Wonky rear wheel camber

[Moseley]

Just wasted my afternoon trying to get this sorted... :roll:

Bit of background: bought our bus with PO having said to have dropped the rear by 2 splines. The camber was all good, ride height all level on standard spring plates. However, getting wheels on and off was a bitch. So I bought some adjustable spring plates and new bushes and set about fitting them. I popped them on 1 spline back towards standard, and all was fine, camber pretty much the same on each side, however, one springplate had the adjusting screw most of the way up, whereas the other mostly down, just to get it sitting level.

I've been fannying about with it this afternoon, thinking that I'd mis-counted splines when fitting them, so have set about adjusting them to what I thought was the same position. Now I've got the van level, both spring plates are sitting in the same position, and the adjusters also roughly level. However, I've now got massively uneven camber on each side.

I've tried adjusting one of the spring plates back a spline which evens out the camber, but then the spring plates are back to both sitting really unevenly.

Bit stumped with this to be honest, as it seemed to be ok from memory on the standard spring plates , but then maybe it wasn't and I never noticed. What else could affect the camber? :?:

 

[ozziedog]

What condition are the rubber doughnuts in ?? They often wear slightly concentric and a combination of this could possibly be the culprit, and are they seated right ? If new try talcum :shock: :shock: :shock:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,, Nice on your bum as well as the vans :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Moseley]

What condition are the rubber doughnuts in ?? They often wear slightly concentric and a combination of this could possibly be the culprit, and are they seated right ? If new try talcum :shock: :shock: :shock:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,, Nice on your bum as well as the vans :lol: :lol: :lol:

Brand new with the spring plates!

 

[ozziedog]

What condition are the rubber doughnuts in ?? They often wear slightly concentric and a combination of this could possibly be the culprit, and are they seated right ? If new try talcum :shock: :shock: :shock:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,, Nice on your bum as well as the vans :lol: :lol: :lol:

Brand new with the spring plates!

I`d still maybe check that they are seated squarely. Did you use a rubber lube such as talcum ??

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, It`s a puzzler for sure :mrgreen:

 

[Moseley]

What condition are the rubber doughnuts in ?? They often wear slightly concentric and a combination of this could possibly be the culprit, and are they seated right ? If new try talcum :shock: :shock: :shock:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,, Nice on your bum as well as the vans :lol: :lol: :lol:

Brand new with the spring plates!

I`d still maybe check that they are seated squarely. Did you use a rubber lube such as talcum ??

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, It`s a puzzler for sure :mrgreen:

Yup, used talc. They were bastard tight to fit on the larger side of the spring plate - maybe I shouldn't have used standard ones on the larger boss?

 

[ozziedog]

Sorry mate, I`m still looking for inspiration and the only thing I can think of was that. Is there anyway you could trawl through any old photos of the bus and see if there is an inkling of it before from an old pic. It seems strange for it to have just manifested itself how you describe it. Is it the same with the shocks disconnected ??

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,, Grasping at straws now :roll: :mrgreen: :roll:

 

[Moseley]

Sorry mate, I`m still looking for inspiration and the only thing I can think of was that. Is there anyway you could trawl through any old photos of the bus and see if there is an inkling of it before from an old pic. It seems strange for it to have just manifested itself how you describe it. Is it the same with the shocks disconnected ??

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,, Grasping at straws now :roll: :mrgreen: :roll:

Again, this was all done with shocks unbolted. Very odd.

Just had a thought - when I moved the springplate round a spline and then used the adjuster to re-level the height, this shouldn't have made a difference to the camber, as the ride height didn't change... If that's the case then it must be something bush related as it's the only thing I'd have touched?

 

[Moseley]

Or in other words, the lower you go with adjustable spring plates, the more the camber increases; regardless of whether it is achieved by turning another spline, or adjusting the threaded adjuster.

 

[Moseley]

So if my ride height is even on both sides, something must be amiss for the camber to be so far off?

 

[Moseley]

Or maybe I'm completely barking up the wrong tree! :lol:

 

[Moseley]

I'm going to see if I still have the old bushes in the bin as this is the only other thing that changed and see if that makes a difference.

What do other people fit bushes-wise when fitting adjustable springplates? I bought 4 standard ones, but the inner bushes had to be installed with the help of a vice as the inner diameter of the spring plate is much larger than the outer (or vice versa off the top of my head). I'm wondering if it got damaged as it was installed, but can't believe this would have such an effect on the camber at the wheel.

 

[*Sam*]

I was only supplied with 2 bushes when I fitted my spring plates, I put them on the outer

 

[sparkywig]

I had a set if brand new ones (marked with Creative Engineering) with the T2D plates, and the inners bushes are different to stock.

 

[Moseley]

I think you might both be on to something here - I've just taken a look at Cool Air's website and it says that new inner bushes should be supplied with the spring plates.

I still can't see how a damaged new bush is enough to throw the camber so far out (will take a pic at some point for reference), but I'm hoping that is all it is. It did take some effort mind to get it on the spring plate! :lol:

 

[sparkywig]

With the stock inner bushes fitted the spring plates wouldn't sit correctly and I could twist the plates.

 

[*Sam*]

Just to back up Sparkywig, I phoned CE and asked if there was a difference between the bushes, the answer is yes the pair that are listed on there web sight is 1x inner and 1x outer.
Which makes me think that I must have got 4 donuts and remembered incorrectly, apologies for any misleading information.