Weld eccentric washers to arms for camber??

[eltax91]

Hi guys

Just before lockdown I had my local spanner monkeys fit two new lower wishbones to my 13 plate discovery 4. They are a decent bunch, all mechanics in the fire service and run a small garage between them when they are on their ‘4 off’ shift rotation So hopefully they know what they are doing. I’ve used them for years and they’ve always been great.

Today I took the disco toy local ETS place as they have a hunter 4 wheel alignment machine. They did all of the alignment except for the front camber. They showed me (from 2m away) the car on the ramp and said that there should be 2 blobs of weld on each eccentric washer, and apparently they can’t adjust the camber without it in place. They can see the arms are new, go back to the place and get the weld sorted and return for adjustment. The wheel is also slightly off centre now which is of minor annoyance.

Nipped back to the local place on my way back And they laughed at the incompetence of the alignment folk and did the old mechanic trick of ‘you used the wrong place’, ‘should have gone to so and so’ etc

He’s offered to put it on the ramp tmr and show me how it works. But says something about them locking into the arms themselves.

To be honest geometry is a dark art to me. I’ve tackled plenty of job but clueless for suspension setups.

So, are the alignment place full of the proverbial? They weren’t busy, had no obvious reason to want me out the way or fobbed off. So I’m curious as to how I get out of the middle of these two now.

Which ones right? Can anyone explain?

[Chris32345]

I'd be surprised if a car had welded washers stuck on the wishbones for adjustment from the factory
That sounds like the sort of thing somebody does is give it"stance" as they call it down basically making the car look like bag of**"**


Buti could be wrong. Never heard of anything like that before anyway

[GreenV8S]

eltax91 said:

They did all of the alignment except for the front camber. They showed me (from 2m away) the car on the ramp and said that there should be 2 blobs of weld on each eccentric washer, and apparently they can’t adjust the camber without it in place.

The adjustment is provided by an eccentric washer which is attached to the swing arm mount bolt. The washer position is fixed by some tabs so as you turn the bolt this moves the position of the bolt and hence the pivot point of the arm. The washer is keyed onto the bolt so that they turn together, but the key could have been stripped out by a careless fitter - in that case the washer would be free to turn separately from the bolt and it would not be possible to adjust the camber. If this happens it would be possible to weld the two parts together as a workaround - a dealer would probably just replace both parts.

[Oldandslow]

From what I remember the washers are eccentric on the bolt and fixed to it. As you turn the bolt the washer engages on the suspension mount and moves the centre of the bolt in and out, which pushes the arm in and out. Or vice versa.

Could they mean there's nothing on the new suspension arm for the eccentric to work in?

Fairly typical example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k80Ef1AdmoU&fe...

[eltax91]

Thanks guys for the explanation. All bolts are brand new as the garage recommended that when fitting.

This was also reported both sides, so I doubt the bolt/ washer has been stripped/ become operational.

Guess I’ll shell our for alignment elsewhere and not be going back to the same alignment place. Sounds like they’re clueless

[Jakg]

eltax91 said:

Thanks guys for the explanation. All bolts are brand new as the garage recommended that when fitting.

This was also reported both sides, so I doubt the bolt/ washer has been stripped/ become operational.

Guess I’ll shell our for alignment elsewhere and not be going back to the same alignment place. Sounds like they’re clueless

No idea on the discovery, but on the BMWs I've worked on with adjustable camber it's done using a bolt with an eccentric washer built into the bolt, lining up to tabs on the arm - the tabs keep the washer central so as you turn it the bolt moves around instead.

This is my Z4:









I replaced the suspension and the ball joints where the hub meets the arms at the rear, when I took it to get aligned (at a place I've used before) they said they couldn't do the rear camber it as apparently it "kept moving".
When I pointed out they were ball joints and were meant to move, I was told I was wrong and they are bushes. They then told me that you can tell because ball joints have a ball in them and move around...
What would I know, I only fitted the things...

Took the wheel off, loosened the nut and it adjusted fine so I'm not sure what their problem is but I won't go back.

EDIT 2 - I adjusted it to the previous values when I fitted the new bushes, I measured with an angle gauge and the values were basically right anyway so left it as it was.

Edited by Jakg on Monday 11th May 20:19