What happened to my camber?

[WopJob]

recent steering problems and wear on the inside of my front tires lead me to get a front wheel alignment. Driving is better now although not perfect still pull a little to the left, the reason is that the Camber is (LEFT -1.9 RIGHT +0.2) actually it cannot be aligned on a spider, right? everything else was aligned close to spec.
Since camber cannot be adjusted, and I don't remember being in an accident, how can this be?

[danyl]

Pardon my long reply, but maybe you'll find some of it usefull:

I've recently invested in the equipment to do my own alignments. The first thing I learned was how unreliable most "store" alignments are. If you put the car back on the machine immediately after the alignment, you'd probably find different measurements.

One needs to put appropriate weight in the seats to get a good road alignment. (most shops don't bother). One also needs to settle the suspension by bouncing on it. (most places don't bother doing this either)

Second...Caster and Camber are directly related, but not porportional in a linear fashion. My father-in-law and I actually worked out the trigonometry for the Spider's caster-camber arm relationship in order to predict the changes that each makes on the other. A small difference in caster between the two sides will affect camber differences to a larger extent.

Third...You say that your vehicle has not been wrecked. Are you certain? There are a few subtle signs you may want to look for: On the lower A-Arm, there are four bolts holding it's support bar to the frame. The support bar then goes into metal ball-n-sockets to the arms that connect to the wheel. There are large washers between the support bar and these ball joints. Are the washers bent? Even slightly? This would be the result of a hard wheel impact during your vehicle's history. It will grossly affect geometry and the camber angle under different weight loads. (ask me how I know)

A front end impact can also move the attachment point of the caster arm more rearward on one side than the other. A small/subtle difference can make bigger camber differences at different wheel angles.

Mine was wrecked. At 0 deg to 15 degrees of wheel rotation, no difference was noted. At 0 deg to 22 deg of rotation a side to side variance was noted.

Finally, may I suggest adjustable upper control arms to adjust camber. They are $100 each from IAP and simple to install.

[crashmctavish]

Check the rubber bushes on the top arms 1st, they can sag with age. New bushes are cheap & will normally recover the problem.
Regards Keith

[WopJob]

Hi Daryl, thanks for the reply, very informative. Yes the car was subjected to an accident before I got it, the passenger side fender shows signs of being "fixed" however, I own the can since 2001 and the problem seems to have started about 6 months ago. I will check the items you suggested when I rotate the tire in the next few days. the current alignment helped somewhat that the pull to the left is slightly noticeable, but sometime it seems not to be there, I attribute this to road "imperfections".
The car was sitting for a "few" years before I got it so some of the suspension components has some rust that made the suspension "groan" at the suggestion of a Alfa mechanic I installed older Used original front shocks, because he said that the KYB shock I installed all around were too stiff and were not allowing the components to move (and thus free themselves) properly. This was about 3 years ago.

[WopJob]

[quote=WopJob;550629]Hi DaNyl, sorry I mispelled your name.

[John M]

In addition to rebushing, you should consider purchasing some adjustable upper control arms. This would allow your car to be dialed in camber wise. They are available through all the normal suspects.

Best Regards,
John M