Tony--
Thanks a lot for the reply. In addition to camber/castor deficit
disorder, I'm obviously keyboard-challenged. My note should have said
52-K not 5-K on my '76 TR6. Sorry for the confusion. Also, it would be
kilometerage in Canada, but I'm in Tennessee where distance is still
miles or occasionally "a-pieces." (e.g. "over yonder a piece.") Canada
is just a user name.
Yes, the floor is fairly level, & I've also measured it on a perfectly
level floor at an alignment shop where the passenger's side is more like
3/4 of an inch higher. I've measured almost everything I can think to
measure on the front suspension (springs with the weight of the car on
them, floor to frame, floor to bottom of trunnion, upper A-arm to lower
A-arm) and everything seems to be equal on both sides. The only
difference I can find in the suspension, as I mentioned before is the
number of shims on the lower A-arm brackets (driver's side has 3 shims on
each bracket and passenger's side has 1 shim on each.)
When you recommend adding a 5/8 inch spacer, I assume you mean
body-to-frame spacers? After seeing your suggestion, I measured the
spacers. They are within an eighth inch of each other on either side.
However, there is a 3/4 inch difference in the vertical measurement
between the upper A-arm and the inner fender directly above it (lower on
the driver's side). That certainly seems to correlate to the 3/4 inch
difference between the upper tire and the lip of the fender. I'm
beginning to wonder if the frame is straight; the car has almost
certainly never been wrecked (and everything except the springs, bushings
and shocks is original) but I understand other things can cause a frame
to warp. Now I'm wondering if adding spacers to level out a body on a
warped frame is a good idea.
Thanks again.
Ian CF57345U
Message text written by Canada
>I've followed this discussion with interest. I'm pretty ignorant of
>caster/camber issues, but I rebuilt the front and rear suspension on my
>'76 TR6 recently anyway. Followed the Bentley manual precisely and I'm
>pretty sure I put everything back the way it should be. (Nylatron
>bushings, HD lever shocks, Spax adjustables on the front and TRF springs
>that raise the car 1 inch all around.) My problem is that the front
>passenger side is almost an inch higher than the driver side as measured
>from the lower lip of each fender opening to a reference point on each
>tire. On the rear, the difference is about a half inch. The alignment
>shop I took it to says the car is in perfect alignment front and back and
>complemented me on putting things back together properly. They thought
>the problem with the front end might be related to the rear end and I
>assume they must be talking about the trailing arm brackets. the number
>of shims on the trailing arms are identical: 3 outboard and 4 inboard.
>On the front, there are 3 shims on each bracket on the driver's side and
>1 on each bracket on the passenger's side. The car is straight, never
>wrecked and has only 5K original miles.
>
>Can you offer any suggestions?
>>Thanks very much.
Ian CF57345U
<
5K original miles! WOW. I thought my '67 4A with 28K was good....
Well, Ian, I am CERTAINLY no guru of suspensions. I sometimes just try to
understand certain complex issues. Often to no avail.
If I understand correctly, you have an exceedingly low mileage car (is
that
"kilometerage" in Canada?) which was never even bumped, has new springs
and
bushings all around, and the original brackets and spacers, but still
seems
to have poor ride height symmetry?
This is like the murder in a locked room problem!
Is the floor that you are measuring off flat and level?
If so, I would presume that your car is exactly the way it was
delivered from the dealer. And the frame is ACTUALLY straight!(?)
What to do? The 1" and 0.5" height problem can't be corrected simply
by putting more spacers between the body and frame, I think.
I'd say the problem is in the front. High on the D.S. or Low on the P.S.
Can you switch the front springs left to right and see what happens? I
presume
that nothing will change. I'd then recommend that you add a 5/8" spacer
to the
low side to raise it by 1". I bet that will have the side-effect
of lowering the opposite corner a little.
As I said, I am no expert and never actually had to deal with this problem
myself. These are just some thoughts. Lets see some other comments...
-Tony
ARhodes@compuserve.com
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