Hey guys, I wonder if anyone can give me some advice here... Sorry about the novel, but Im trying to get as much information in, in one go.

1. Okay, as far as I can tell, it is running on stock suspension springs and shocks.
2. Recently I've had the driver side stabiliser-bar bracket refitted as the bar had forced it out.
3. I've had the driver side upper suspension arm mount bush replaced as it was 'gone'!.
4. Had 2 wheel alignments with very minor out of alignment detections (nothing to worry about as told).
5. Loss of tyre tread creating a tendacy to understeer.

The problem is my front tyres are wearing quite quickly on the outer edge on the front... and when I brake, there is a very slight thud sound that comes from the front suspension, like its moving (I can feel it through the floor, and hear it). ---It sometimes happens on accelleration also.

Now, If Im correct, a Camber Kit consists of metal plates which sit between the body and the upper suspension arm mount, correct???? There are about 5 of these plate on each side...

So, would these plates be needed for standard height springs????

The front of the car also slightly looks abnormally high.

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Questions...

Could my front springs be rooted, and can it happen???
Is the camber kit with the standard springs forcing my tyres out, causing them to wear away abnormally???
From what I've described, could there be anything else wrong?

I don't want to be forking out $250 for a pair of Potenza's every couple of months, What should I do?

Please help guys!

well, id say a camber kit on a car with standard springs would be causing the outer edge of your tyres to wear on the outside edge.

without pics cant really tell how abnormally high it is (most falcons with standard springs look abnormally high)

Sounds to me like someone had lowered suspension and swapped the suspension before they sold. They may have got another E series with standard suspension and wanted to keep the lowered look etc. They must have forgotten the camber kit or decided to get the adjustable one.

Just a thought

Yeah, sounds like it.
My outer tread wears hard enough with standard negative camber, let alone having a camber kit giving it even less.
If you get an alignment done, ask them for the specs.
Should be -0.7 camber stock.
(For ED, I'm assuming same for EA)

I've posted a few pics of my car into my user gallery if you guys wanna have a look, I rekon the front end looks higher than the rear.

I also have the same feeling that the front end of the car may have been lowered before it was sold to me, and the front springs seems to be stock, and the rear ones have King Springs STD in them.

I've been looking around at some other guys with EA/ED's and I like the ride height of the King Superlows, so I'm gonna put some in, I just don't have any spring compressors, and I've been told the ones at supercheap are dodgy and break apart.

Thanks again!

I just found the alignment report from Bob Jane...

Front Axel:
Caster L= +2°48' R= +1°45'
KingPin Inclination L= +6°35' R= +6°23'
Camber L= +0°00' R=+0°08'
Toe L= 1,0mm R= 1,0mm

I hope this info is helpfull???

Camber L= +0°00' R=+0°08'
Oh god!
There's definately still a shimmed camber kit in there!
Forget minutes, cause I've been out of school too long to think, but they should be around the -0.7 degrees mark.
I'm surprised the guys at Bob Jane didn't point that out.
I can't see super cheap spring compressors being that bad.
Maybe if you were changing springs every other week, but they probably won't see that much use.
I'm grabbing a set of E-bay, theres a few on there.

running 0deg on left and 0.08 deg + on right is the right way around for your camber but not the right angles. 1mm toe in either side is good but wit the positive camber thats where your tyres are going. dodgy janes has measured your angles but not changed them, comonly known in the industry as a toe and go. you want even casters, more neg camber on left than right about 1.5-2.0 deg neg on left and 1.0-1.5 deg neg on right as there is always a driver in the car and with weight on the right side the camber will alter and even up, go back to dodgy's and get your cash back or get them to do what you paid for. i used to work for a small steering speacialist on the gold coast and had customers travel up to 150k's to come to us for an alignment, cause we did them right.

Caster is different from left to right on the E series.
It's fixed that way, and can't be changed without a caster kit.
-2deg of camber is quite alot too.
I wouldn't go for that much on a daily driver.
Standard, as read from the Owners Manual, is -.7
The XR's run about -1.3
Between -1 and -1.5 is perfect for a sporty daily driver.

"...Toe and go."

Yeah, from lookin at the report, the toe angle was the only one modified. And it was slightly...

But!!!... if I put Kingspring Lows in, it should fix my camber problem then, right??? Cause I don't want an alignment if Im only going to lower the front end anyway?

Now I only have a problem with trying to figure out what angles to use...

The FORD EA owners manual states (Nov 1988):
Caster +2.5°
Camber +0.5°
Toe In 3.0mm

Gregory's Manual (Mar 2002):
Caster 3.5°
Camber -0.5°
Toe In 3.0mm

To bigbell351 : Are shims for the camber a set size??? Ie. 1 shim = +0.1° ????

yeh the manuals might say that but it means nothin, your tyre placard will probably say run a pressure of about 22-28psi but i'm sure if you did this your tyres would wear a lot quicker too. they say these things to try to hide any imperfections there might be in your susspension system, and to make the steering feel a little lighter. the shims are differant thicknesses and give differant deg of change, but if you want it to handle properly get it done to the specs i stated before. on my own car, xf ghia wagon i run about 4.5 deg + castor on both sides, 3.2 deg - camber on the left, 2.6 deg - camber on the right and the trick is about 3.5mm toe in overall to stop it wearing out the inside edges, i had kumho 769 tyres on it and just replaced them after getting about 80'000km from them. and i drive hard and often on the mountain roads around here. hope this helps.

Okay, I actually had a good look in the wheel bays this arvo... and now I don't know what the previous owners have done!!!

You'll notice in my Bob Jane report that there is +0°08' camber on my right wheel.... well, thats because the shims are ONLY on the right side of the car.

No shims on the left.... around 6 shims on the right rear bracket, and two on the right front bracket.

If I put Kingspring Lows in, how much negative camber will I get from lowering it an inch?????

 

 

Attachments:

File comment: Front Right Upper Suspension Arm Bracket with camber shims RightBrk_Front.jpg [ 52.87 KiB | Viewed 177 times ]

File comment: Rear Right Upper Suspension Arm Bracket with camber shims RightBrk_Rear.jpg [ 60.88 KiB | Viewed 175 times ]

you have a caster problem. the car may have been in an accident before. that is why there is more shims in the rear, it moves the right wheel forward to bring it closer to the same angle as the left side that is how caster adjustment is done. there should be no more than 1 deg differance in your caster angles.

don't know how much - camber you will get from a set of lowered springs as all springs and cars are differant.

but having no shims in the left means you have no adjustment to play with there it is as neg as it will get, putting shims in will only bring your upper control arm out which = + camber.

forget shim adjusters, save some bucks and get some decent k-mac adjusters and do your springs at the same time, with another alignment to get it all right, and feel the differance. it will be money well spent and you will enjoy your ride much more.

Didn't the EA's have some sort of front end problem right off the show room floor. That caused tyre wear on one side only. Maybe what your looking at is the result of someone previously trying to fix the problem?
I read it somewhere I'll have to try and find the article?

i think from memory the ea falcon had more caster on the left side so they would drive straight on your local back streets which have more camber on them than a highway. this is where the camber/caster kits evolved from. not one of henry's finer moments but if he got it right all the time us ford fans would not be able to improve them.

According to Street Machine 07/05. EA problems included almost non-existent dampers and an out-of-whack front suspension. It suggests in the article that there is a rumor that Ford fitted special tyres to the front left of the EA Falcon to prevent it from pulling to the left when new. Originally, the EA was designed with no adjustment in the front end and it took a while for shim-adjustable suspension to arrive to fix the pull.