Front Tires Are Wearing Prematurely

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sixty9xtc

sixty9xtc

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I am running 155/80 15's on the front the problem I am having is the front tires are wearing very badly in the inside. The first problem was that it had drag shocks on the front and the alignment guy couldn't get the front end to set at the same height. So after I replaced the drag shocks with regular shocks it seems that the alignment guy still was having issues getting the front to stay at the same height. The tires still seem to be wearing. It has had a front suspension rebuilt before I got it and the previous owner put SSBC front discs on the car. He did put 1/2 inch spacers to keep the 15X4.5 rims from rubbing. Could it be the the tires are set out too far with the spacers or something in the suspension. I compared the front suspension with another dart and everything looked the same.
 
Usually inside tire wear is caused by one of three things....as long as all the parts are good. 1) Not enough toe in. 2) Too much negative camber. 3) Lack of rotation. Nine times out of ten, it's not enough toe. Oh and find another alignment guy. The one you are using is an idiot.
 
Does he know you have accentrics on the upper control arms to adjust camber?

You can also get adjustable strut rods to get some more caster, but I'm with strokers camp...find another alignment guy.

Is your idler arm sloppy?
 
StrokerScamp said:
Usually inside tire wear is caused by one of three things....as long as all the parts are good. 1) Not enough toe in. 2) Too much negative camber. 3) Lack of rotation. Nine times out of ten, it's not enough toe. Oh and find another alignment guy. The one you are using is an idiot.
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99% of the time and Idiot. (Keywords)
I do my own right here in the driveway and never have tire wear issues.
Try this sometime.
Set your towin using the insides of the rims and set it so the front is about an 8th closer together than the rear of the rim.
Find a spot where you can get one tire off the pavement onto dirt moving very very slow.
Pay close attention when the tire contacts the dirt and notice if the car jumps sideways just a bit.
Theres the first clue.
 
If the control arm bushings are shot, it's almost impossible to get aligned right. Check those (upper and lower).

edit: just reread and noticed it's been rebuilt. Double check it. Or maybe as mentioned, your alignment guy doesn't know about the eccentric (?) keys on the UCA's.
 
The alignment guy is very knowledgeable. He has been doing alignments for 30 plus years at the local dodge dealership and uses a very state of the art alignment machine. He has tried to align it three times and only charged me the first time. The problem is that when you push down on the front end it stays down and when you lift up it stays up. Like something is binding but everything looks good. I was even at the shop the last time he aligned it.
 
sixty9xtc said:
The alignment guy is very knowledgeable. He has been doing alignments for 30 plus years at the local dodge dealership and uses a very state of the art alignment machine. He has tried to align it three times and only charged me the first time. The problem is that when you push down on the front end it stays down and when you lift up it stays up. Like something is binding but everything looks good. I was even at the shop the last time he aligned it.
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/6 torsion bars and drag shocks?
 
I don’t want to sound like a wise ***, but a competent Mopar front end alignment technician should be able to figure out what is ailing your front end in about two seconds.

I suspect that your torsion bars have fatigued, and no longer can support the car properly. Slant six bars, 0.081” were barely strong enough to support the car when new, and compared to modern a car’s spring rate are a flopping mess. That is why the car won’t settle to the same ride height after bouncing per front end alignment procedure.

If you haven’t yet, I would refresh your front end’s bushings, replace any worn parts, and install stiffer torsion bars close to one inch diameter. I’m running Firm Feel 0.940” bars on my 67 slant six rag top, and they are not stiff at all.
 
The suspension rebuilder may have tightened all of your bushing with the car in the air. That will cause a good deal of binding until the bushings tear. I would loosen the lca, uca, and strut rod bushings with the car sitting on its wheels and then retorque them.

I worked at a dodge dealer for 7 years and I wouldn't trust the other techs working there to align an old chrylser. There is a huge difference between 30 years experience and 1 years experience 30 years in a row. Tire wear is toe. What specs did he align it to. Factory crappy specs?
 
sixty9xtc said:
The alignment guy is very knowledgeable. He has been doing alignments for 30 plus years at the local dodge dealership and uses a very state of the art alignment machine. He has tried to align it three times and only charged me the first time. The problem is that when you push down on the front end it stays down and when you lift up it stays up. Like something is binding but everything looks good. I was even at the shop the last time he aligned it.
Click to expand...

I don't want to disrespect your alignment tech, but If he is knowledgeable he should know it isn't the shocks that set the ride height.
Alignment procedeure should be as follows:
1) Set tire pressures.
2) Set ride height.
3) Adjust Caster.
4) Adjust Camber.
5) Adjust Toe.
If you don't get the ride height set correctly forget about the rest because you'll never get it right.
As for doing it in the driveway & thinking you have it right, you may just get lucky but it ain't correct. Better to spend the $80 & get it done right than to guess & waste a set of tires.
 
What are the best specs to set the a body front end for the best handling ?? since the factory settings are not good? what is recommended now days?
 
Check ball joints upper and lower with the wheels of the ground. Check if wheel wiggles in the vertical position. also you want to make sure tire pressure is even to when doing the Alignment.
 
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