Avanti alignment

[JoeHall]

Although camber is a cause of inner edge tire wear, the most overlooked and common problem is toe. Due to steering component wear, setting toe to "factory" specs is useless. Only by rolling the car across a toe "scrub" gauge can the dynamic toe be measured and wear compensated for. Setting the toe static, say at 1/16" for new radial tires, may result in a dynamic toe out of 1/4" wearing the hell out of the tires from the inside edge as they scrub themselves away. I've seen "perfectly" aligned cars with totally worn out inner edge of the tires in 3,000 miles, due to this problem, when replaced, without any changes to settings, other than toe change, the next set of tires showed NO unusual wear after 20,000 miles.

Sometimes I think we make Stude maintenance too complicated.
I set toe in/out by coasting the Stude to a straight stop, on level concrete, with steering wheel centered, and GOOD tires on the car. I used to use the string, per the Shop Manual, till I got the hang of it years ago. Now, I simply sight along the outer edge of driver side tire, and align it with the rear tire, where the rear tire just barely disappears. Then I do similar with the passenger side, but a little extra past disappearance of the rear tire, for a little toe in. I then test drive, and if it pulls to one side or other, I play with the passenger side toe in. If not satisfied, I swap front tires, side to side. Repeat the passenger side toe in, if necessary.

I set camber by simply maxing the adjustment on the cam. I have learned from experience, excess positive camber on a Stude is only possible if its a, "low rider".

As with camber, I set the cam for max caster, because you cannot achieve too much, "rake" on Stude king pins. I compare caster between sides, and if needed, give up caster on one side to come as close as possible to matching the other side.

To read caster and camber, I use a bubble vial, bought from JCW many years ago, that is amazingly accurate. But I seldom use it anymore. As explained above, just set both for max, and forget it.

I usually have to rotate tires once in their lifetime, but often because the rears wear out before the fronts.

[nels]

Don't forget, if you can't get enough positive camber, rotate the inner upper control arm shaft as the mounting holes are offset to give extra camber if needed.

[Sagandaga]

Thanks guys, a lot of good insight and information. I ordered an Avanti shop manual the other day.Thanks again.