hey
I've got a 1994 L series sportswagon, with a set of 13" sunnies and bfg 175/70r13 tyres on them, probably 5000km old at the most, and I'm having some problems with tyres wearing strange...
the LHF feathers the outside badly. The RHF feathers the outside but not as bad, and the rears feather the inside edges but not very badly.
Does anyone have the specs that these are supposed to run? Only toe is adjustable isn't it? Anyone else with these dramas? Its driving me looney because the wheels go out of balance and wobble... going to get a wheel alignment done as soon as possible but that probably won't happen till after new years.
brake rotors are warped too now.... stupid lucas trw's, i should know better than to use anything made by the prince of darkness, lucas.... gotta get that fixed on monday if i can....
Robert
tyres wearing strangely
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the gumbi brumby
- Junior Member
- Posts: 118
- Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:12 pm
- Location: bundaberg
For the front you can also adjust the castor via the radius rod rear mounts. Get a wheel allignment place to do it. I havn't heard of a ball joint causing issues like this before but maybe it's possible.
Has the car been used for offroading? In rare cases if the front end has been slammed hard enough the front struts can actually get slightly bent, this would affect camber.
At the rear it sounds like you have a typical case for an L series of too much negative camber. While there isn't an official propper adjustment you can alter it slightly in a way which will help your situation. Where the main rear arms connect to the rest of the K frame there are 3 large bolts. If you loosen these off, let the arm settle where those bolts go, then do them up tight again it should bring the rear wheels back up to a pretty neutral position.
Maybe give RDA brake rotors a try. I've never had any issues with them. Sposed to be the same quality as DBA and very well priced. You can even get the slotted versions for only about 20 bucks more.
Has the car been used for offroading? In rare cases if the front end has been slammed hard enough the front struts can actually get slightly bent, this would affect camber.
At the rear it sounds like you have a typical case for an L series of too much negative camber. While there isn't an official propper adjustment you can alter it slightly in a way which will help your situation. Where the main rear arms connect to the rest of the K frame there are 3 large bolts. If you loosen these off, let the arm settle where those bolts go, then do them up tight again it should bring the rear wheels back up to a pretty neutral position.
Maybe give RDA brake rotors a try. I've never had any issues with them. Sposed to be the same quality as DBA and very well priced. You can even get the slotted versions for only about 20 bucks more.
EZ30 L series - Monsterwagon
https://www.ausubaru.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=26163
https://www.ausubaru.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=26163
castor adjustment
I was pretty sure the castor was non adjustable, the radius rods just do up until they are tight and thats it. my other car the corolla has a nut on either end of the radius rod mount and the castor is adjustable, but the L series only has the nut on the end of the rod.
castor isn't the problem anyway because it doesn't wear tyres at all if its out. My problem would be camber or toe, I'm guessing camber because I changed the toe from toe in to toe out and it still wears the same part of the tyre...
I'll give that a go at the rear, and i'll get a wheel alignment place to measure the camber and toe and I may have to replace a strut.... The car has spent most of its life driving on dirt roads but probably not being abused too much, It would have been in pretty good condition but I think it was beyond the capabilities of the motor mechanic that was working on it to keep it going as it should be....
The brake rotors i'm thinking have warped because they may have been hot when I washed the car, and I paid particular attention to the wheels to get all the lucas brake dust off them... I'll get them machined I think. I have a funny feeling they are the original brake rotors on the car too
castor isn't the problem anyway because it doesn't wear tyres at all if its out. My problem would be camber or toe, I'm guessing camber because I changed the toe from toe in to toe out and it still wears the same part of the tyre...
I'll give that a go at the rear, and i'll get a wheel alignment place to measure the camber and toe and I may have to replace a strut.... The car has spent most of its life driving on dirt roads but probably not being abused too much, It would have been in pretty good condition but I think it was beyond the capabilities of the motor mechanic that was working on it to keep it going as it should be....
The brake rotors i'm thinking have warped because they may have been hot when I washed the car, and I paid particular attention to the wheels to get all the lucas brake dust off them... I'll get them machined I think. I have a funny feeling they are the original brake rotors on the car too
I got my specs from my last wheel alignment. They used figures from a 74-75 subaru wagon to set it all up, now only the toe is adjustable thank god..
the toe was set to 3.1mm toe in total at front, which explains the feathering. the specs said to set it to 7.0mm toe total, thank god they didn't do that!!!
now the interesting thing is at the rear on the rhs i have zero camber and about 8mm toe in, and on the lhs at the rear i have positive 1 camber and about 3mm toe in, giving me 11mm total toe at the rear.... I must have something bent...
Would this contribute to fuel economy too?
My brake rotors have been machined and front wheels balanced and it was a much much nicer trip. lucas pads don't pull you up as quick as other brands but I'll get over that.
Robert.
the toe was set to 3.1mm toe in total at front, which explains the feathering. the specs said to set it to 7.0mm toe total, thank god they didn't do that!!!
now the interesting thing is at the rear on the rhs i have zero camber and about 8mm toe in, and on the lhs at the rear i have positive 1 camber and about 3mm toe in, giving me 11mm total toe at the rear.... I must have something bent...
