I just rebuilt the front on my 1989 D250 (cummins); went with 7226s and 1" spacers. I'm having serious issues with negative camber, the repair shop stated they cannot adjust the camber anymore. Does anyone have any suggestions? I googled this issue and only see problems with positive camber usually from bent lower A-arms. Need some help it's starting to wear on my new tires.

Thanks!

 

PapeCAT is running a set up like that to get some extra wheel well room, for his 19.5 rims to work on his 2wd.
I am sure he will chime in with some ideas.

 

They didn't set the toe to match the camber then. Camber shouldn't wear your tires all that much with a modern radial unless the toe is set wrong and the tires are scrubbing.

 

It's even wear on the inside of the tire, the negative camber is pretty bad.

I'm thinking about pulling the 7226s and going with an air bag setup, I'm doing the same on a 99' Ranger. I'm running 1 ton lowers, with a little bit of reinforcement I think I can make it work. Either way, I'll still have this negative camber issue.

Thanks

 

Even with airbags, if you use the same ride height, you will have the same camber issue. I'd look at the adjusters.

If the bolt is off-center toward the frame, they are probably trying to set you up like some ricer and tip your wheels way in. If the bolts are off-center away from the frame, the wheel tops are pushed out as far as they will go.

You could also pull the spacers and see what you get at stock height.

 

This seems to be a pretty common set up, I'm just curious what everyone has done to correct the issue. I have searched relentlessly on the Internet and I cannot find anyone with this problem. I'm out of town right now but when I get home I'll check the camber bolts. I have a feeling the mechanic shop didn't do something correctly.

 

You can also buy offset bushings for the upper control arms if necessary.

 

Here's some pics:




Right side front camber bolt:


Right Side rear camber bolt:

 

Now that I've seen it, it doesn't look TOO bad but I think there's a little more adjustment left. Take it back and ask them to adjust them. If they say it's as far as it can go, ask them to check the angle it's at now and then rotate them a hair more and check again to compare.

If I'm not mistaken, you do want a slightly negative camber in a proper alignment.

 

Yeah the shop already adjusted them fully, talked to them several times about it. Honestly I don't think they want to touch it again. I normally do my own work but my shop is full right now with a rat rod project. I might make some room on the side and tackle this. Jimbo there's some much negative camber I dont think a little adjustment will get it. It's hard to actually see how bad the negative camber is from the pictures.

Here's an idea; what if I remove the upper control arm brackets that are connected to the frame and add a half inch or 1" spacer behind them. This will give me plenty of adjustment for positive and negative. I'm leaning pretty hard to air bags (the 7226s springs are just too rough) and when I have all this torn down I can install the spacers then.

 

They are welded to the engine support cross member.

 

I can see it in the right tire on the second picture. I'm not sure there's enough adjustment left to get it right. Your left wheel should be tipped back/outward a hair at full lock, and it's still tipped forward/in slightly. I wonder where they have your caster set as well.

How long ago did you have it in to them? It looks like they didn't adjust anything, but that could also be from driving on salty roads, if you've been driving it.

Did you put new pivot bushings in it? They could be squishing, allowing the wheels to tip in, if they are getting weak.

I think another alignment shop is in order as well. I've got one that deals with heavy trucks picked out. These should be a walk in the park for them.

 

Everything is new; Upper control arms, upper and lower control arm bushings, upper and lower ball joints, springs and 1# spacers.

I have about $1k into the front which is a little disappointing right now.

 

If there is no adjustment left, something's wrong. That's just strange to me. If everything checks out, you may have to pick up some offset bushings for the upper control arms.

I've got about $1700 wrapped up in my front suspension/steering from when I rebuilt it back in 2010. Everything new and Moog. I went with the 7226S springs as well and the Bilstein shocks. It's not too bad but I probably should've gone with the standard springs. This truck doesn't see anywhere near "severe" duty.

I'd love to switch to airbags as well but I lack good fabrication skills and wouldn't trust myself welding anything structural. I'd love if somebody made a kit for these trucks. I've seen plenty of them on the 1/2-ton trucks. Maybe I'm mistaken for cut or shorter springs though. But, if there are kits for the 1/2-ton trucks, I think all we'd need is to simply replace the bags with some that are rated for a higher capacity.

 

I'm going to start tearing it down this weekend, I'll keep you guys informed. I appreciate all the feedback that you all have given!