigs to measure the camber and toe when I do my alignments. It takes a while to get it right but it has served me well, all my tires have worn evenly and no bump-steer or pulling.