# Rear Caster Adjustment?



## Mr200 (Oct 21, 2007)

EDIT----I meant to type camber....sorry. 

I've grown tired of the tread wear pattern on the rear of the 95 200SX. Spent some time under the car today and saw how hopeless a simple solution is for this problem.

Anyone know any tricks to get less negative camber on the rear wheels? There is negative 1 1/4 degrees on the left rear and on the right rear there is negative 3/4 degrees.

My target is between -1/4 and -1/8 degree.

Is my only option to bend the beam? 

Anyone have a picture or can describe to me what the beam bending jig looks like so I can build one if I have to?

John


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

There was some activity bending the beam for toe in, and a few photos, i saved them.
I will find and post.
I asked for info on the jig used and never got a reply. 
The guy was in Colorado and with needed a group getting together to make it worth his while showing up.
Would have to be a different jig completely for camber.
Are you sure your problems aren't made worse by the toe-in ?


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## rbo1577186 (Jan 16, 2005)

Measure the camber of one in a Junkyard, if it's good take it home. 

Is it possible your springs are severely worn or it's been in a collision?

On some solid axle 4WD's they make shims to adjust camber even thought it's not supposed to be adjustable.


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## Mr200 (Oct 21, 2007)

IanH said:


> There was some activity bending the beam for toe in, and a few photos, i saved them.
> I will find and post.


That would be great if you can point me to the pics. Thanks



rbo1577186 said:


> Measure the camber of one in a Junkyard, if it's good take it home.


I have the portable caster/camber guage however getting the axle level to get an accurate reading could prove to be a challenge.



rbo1577186 said:


> Is it possible your springs are severely worn or it's been in a collision?












Which collision?..........The last 14 months have need horrible for this poor car. Smashed a deer in the hood/grill which set off the airbags and busted the windshield from the POS designed airbags

And then after fixing that it got rear ended 6 months later and pushed into a trailer towed by a truck Anyway, I don't see the springs having an effect on the camber adjustment for the rear .



rbo1577186 said:


> On some solid axle 4WD's they make shims to adjust camber even thought it's not supposed to be adjustable.


I see no way I can apply a shim to correct this. Please let me know if you have heard of a way to do this.


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

Thats also caused by toe in, camber is a bit more uniform across the tread, or it was on the front off my Sentra.
The toe in issues have been an issue for the guys who Autocross these cars.
get it measured and see what you have.
Range reported was up to 3/8 toe in.....
yes you are right, there is no way the B14 rear axle can be adjusted short of bending the beam.
The 2008 2009's have the same problems new, and they can get aftermarket alignment shop and shims to fix it, the dealers have no clue...


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

Poor car !!!


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## rbo1577186 (Jan 16, 2005)

Holy Sheet!! No wonder it all out of wack... 

OK solid beam, (Yeah springs don't matter).

To be honest I'd just get one from a salvage yard that hasn't been in a collision if...... You are confident the unibody/frame(not sure I'm guessing unibody) isn't bent.

That is some serious tire wear.... I'm with Ian on this, I'd let an alignment shop take a look. They should be able to tell you if the frame is bent before you even bother with the beam.

Here's a link on the shims I was talking about, but it won't work in your application (sorry). I knew they made them for "non adjustable" (per the FSM) solid front axles. I was just guessing they might make one that would work for you.

Installing Camber Adjustment Shims


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## Mr200 (Oct 21, 2007)

The Camber on the left is negative 1 1/4 degree and the camber on the right is negative 7/8 degree. I didn't bother to check toe since the tread is smooth (not scalloped or feather edged or anything) however I did make a jig for checking toe and I may as well check it.









The Lexan square sheets with grease and heavy plastic are my design for turning plates. They work well, didn't cost me anything to make, are reusable, light and store easily.

My son and I repaired the 200sx. I painted it and it has a new 10 footer paint job on it. Base coat clear coat color of "cloud white". Just disappointed with the tire wear pattern after we put the time and expense into resurrecting it.

