Hi Bill, curious you are having this problem right when I am fixing
mine. I have a couple of questions: What is the camber for that wheel
now? Did you damage the wheel? Did you have the alignment done? Are
the bu****ngs in the control arm in good condition?
If the bu****ngs are good, go for the control arm. When you hit the
curb, and I am assuming you were braking, the main damaging force is
backwards and not sideways. This causes the control arm to bend in such
a way that the camber goes negative and not positive as one might imagine.
I went to the junker and for 18 bucks got a control arm in perfect
conditions, beating the $141+s&h online price by far. At the junker, i
looked at the bu****ngs in the control arm, making sure that the inner
part of the bu****ng was centered with respect to the rubber and that
there were no evident signs of damage on that side of the junked vehicle.
Aligning the bent and the replacement control arms, i could measure a
9/32" difference from one to the other. Having the replacement arm, and
nothing to lose, I tried straightening the bent arm using my 12 ton
hydraulic press... dream on... the thing would not budge.
Even though the camber in my case was within specs., it was at -.93 deg,
which put it pretty close to the limit. After replacing the control
arm, the camber went to -.63. Does not sound like much, but you can
actually see the difference just by looking at the wheel. I am planning
on replacing the "anchor" on which the front end of the control arm goes.
The story gets better. I hit the curb (driver's side) on sep 11/1995
when a truck cut in front of me on the highway. I replaced both front
tires (flattened by the braking) and the wheel on the 12th. I know this
cause i have the receipt for the $362 wheel. After that, i have 7
alignment printouts (from NTB and Sears, different branches) and none of
them show that wheel's camber to be off, except for one that shows the
wheel to have positive camber. Never thought I had a serious problem,
until recently, when I used directional tires for the first time, and
those did show the uneven wear. The passanger side tires wore out
perfectly evenly.
Using two aluminum cones, 3/8" diameter and about 1.5" tall, stuck to
the wheel using two sided tape (alloy wheels), a bubble level and a
feeler gauge, I am able to measure the camber in what seems to be a more
precise way, than with the alignment equipment/technician combination.
In my case, even with the camber at the limit, the drive never felt less
stable. This would lead me to believe that the toe may be too open,
unless the camber is way off.
In any case, good luck!
Bill wrote:
> Hit a curb in the rain. Drivers control arm front hit. Camber is now
> decided negative. Drive feels less stable. I see camber bolts,
> eccentric strut bolts, for sale. Would a new control arm be the
> better choice or would it be that bar-like attachment to the control
> arm which looks more likely to deform? Could the strut have bent?
> Front struts are new ~6 weeks ago and the rear 2 weeks ago.\
>
> Bill
>
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