Hello. I have a 1985 GSL and I botched a corner autoxing and went off road. Now the problem I am having is the passenger side front wheel has excesive positive chamber. It seems to be getting worse as well. I tried adjusting the thing at the top of the tower (turning the strut), and it did nothing. The control arm does not look bent, could it have compressed? The subframe looks good too.

My suspention setup is stock. One thing I have not tried is measuring the ride hight on both sides of the car. I have not done that because it would not make much sence that one side of the car would be sitting lower then the other all of the sudden.

Also the front passenger side wheel bearing is harder to turn the drivers side, and the front right break keeps on sticking a little.

Does any one know what the heck is going on? Has this happened to anyone elce before? How can I fix it?

One last thing, I am planing to go with RB springs, swaybars, and tokico Shocks, braided stainless steel break lines, cross drilled and sloted rotors, and nice pads. If I fix all that you think my problem will go away?

Thanks Ted.

 

You bent something, could be the lower arm, the spindle or the strut tube. The new parts you listed will not fix the problem.

 

The control arm does not look bent, is there a way of measuring it that will inform me if it is bent?

Tell me more about bending the spindle and strut tube, can I measure that some how as well? if so how? And would replacing the strut solve the issue of a bent strut tube??

Sorry for all these stupid rookie questions, but I am still a rookie. I just finnished highschool today lol!

At least I no more about rotaries then 99.7% of the people in my town.

 

Take the wheels off both sides and compare them. Look very closely for any differences between the two, it may be nearly imperceptable, depending on the damage. Also look at the wheel stance while the car is sitting on level ground, compare both sides. Look at the tilt in/out of the wheels in both the vertical and horizontal lines through the center of the wheel and compare how the wheel is centered in the wheel well. Put the strut back in the original position before doing this.

You might try taking it to an alignment shop, if the parts are bent enough, they will not be able to correct it and may be able to tell you which parts are bent. If in doubt, replace the entire strut assembly and lower arm.

 

I see. I already took it to the alignemnt shop, they could not tell me what was bent. I carfuly observed both side and they apear to be identical. Nothing seems to be bent. I think i bent the strut tube. The wheel is about 3 degrees off ( estimation) so it is pritty bad.

I think I will have to replace that hole asembly including the wheel bearing to get to the bottom of this.

Now is there anything that doing a bushing install could cause this? I recently did a fully poly bushing install, could that have an effect?

Thanks.

 

If you did the tension rod bushings, it would affect castor, not camber.

 

Front brake sticking + wheel bearing hard to turn + "wheel about 3 degrees off" = Bent spindle/stub axle.

An easy check for this comparing the gap between the top inside edge of the tire and the strut/spring assembly on each side. I think this gap is normally 1 inch? Just use your fingers - how many fingers can you fit between the tire and strut? Is the gap the same on each side?

 

Yep, I am 90% sure that is the one. I quickly did the finger thing, and I could fit in almost 2 more fingers! So that is probably it.

Let's say that this was not the problem, what elce could it be?

Thanks Bruceman.

Do you have a pic of a spindle/stub axle, that is bent or not bent I can use as comparison?

Thanks.