Camber Kit? Need help fast
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From: Wisconsin
Camber Kit? Need help fast
I just took my '92 Bronco in for an alignment at the dealer in town, and they called me and told me my truck needed a camber kit or they couldn't do an alignment. Anybody else need one of these? Or is the dealer trying to take my money?
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From: MA
Have you altered your front suspension at all? What size tires are you running? Have you checked your ball joints and every other suspension component lately? If you have some bad components, I guess it could throw the front end geometry out of whack, causing the need for the new camber bushings. I had to install some when I put my leveling kit on, but that was it. Did you ask specifically WHY you needed these?
Rich
Rich
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From: San Antonio TX
The only camber kit I know of is differnt from ther original eguipment cams. You can get a set of fully adjustable up to 1" 3/4 or so from napa don't have the part nubmer but paid 100 for two of these cams and haven't ever had to replace them get the alignment done ever couple of months do to replacing differnt suspension components as the need to be and used to be they would tell me need different cam each time now no more just readjust these and done. no more paying out for different cams.
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From: Wisconsin
The only thing I have altered on my front end is I put polyurethane radius arm bushings on, otherwise it is stock. The tires are the stock size too, 29". The balljoints were replaced 2 years ago, and the last time I looked, everything was ok and it doesn't look like the front springs are sagging. I asked why they needed them and the guy said without them they couldn't adjust the camber. Can these camber bushings wear out at all? The only thing that is questionable about the front end is that when I jack up a front tire, it moves to being striaght up and down, (from it's previous postion of slanting out: / \). It does wear on the inside of the tires real bad, after 3,000 miles of driving, the inside edge has almost a 1/2 of the tread gone.
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From: Wanatah In,
When your springs start to sag that will cause the insides of your tires to wear, new springs would be better than trying to shim the worn ones, you'll also gain a little height. Cheaper too if you do your own work. Im in the process of dealing with this issue also.
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From: NJ
these camber bushings dont shim the springs they are installed on the upper balljoint shaft and they come in different sizes. 200 dollars labor sounds reasonable to me because you have to dissasemble the whole front end like you were replacing the ball joints to in stall them.does that price include thge alighnment also?tires wearing out half way in 3000 miles is totally bad my tires wear evenly the whole time they are on the truck.
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Joe Kucinski
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From: Wanatah In,
What I meant to say is get new springs rather than try to compensate for the worn ones. You can get the camber kits from rockauto.com cheap, the ones for my truck range 9-13 dollars. Labor is the expensive part.
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From: NJ
JUST ANOTHER THOUGHT IS THAT POSSIBLY THE ORIGINALS WERE INSTALLED ,sorry,backwards when the ball joints were replaced the first time.yes definatly dont compensate for a worn part, replace any worn parts before doing the alignment, that way your not throwing your money away. the money spent will be saved by the increased tire life.
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From: Wisconsin
Thanks for all the help and information so far. I decided to take it in and get it done since i don't think the front springs were sangging much or at all. Yes that price did include the alignment. Last night the dealer called me about my truck, this got a lot more expensive, they said that the nut over the balljoints is rusted tight and the impact guns can't get it loose. The guy that called said that they will have to try the torch next and that he can't give me an estimate any more because they dont know how long it will take.
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From: OHIO
the torch on the ball joint nut will melt the rubber boot if they are not careful.if the ball joints are only2 years old they shouldn't be that tuff.tell them your not buying new ball joints again.whoever put the first set in probably didn't mark the camber/caster shims from original spot now they need to be turned to correct the problem.i have a six inch lift with original shims alignment is fine!
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From: Colorado
I recently had the same work done on my '88 Bronco. After getting two alignments from midas and still having tire wear, a friend recommended me to someone local. He said that with my size tires (265/75) he'd need the different bushings to get the camber right. It was $250 with parts and labor, and it did fix the tire wear problem, as well as some highway vibrations. My question: what about the tire size caused me to need new bushings?
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From: Oromocto NB
I've never seen those nuts so rusted that I couldn't take them off, and I live in the salt belt. Pretty big nuts to rust away that you can't get them off, man if they really are that bad than you needed new ball joints anyways. Might of been your alignment problem to begin with. Dam I wish I lived near you, I'd do it labor free! Well perhaps some beer. 
I just did my buddys and his ball joints were 6 years old, took a 4 foot bar to crack them loose but I got the nuts off. Hell I'd mig a nut over top of the old ones befor I'd take a torch to them. Oh wait you said impact gun! Yeah that won't work!! Need a big *** bar to crack those nuts!! You'd need a big exspensive impact gun to crack them and I don't think many shops have one with enough power to break those loose, mine wouldn't thus the reason for the 4 foot bar, never even took the cotter pin out just sheared it right off.
I just did my buddys and his ball joints were 6 years old, took a 4 foot bar to crack them loose but I got the nuts off. Hell I'd mig a nut over top of the old ones befor I'd take a torch to them. Oh wait you said impact gun! Yeah that won't work!! Need a big *** bar to crack those nuts!! You'd need a big exspensive impact gun to crack them and I don't think many shops have one with enough power to break those loose, mine wouldn't thus the reason for the 4 foot bar, never even took the cotter pin out just sheared it right off.
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From: Wisconsin
I got the alignment all done, but it took almost two full days. The dealer never could get the nut off, so they had to take the entire front end apart, down past the spindels, to put in the new bushings. Can you get to the bushings by taking the whole front end apart, or do you have to take the ball joint nut off? They also said, they tried a breaker bar, but they still couldn't get the nut off. Well at least my tires are straight up and down now.
O yea, sorry for the late reply, but I was gone for a week on vacation.
O yea, sorry for the late reply, but I was gone for a week on vacation.