Real Negative Camber

[sikamikanico816]

well Its been like this since i caught a little air in the desert. my alignment looks around 5 degress negative, its pretty bad. Curious thing is that sometimes the camber changes mysteriously. Usualy when im parked on an uphill facing up, the camber gets somewhat not bad but if im facing down, the camber more negative. But sometimes its random. Im coming up with many ideas of what can be causing it becuase i cant realy figure it out. I have changed both upper and lower ball joints, i purchased a new cam kit, all which helped a little but its still real bad. I dont think its control arm bushings either that would make it as bad as it is. I think my wheel bearings might be a little worn. would that give camber issues?

I do have one wild idea. Well, as i said about my camber changing randomly, im thinking that i might have twistid my frame inward slightly. i only come to this reasoning becuase i currently have no front bumper mounted. The front bumper acts as a crossmember for the front end of the explorer. since i lost strength in the frame, im thinking that when i bottomed out after the jump, the the lower control arms pushed against the bump stops on each side of the frame and bent the frame inwards. Since i bent it, im thinking that my frame is weak right now and everytime i put more weight to the front of the explorer (ex: facing down on a slope), more weight is being transfered to the front of the car and therefore further twisting the frame inwards and giving me more negative camber. a crazy theory but it makes sense.

i would really appreciate any other ideas on what is causing my negative camber and how to fix it.

 

[BigDave!!!]

how does your crossmember look? Arvin (forget his EF name) with the mounty had about 4* neg due to a bent crossmember

 

[sikamikanico816]

which crossmember? the chunky one for the lower control arms? that one looks fine but my front bumper mounts dont look exactly level. they look turned inwards the center of the car.

 

[sikamikanico816]

well i took a good inspection of the front end and it looks like i said about the twisted frame. i still have a lot of bad vibration going over deformations on road but im ganna open a new thread on that. besides the point, is their anyway to twist the frame back outwards? my only other solution would be getting custom longer upper arms to compensate for the camber. what ya'll think?

 

[410Fortune]

I think you need the help of a professional body shop, who can maybe put it on a rack and pull the frame back into stock specs.

 

[sikamikanico816]

do you think they will have to demount my body from the frame. its sounding pricy now. unless they just pulled the front ends of the frame outwards each other... hmm. i mean all of this can just give me a pretty good excuse to get a custom long travel suspension with custom upper arms which compensate for the bent frame. =) haha. Do you reccomend a self-owned bussiness or is there a big corp. which does body work?

 

[exploded99]

No, what they do is drop the front suspension off, mount the truck on a big rack, and take a bunch of measurements to see exactly where and how bad the frame is bent. Then they hook some big chains to the frame, and use big hydraulic pistons to yank it back square / straight.

But when my truck got rear ended and the rear frame member got bent, it was 450.00 bucks (insurance covered it) to straighten the frame, so be ready - could be pricey.

Any decent body shop has a frame straightening machine. From what you've said, take the truck in to a good shop, have them check the front alignment, and look at the frame. A good frame guy will probably be able to tell you what's bent (given your description of your camber problem in your other post) just by eyeballing it.

Lived in Scripps Ranch back in 98, before the fires, haven't seen Chula Vista for a few years now! Ain't got no In-n-Out burgers here!

 

[rynstvy]

well Its been like this since i caught a little air in the desert. my alignment looks around 5 degress negative, its pretty bad. Curious thing is that sometimes the camber changes mysteriously. Usualy when im parked on an uphill facing up, the camber gets somewhat not bad but if im facing down, the camber more negative. But sometimes its random. Im coming up with many ideas of what can be causing it becuase i cant realy figure it out. I have changed both upper and lower ball joints, i purchased a new cam kit, all which helped a little but its still real bad. I dont think its control arm bushings either that would make it as bad as it is. I think my wheel bearings might be a little worn. would that give camber issues?

I do have one wild idea. Well, as i said about my camber changing randomly, im thinking that i might have twistid my frame inward slightly. i only come to this reasoning becuase i currently have no front bumper mounted. The front bumper acts as a crossmember for the front end of the explorer. since i lost strength in the frame, im thinking that when i bottomed out after the jump, the the lower control arms pushed against the bump stops on each side of the frame and bent the frame inwards. Since i bent it, im thinking that my frame is weak right now and everytime i put more weight to the front of the explorer (ex: facing down on a slope), more weight is being transfered to the front of the car and therefore further twisting the frame inwards and giving me more negative camber. a crazy theory but it makes sense.

i would really appreciate any other ideas on what is causing my negative camber and how to fix it.

if you dont mine haveing a bent frame their are upper a arm that can adjust up to 6* from chassis tech http://www.airbagit-store.com/product.asp?returnURL=default.asp&ID=96411

 

[IZwack]

wow this is an old thread but since rynstvy brought it up, I thought I'd throw this in:

About the camber changing when the vehicle is parked downhill versus uphill -- I think the logical explanation for this is, when the vehicle is parked downhill, more weight is on the front wheels which means the front suspension will compress -- therefore inducing negative camber change. When the vehicle is parked uphill, there is less weight on the front which means the front suspension will extend out and induce positive camber change.

Now as for the negative camber on flat ground, I would park next to a stock Explorer with acceptable camber and look at both vehicles from the front. What you want to look for is any geometrical differences between the two vehicle's suspension. Focus on the space between the outer-edge of the upper A-arm and the tire. If there is a difference, then perhaps the steering knuckle is bent (which could happen - happened to me once but only to one knuckle). At this point, you can also break out the tape measure and take frame and suspension measurements between the two Explorers taking note of any differences. If your frame has bent in enough to a point where you can see severe camber problems, then you should also be able to see the bent frame after comparing it to the other Explorer as a baseline as to what is a "straight" frame.