4x4 front camber issue

bateman

bateman

Active member
Has anyone here ever dealt with out of spec camber on a solid front axle? They do make A part to correct it. Just never heard of this issue before.

I have checked all the plug welds and looked over the entire housing for bending. Also, if it was bent I would suspect negative camber (tops of wheels bowed inward) I have positive camber (tops of wheels pushed out). I just destroyed a set of new tires in no time flat so I’m guessing a few degrees of positive camber. Maybe 2-3 if I had to give a number.

Here is the part that corrects it. The factory sometimes used bushings with some correction built in but normally they were 0° bushings. Hole is dead center with the 0° Same as mine are in the truck.

Anything to look for here that I might be missing? Figured I would ask before I dive into this. Thanks.
 

Attachments

  • B9A94473-63F6-4C4D-9551-60F31AA19358.png
    B9A94473-63F6-4C4D-9551-60F31AA19358.png
    1.3 MB · Views: 0
Last edited:
Never had camber problems. I know there are offset balljoints to correct that issue though.
You have this on one side or both? Have you checked toe-in / toe-out?
if you are taking the balljoints out of the axle for replacement, Id run a straight rod down through the centers of the holes and see if you can square them up against the axle. maybe have the knuckle measured as well for hub flange to balljoint plane square. something really odd going on that is a really beefy part, hard to believe it bent without destroying something else first.
 
Yea I’ve checked toe. Not sure how to measure it other than finding the exact same axle to compare against. If it’s slightly bent though I would imagine the eccentric bushings would be the easiest way to go. I don’t even know where I would go to get an axle straightened. It would be a very very minute amount. Talking just a couple degrees per side. Just very weird to me.
 
The bushing in his pic is a pretty standard piece needed for alignment. A LOT of vehicles don't come with cam washers, wedges, or eccentric bushings needed to adjust the alignment. I would first check the alignment and see how far out it is and get the proper bushing. Some alignment shops have them on hand.
 
I agree Scott. I’ve been reading that those bushings are sometimes not 0° from the factory because the axles aren’t always perfect. Now why they wouldn’t have caught it at the factory is what throws me off. Going to put it on a rack and see where it sits. Then order the bushings.

I’m not saying my eyeballs are anything special but I have a very good attention to detail and spend lots of time under my rigs staring at shit until I figure it out. This axle has zero signs of being bent. And if it is somehow bent just a few degrees on each side I’m not even sure how it would happen as far as positive camber. That would almost always be negative camber if bent.
 
We have over 350 of what we call White Fleet vehicles, anything owned by the schools that’s not a bus. Every new vehicle we get goes to the alignment shop before we take delivery. Very few of them, probably @ 15% of them, DON’T need adjustment. We do the buses the same way. Almost all of them need adjustment.
 
BigPapa said:
We have over 350 of what we call White Fleet vehicles, anything owned by the schools that’s not a bus. Every new vehicle we get goes to the alignment shop before we take delivery. Very few of them, probably @ 15% of them, DON’T need adjustment. We do the buses the same way. Almost all of them need adjustment.
Click to expand...

I’ll be dang. Are they straight axle vehicles? Not to surprised either way. I’ve found in life I have to tweak damn near everything some way or another haha
 
White Fleet is anything from a Nissan Leaf to our big Freightliner wrecker. There are @ 60 Ford Transit vans, 30 Ram trucks, 50 E350’s, 30 Dodge Avengers, 10 Chargers, 10 Sprinters, 30 Highlander hybrids, Freightliner box trucks, Isuzu NPR’s, Tahoes, Explorers, etc.
 
Whew. Lots of maintaining. I appreciate your insight for sure.

I’ll update after it comes off the alignment rack. I’m just hoping it’s less than 3°
 
Every dodge I've owned eats up the outer edge of the frts fairly quick, like 10k miles if not rotated.

Seemed worse when they had leveling kits.

What steering linkage setup are you running? The upgraded crossover style seemed to help the issue some.
 
jasonc said:
Every dodge I've owned eats up the outer edge of the frts fairly quick, like 10k miles if not rotated.

Seemed worse when they had leveling kits.

What steering linkage setup are you running? The upgraded crossover style seemed to help the issue some.
Click to expand...

I had outer edge wear with the last axle. But this is excessive. Inside tread is brand damn new still and there is a nice gradual angle across the tread all the way to completely bald.

I’m running the 99HD setup I think it’s called? Also removed leveling kit and lowered the truck a couple inches. Trying to get to the alignment shop today
 
Have you put two straight edges on each tire and checked toe in? Excessive would cause wear like that.
 
jasonc said:
Have you put two straight edges on each tire and checked toe in? Excessive would cause wear like that.
Click to expand...

Yep. I’ve never paid for an alignment on a straight axle vehicle haha tape measure or piece of string method.

Steering was about perfect on old axle. Figured this one had to be close. But I checked anyways.
 
Tobin said:
No camber adjustment on a Ram. Those sleeves are for Ford axles.
Click to expand...

They make em for dodge too. Torque king 4x4 and a couple other have em listed. Guess I’ll find out if I’m wrong. My axle has bushings stamped 0°. Makes me believe there are other options.

I’ve been wrong a lot before so I’m in no way arguing. Just stating why I thinks what I think haha
 
bateman said:
They make em for dodge too. Torque king 4x4 and a couple other have em listed. Guess I’ll find out if I’m wrong. My axle has bushings stamped 0°. Makes me believe there are other options.

I’ve been wrong a lot before so I’m in no way arguing. Just stating why I thinks what I think haha
Click to expand...

I stand corrected then, I didn't think they had them for Ram (3rd gen anyways). I hate that POS front axle.
 
No I stand corrected I’m afraid. Double checked torque king. They are for a ford. Damn. I’ll keep searching and see what I find. Just spent $2000 rebuilding this thing haha shit fire.
 
bateman said:
No I stand corrected I’m afraid. Double checked torque king. They are for a ford. Damn. I’ll keep searching and see what I find. Just spent $2000 rebuilding this thing haha shit fire.
Click to expand...

That is why my plan is to swap a set of 2005-up Ford 60/10.5 axles in my truck. Much more robust than the Dodge stuff and you get camber adjustment along with locking hubs.
 
I would love to have better axles or just swap this whole damn engine into a square body Chevrolet but the market is too crazy on things like that right now. I did run across a forum thread where a guy swapped adjustable bushings into his axle so I will just have to do some more searching and figure out which set I want to take a chance buying.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top