Aussieveedubbers · Tech Talk

Type 3 adjusting rear wheel camber

https://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/threads/44124/type-3-adjusting-rear-wheel-camber

Andy ·

Hi all,
Just a simple question I hope.
I have a ’71 fast back, looks like it’s been lowered a little by the previous owner and the rear tyres are wearing badly on the inside corners (made worse by bad wheel alignment too).
I plan to raise the ride height slightly back to standard and get a wheel alignment to fix it all up. The issue is when I lift the rear up with a jack, the wheels are still not square to the ground. I can’t see any other camber adjustment at the rear to fix this up.
Is there something I’m missing?
Any help would be appreciated.

pete wood ·

Andy wrote:Hi all,
Just a simple question I hope.
I have a ’71 fast back, looks like it’s been lowered a little by the previous owner and the rear tyres are wearing badly on the inside corners (made worse by bad wheel alignment too).
I plan to raise the ride height slightly back to standard and get a wheel alignment to fix it all up. The issue is when I lift the rear up with a jack, the wheels are still not square to the ground. I can’t see any other camber adjustment at the rear to fix this up.
Is there something I’m missing?
Any help would be appreciated.
Npe, the camber is not adjustable.

Just like dunnydores, old dattos and Bimmers, IRS rear ends have static negative camber unless they are set really high, Ie. like an offroad buggy, look at an Lbug and you'll see the same thing. Don't worry too much about it, what you could do is have the tyres wapped side to side on the back (dr to pass and vice versa), so the bad side get swapped to the outside and the new side to the inside. That way you'd get twice as much wear. I can't see why this would be a problem.

BTW, nice fasty. 🙂

nn[ Edited on 23-9-2005 by pete wood ]

Andy ·

Thanks Pete,
Thanks for the praise on the fasty. Like all 30+ year old unrestored cars it has it's issues but on the whole is a nice low milage original.
Maybe I will adjust the ride height a bit higher then just to square it up. I also have a L bug and late bay Kombi and both wear all tyres evenly, so I hope to make the fasty the same.
😎

VWCOOL ·

Replace all torsion bar rubbers, restore proper ride height and get a wheel alignment. A saggy rear end will wear tyres on the inside edge due to too much toe out - toe is adjustable

Andy ·

Thanks VWCool, forgot about the rubbers! Will get a set before adjusting then. Yes, your right, rear toe is way out on one tyre currently.

vw54 ·

I think you will find that the rear torsion bar rubbers are gone. Replace these first and reset the IRS before you go getting a rear wheel align.

Andy ·

Thanks Dave. That's probably all that's needed to fix it all up. She does "crab" a bit, so will need alignment anyway. It also gets a bit of tyre squeal round corners at a much lower speed than the '73 wagon I have 🙂
:thumb