[Shotimes] Question On Suspension

[George Fourchy]

On Sat, 29 Mar 2003 03:51:51 -0500, Frank Costa wrote:

>Brand new lower control arms. I dont understand what is going on.
>
>What are the tension strut bushings?

Do you have a shop manual for the car?  It sounds like you haven't ever been
underneath the front end, so you can see the parts.

As another response has said, negative camber (excessive) is caused by the bottom of
the wheel being too far out from the car, and is adjusted, if one wants to do it
this way, by cutting the welds on the top of the strut towers, allowing them to be
moved around, adjusting out the excessive negative camber....if the top of the tire
goes out to be even with the bottom, you have eliminated the negative camber.  Then
you have to adjust the toe, otherwise you will be scraping the tires along the road
sideways.....you have moved the entire knuckle/brake/hub/tire assembly out a
fraction of an inch, which is a lot when it comes to toe.

Age will wear the inner bushing portion of the lower control arms.  They will become
egg shaped, and allow the entire arm to move outward, increasing the negative
camber.

WHILE YOU ARE IN THERE.........the tension struts are what connect the middle of the
lower control arm to the front of the subframe.....they keep the wheels in the
center of the wheel well.  If they weren't there, as soon as you applied power to
the wheels, they would try to roll out from under the car towards the front.  Brakes
would try to put them underneath you and your passenger.  The bushings keep this
happening with a minimum of movement, and do it quietly.  As they age, they shrink a
bit, causing more movement and some quiet clunking you can feel in the wheel.  You
should change them when you have the lower control arms out.

Go under there, with a tire off, and look around.  See how it is put together.  Take
a tour with someone who does work on them, and let him explain the parts and their
functions.  If you are going to enjoy this car in its second, third, and fourth
lives, you'd better learn how to fix it yourself, or find someone who can.

George and the Lowrider