Rear wheel adjustment and alignment question/issue...

[hessel1974]

Hello,

I have an issue with the right rear wheel alignment and can use some help.

It seems that the right rear wheel is aligned so that it protrudes more from the chassis rail than the left so that it makes contact with the inside of the wheel arch in the quarter panel. It touches the tire on the outer edge.

I have had the car aligned, so the camber and toe setting are set correctly, but no change. Is there a way to pull the wheel more in the wheel arch toward the chassis rail?

I noticed that the rear end of the spring plate has sort of oval/elliptical bolt holes where it attaches to the control arm. Is this for alignment to either pull in or push out the wheel due to altering the point where the spring plate and swing arm meet?

Thanks for your help!

[rusnak]

what are the camber and toe settings currently? Tire and wheel size?

[hessel1974]

Camber -1 degree, Toe 0 degree. I run 185/70 R15 Fulda Y2000 tires.

[rusnak]

wait a second...is this on the '71? Those tires might be way too tall. Maybe 185/65.

[hessel1974]

185/70 on 15 inch is the correct tire size for a '71. I know that quite afew move to 185/65 because of stability.

Also, I have no issues on the left rear side, only the right. Somehow the wheel needs to get more inside the rear quarter panel.

[rnln]

those bolts are for adjusting alignment. If you adjust those, you adjust your alignment. If you set your camber a little more negative, the wheel will tilt in, top toward middle of the car, you might solve the rubbing problem, but you experience quicker tire worn from inside edge.

[rusnak]

Somehow I think this 911 has been lowered or somehow altered from stock. The suspension just does not cause this to happen if everything is stock.

[Todd Simpson]

Your alignment and tire size are correct, there should be no rubbing.

Are you running 7" wheels on the rear? Can you post a picture of the car?

[hessel1974]

I am running 6j x 15 wheels on the car. I took some measurements from wheel to body, front spring plate to wheel, etc, and it seems that it is the wheel which stands too much outward. The quarter panel has the correct distance from the chassis rail.

I will post some pictures later. What I did notice is that the right wheel is closer to the front of the spring plate than the left, which would indicate that where the springplate attaches to the control arm must be altered so that the wheel moves a bit inward. I guess that there is some adjustment possible because of the elliptical bolt holes in the springplate.

Am I on the right track here or is my line of thinking way off?

[hessel1974]

Some pics.

[rnln]

wow, I don't know 71 but your car looks like it has a lot of space between the tire and fender. How is your shocks condition?

[tobluforu]

Zero toe in the rear, you might want to change that unless you are use to it. When did this happen/change, and its hard to tell by the pics?

[hessel1974]

Shocks are ok, relatively new koni's. I know, the car needs lowering which will happen this winter. Also the reason why I need to get this sorted.

I don't know when this changed. I noticed it on a long trip to Le Mans classic with more weight in the car. Thing is, my winter project is the suspension and all bushes, bearings, etc will be renewed. But I will go to the factory in Zuffenhausen in 5 weeks and don't want to go there with a tire touching the fender.

[Flieger]

Steel trailing arms can be bent, and it can be hard to see by eye. Do you know for sure that the chassis and suspension arms are in correct geometry?

[rusnak]

just eyeballing it, it looks like you have zero or slightly positive camber. That sure does not look like 1 degree negative.

[hessel1974]

@ Rusnak: That's what I thought as well. It looks too positive. But it has been aligned at a shop with alignment equipment and was set to 1 degrees negative. I guess that I need to trust the machine and not my eyes.

I have checked the spring plate and it is not warped. But what i did see is that the bolts where the springplates meet the control arm should possibly move backwards, so that the wheel moves towards the back of the car and inwards at the same time. I tried this, but to no avail. No movement. Does the toe or camber eccentric bolts adjust this?

Otherwise I'll just give it more negative camber so that it doesn't touch the fender, but I a affraid It will reach 2 degrees negative then. How does this affect driving????

[Tim L]

If it looks off it probably is. Don’t trust the shop measure it yourself

[Tim L]

Put the car on level ground and place a level up against the rim, 1 degree camber should be in .3" at the top of a 16" rim.

[hessel1974]

I just took a carpenters hook and a flat bit of aluminium. I put the flat bit of aluminium on the rim edges (bottom and top and used the carpenters hook to see if the rim is negative.

On the good left side I had a 4 mm gap at the top, so that should be 1 degree negative. On the right side it confirmed what I saw. No gap at the top, even a slight positive. So tomorrow i'll set the camber similar to what I have on the other side.

Still don't understand that the alignment equipment or the operators have messed it up that badly.

[rusnak]

There you go. The eccentric bolts adjust camber and toe. You need to loosen the two bolts that attach the springplate to the trailing arm.