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Triumph TR6 - Negative Camber - Front

Would appreciate some advice please...

Two years ago I re-worked the rear end of my 76 to get rid of negative camber and improve the ride. I did the usual stuff... bushes, coils, shock conversion, etc. but front end stuff scares me.

Is there a DIY fix for neg camber in the front or should I defer to a mechanic? Does the mechanic have to be LBC savvy or are front ends similar from car to car? The left front seems worse than the right front.

Ken

BTW, two years ago I had new wheel bearings, shocks, calipers / brake pads installed. And, let me add that I feel a slight front end vibration & shake in the steering wheel as I reach 60 mph. Tires are new and balanced.
Ken Shaddock

Hi Ken

What scares you?

The biggest challenge is removing the spring and they have spring compressor tools for that. I used a 1/2 threaded rod and washers to do mine.

The top bushings (upper wishbone) can be done just by unbolting it.

Lower wishbone, and trunnion needs the spring out.

I think you can change the upper ball joint without removing the spring as well.

I get a bit of a shake in my front end at 56-58 mph. Tires are balanced but the rims are bent so they can't be perfectly balanced. Haven't figured out how to solve it other than new rims may be an answer if I want to go non original.

If you have old bushings and worn ball joints in yours. that may be the source of your shake.

Michael Petryschuk

Mike, have the wheels trued
DON KELLY

Mike... lack of knowledge and experience cause me to hesitate.

However, I have the Bentley, a spring compressor, and I'm married (42 yrs next month) so I should be able to follow instructions ;). Thanks for your ideas.

Ken

PS Small Victory: When I was working on the EGR Re&Re I stumbled across the source of an annoying as heck cricket chirp squeek I've had for two summers. It was the prop rod for the bonnet when in its rest position. I was elated and just had to celebrate with a Cab Sauv 2007.

Ken Shaddock

Ken, Mickael is right doing front end work is not hard if your have a manual. These front ends, like everthing else on these cars is really pretty basic. Go for it.

Rob
rw loftus

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I dropped by my local country garage today where they fix cars in the old fashioned way instead of reading computer codes and swapping out parts. They are the busiest shop in the area. Their wheel alignment machine had TR6's in its software and low and behold offered specs and recommendations (shims) for camber. Kinda neat to see. I'll check that out before moving on to next steps.

KS
Ken Shaddock

Ken;

I will be interested to hear how you make out (what you find) as I just walked in from staring at the front of my 72 TR6 with the same exact symptoms (i.e. L worse than R negative camber). Mine screaches like a bastard when taking slow, hard, left hand turns as well. I was trying to decide where to start on mine (front or rear) as both really need attention. Now I'm thinking front. Keep us posted.
Matthew
M Moment

Hi Ken

I was going to say shim the front end, but your note suggested you wanted to do the bushings and ball joint, shocks first so I started with that.

Shimming is pretty straight forward. Just loosen the lower wish bone brackets from the car frame and insert the shim between the wishbone bracket and frame bracket. This will push the bottom of the wheel out. You can make your own shims from plain old sheet steel.

There are some books available that can tell you how to measure the camber and toe just by using geometry and tools around the house.

I am trying to remember in what document I saw the procedure. If I remember I will post.
Michael Petryschuk

Thx Mike... I'll take a closer look for myself. Sometimes I get lazy when I receive very affordable offers of help or resolution from the local garage less than a mile away. I don't learn as much but after today's lengthy messing around with the steering column I'm ripe for an offer of help re the camber.

Matthew... I will indeed follow up with a post whether I resolve this on my own or via the local garage route. Since the lads here know my car and have the machine with software that recognizes 69-76 TR6 cars I'm tempted to use them, to watch them and learn. With regard to the rear wheels I knew there were adjustable brackets for the TA's when I did my bushes but was advised that adjustment after doing the total make over was unnecessary for seasonal driving. FWIW.

Ken
Ken Shaddock

To wrap this up I'll advise that when I had the car in the shop for a look at the LF caliper (fluid leak) we found the LF wheel bearing was toast.

Matthew... the camber seems normal now although the bad bearing would not have caused what I saw I don't think. You may want to check your bearings especially in view of the noise you get.
Ken Shaddock

This thread was discussed between 16/08/2010 and 29/08/2010

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