Before I realized the rear beam had a torsion tube in it I considered partially cutting the beam and welding it back together to get the camber correct. Well that is not practical now since I see the pipe or tube up inside the upside down "U" shaped beam.


I'm checking into a parts car now.

John


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

If you want rear disc brakes now is the time if you are shopping for a beam axle!!! don't forget the 2 E brake cables, and the brake pipes.


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

will PM you a link to the article i saved on beam bending, shows pics of the jiging.


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## Mr200 (Oct 21, 2007)

Both sides now have less than Negative 1/4 degree camber. I will recheck it later in the week after we get a few miles on it.


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

I am impressed !!
Can you bend the axle to fix the toe in as well with that rig ?


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## Mr200 (Oct 21, 2007)

IanH said:


> Can you bend the axle to fix the toe in as well with that rig ?


A buddy of mine brought the 6 foot long, 3 inch square tubing over this morning and left it with me. He does not want me to cut it. It may work for toe however I would need to build a jig that would spread the load of the hydraulic jack evenly without squishing the axle beam from the side. It was fairly easy to build a jig to support and spread the load from the bottom of the axle beam.

What I mean to say is the Square tubing (or I beam) needs to be no longer than 48 inches to fit between the tires. It would have to be shorter to be used for toe.

Thanks again for the picture and write up.


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

OK I see.
What is the wall thickness ?
I will measure up my car to get a length.


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## Mr200 (Oct 21, 2007)

IanH said:


> OK I see.
> What is the wall thickness ?
> I will measure up my car to get a length.


The 3 inch square tubing is 3/16" wall thickness. I would expect anything less to bend and stay bent from attempting this. I used a 4 ton Harbor Fright jack I purchased just for this and I had to really get on the handle to get the last stroke to get the end results. The last stroke was #8 (after the chain slack is gone) and I had to use the extension handle to get it.

I will post up some pictures of the jig (jacking saddle) I cobbled together from scrap metal I had. 

John


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## Mr200 (Oct 21, 2007)

*Axle Beam Camber Tool*

This worked for me for Camber. You are free to use this "design" at your own risk. The short piece of pipe that sticks out the bottom of the channel iron is simply a nipple welded on to safeguard that the jack stays in place. The jig could easily be pulled off the axle beam by had after each "forming" procedure. After 4 of these procedures the Camber was close enough.








If anyone has suggestions for improvements, by all means post it up.


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

Ok thanks.
Did you check your toe-in yet ?


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## Mr200 (Oct 21, 2007)

IanH said:


> Ok thanks.
> Did you check your toe-in yet ?


No....I got carried away on another project tonight. My daily driver is a 86 MR2. The MPG for the last 3 years are 36.1mpg, 38.2mpg and for 2008 37.7mpg. I want to do an experiment and build a cat test pipe. Tonight I pulled into the work shop, measured the cat and constructed a test pipe from some discarded stainless steel tubing from a GE combustion turbine (AKA Jet Engine). It is very thin wall 2 inch or so tubing. This was my first serious attempt at TIG welding and it came out.......er....half ass. After switching to the smallest diameter tungsten it worked much better. Just a couple of pin holes. This cool weather is just the ticket for putting on all the heavy welding gear. 

I'll try to get to it in the next few enenings depending on the prime time TV schedule:lame:

John


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## Mr200 (Oct 21, 2007)

IanH said:


> Ok thanks.
> Did you check your toe-in yet ?


Yes! Happy to say that toe-in is zero or so close to zero that I can't measure it!!!

and Camber is still less than -1/4 degree on both rear wheels


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

Well i am amazed, you are the first to report near zero toe-in at the rear.
I plan to get mine measured at a shop this week, will let you know !!


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## Mr200 (Oct 21, 2007)

IanH said:


> I plan to get mine measured at a shop this week, will let you know !!


Any results to post?


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

Mr200 said:


> Any results to post?


Well it was a plan, didn't make it last week, will try to make it this week.


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