Rear Tyre wear / alignment - Sierra base

[Tnick]

I've just noticed the inside edge of my rear tyres is noticably worn. Is this normal? As there is a noticable camber to the rear wheels (estimate -4 degrees) I would expect the tread to wear a bit more on the iner edge but not by this ammount.

As it's only the edge (mainly passenger side) and the wear is quite even across the tread (no feathering) I think the the tracking is OK. Certainly when the rear tracking was out on my Triumph Herald (a long time ago) there was uneven wear across the whole tyre.

What should the camber be?

It is noticable on my car and I've had one person come up to me quite concerned that something is broken! (I was parked on some uneven ground which may have acentuated it.

Thanks

Nick

[CosworthCabrioLee]

Re: Rear Tyre wear / alignment - Sierra base

Hi Nick this is a problem on Sierra based cars and has been wrote about many times on Cabrios, however the one difference your car has over the Cabrio;s is you keep the rear beam carrying the diff called the horse shoe so in theroy everything should be ok. However the tricked up lowered sierra's do suffer from massive negative camber and this gives inside wear, if you go onto the Sierra owners club forum there is lots about it just type is Camber shims into the search box. Off ebay you can buy Camber shims that fix this problem and go behing the Hubs.
Hope this helps
Lee

[CosworthCabrioLee]

Re: Rear Tyre wear / alignment - Sierra base

Pictures

[Tnick]

Re: Rear Tyre wear / alignment - Sierra base

Thanks Lee

I will consider trying some shims in the future.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why I should need these as I thought the rear suspension including springs came straight off the Sierra with no modification so the rear suspension should n't be any lower than on the donor or maybe some one has fitted some shorter springs in the past.

[Mike]

Re: Rear Tyre wear / alignment - Sierra base

Thanks Lee

I will consider trying some shims in the future.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why I should need these as I thought the rear suspension including springs came straight off the Sierra with no modification so the rear suspension should n't be any lower than on the donor or maybe some one has fitted some shorter springs in the past.

Edit:

[danny_nelson]

Re: Rear Tyre wear / alignment - Sierra base

Cabrio rear spring seats are adjustable. Sierra based Berly is not. Different options to correct neg camber on the rear have been, longer springs, spacers fitted between top of spring and seat, tapered washers/ spacers at hub to correct the neg camber. Neg camber was inherent on all Sierra based Berlinettas. The complete rear arms and horse shoe etc are all as taken off the Sierra, but the mountings to locate this unit on the Marlin do not follow the same geometary as the donor.
Danny.

[Tnick]

Re: Rear Tyre wear / alignment - Sierra base

Thanks Danny

I'm not sure I would want to incease the ride height at the rear (by fitting a spacer or longer springs) as the car seems high enough as it is. I will investigate some of the camber wedges. The information that came with the car has a letter from Marlin detailing the fitting os some "top hat" spacers to the springs however I can't tell if this wasever done.

Regards

Nick

Regar

[danny_nelson]

Re: Rear Tyre wear / alignment - Sierra base

Hi Nick,
Your car has top hat spacers fitted . I agree the car sits high enough as it is now. So tapered shims would get rid of the little neg camber that remains.
Danny.