Would this contribute to fuel economy too?
My brake rotors have been machined and front wheels balanced and it was a much much nicer trip. lucas pads don't pull you up as quick as other brands but I'll get over that.
Robert.
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AlpineRaven
- Senior Member
- Posts: 3682
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:00 am
- Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Yeah it would affect on fuel economy - any out of wheel alignments does affect.
Cheers
AP
Cheers
AP
Subarus that I have/had:
1995 Liberty "Rallye" - 5MT AWD, LSD - *written off 25/8/06 in towing accident.
1996 Liberty Wagon - SkiFX AWD 5MT D/R, Lifted.. Outback Sway Bar, 1.59:1 Low Gearing see thread: 1.59:1 in EJ Box Page
Sold at 385,000kms in July 2011.
2007 Liberty BP Wagon, 2.5i automatic
1995 Liberty "Rallye" - 5MT AWD, LSD - *written off 25/8/06 in towing accident.
1996 Liberty Wagon - SkiFX AWD 5MT D/R, Lifted.. Outback Sway Bar, 1.59:1 Low Gearing see thread: 1.59:1 in EJ Box Page
Sold at 385,000kms in July 2011.
2007 Liberty BP Wagon, 2.5i automatic
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discopotato03
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2134
- Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2007 9:29 am
- Location: Sydney
Ah I don't agree with the toe in bit , IMO thats a RWD trait .
Under drive loads (assumes your car is effectively FrWD) the front wheels are pulling the car along so they pull themselves forward making it toe in even more .
I'd pay special attention to your radius rod bushes because any slop here alows them to slop forward (drive load) and backwards (braking loads) .
I strongly suggest fitting one of the lower duro (slightly softer) urethane bushing kits here to reduce fore/aft movement .
If you've raised you car at all (not meaning spacer lift kit) it will have more positive camber than standard - and standard they are bad anyway .
Body roll does horrible things to an L's front geometry with the front camber going from bad to suicidal .
Unfortunately the best first step to reduce the roll is to fit a rear anti roll bar (too many L's don't have them at all and those that do are too small anyway) .
I replaced my RX's std 16mm rear one with a 22mm one and its still marginal .
If you are interested enough to get rear arms off an RX-T or a 4WD Vortex I can put you in touch with people than can make up any sized bars you like , my original rear became their template because it was a first for them .
You do need to modify stronger horse shoe brackets but thats easy enough .
Thoughts , cheers A .
Under drive loads (assumes your car is effectively FrWD) the front wheels are pulling the car along so they pull themselves forward making it toe in even more .
I'd pay special attention to your radius rod bushes because any slop here alows them to slop forward (drive load) and backwards (braking loads) .
I strongly suggest fitting one of the lower duro (slightly softer) urethane bushing kits here to reduce fore/aft movement .
If you've raised you car at all (not meaning spacer lift kit) it will have more positive camber than standard - and standard they are bad anyway .
Body roll does horrible things to an L's front geometry with the front camber going from bad to suicidal .
Unfortunately the best first step to reduce the roll is to fit a rear anti roll bar (too many L's don't have them at all and those that do are too small anyway) .
I replaced my RX's std 16mm rear one with a 22mm one and its still marginal .
If you are interested enough to get rear arms off an RX-T or a 4WD Vortex I can put you in touch with people than can make up any sized bars you like , my original rear became their template because it was a first for them .
You do need to modify stronger horse shoe brackets but thats easy enough .
Thoughts , cheers A .
alignment angles
I would agree that the front wheels being driven will want to toe in naturally, so should be toed out or neutral accordingly... I think it goes much better with zero toe than with 3mm toe in.
the rear wheels, i'm not sure i fully believe what is on the sheet in terms of angles. I must have something bent on the RHR because it has zero camber and 8mm toe in whereas the other side has 3mm toe in and positive 1 camber, which I'm guessing may be normal?
The rears don't seem to be wearing the outsides though which is strange because I would suggest that they would feather the outside heaps with that much toe.
The car doesn't handle too bad at the moment, I just really don't want to scrub any tyres or feather them and make them go out of balance... its a pain to rebalance them because I can't do it myself (haven't got the balancer).
I've driven it around 1500km since I balance the front and machined the rotors, it still seems to wobble the steering wheel sometimes, under accelleration or at particular speeds, but nowhere near as bad as it was. Doesn't appear to have worn tyres strange yet either which is good.
Robert.
the rear wheels, i'm not sure i fully believe what is on the sheet in terms of angles. I must have something bent on the RHR because it has zero camber and 8mm toe in whereas the other side has 3mm toe in and positive 1 camber, which I'm guessing may be normal?
The rears don't seem to be wearing the outsides though which is strange because I would suggest that they would feather the outside heaps with that much toe.
The car doesn't handle too bad at the moment, I just really don't want to scrub any tyres or feather them and make them go out of balance... its a pain to rebalance them because I can't do it myself (haven't got the balancer).
I've driven it around 1500km since I balance the front and machined the rotors, it still seems to wobble the steering wheel sometimes, under accelleration or at particular speeds, but nowhere near as bad as it was. Doesn't appear to have worn tyres strange yet either which is good.
Robert.