Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Ok fellows. I got my alignment issues fugured out last year and it tracks straight now. At the end of the car cruise-in season I noticed my passengers side front tire wearing pretty good on the outside. The front clip on my 49 pickup is a 92 S10. I laid a framing square on the garage floor and moved it in until it touched the tire and the top is out further than the bottom. I know this is not the correct way to check this but it let me know what I was seeing. Is this something I can adjust as it's hard to find a shop to work on the older trucks?

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Sounds like you need a good alignment. Any shop should be able to do it if you tell them to align it the specs of a 1992 S10.

Sounds like your camber is massively off. It should be around .5 - 1 degree negative.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Thanks man. I just need to find a shop I trust with my truck.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Assuming all the ball joints are good what I've done to check camber is cut a piece of steel just long enough to go from the top edge of the rim to the bottom edge of the rim. Don't touch the tire. Hold the piece of steel straight up and down against the wheel rim. I use 6" magnetic level. Then using a magnetic protractor/angle finder find out what the camber angle is.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Thanks for the info. I had my new exhaust system put on 1 1/2 years ago by an exhaust shop that is well known in this area in the Hot Rod scene and the owner has sugested a place to take my truck for the front end alignment and what fellow to speak to. I'm on my way there this morning to see what he has to say.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

I went to the tire shop yesterday and went back to speak with the fellow and he sounded very knowledgeable and said he could do the alignment on my 49. I have an appointment next Wednesday to take it in for a full front end alignment. I'm hoping for the best.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Sounds like too much toe in. Camber doesn't really cause uneven wear unless toe is also off. My autocross car with -4 camber and my VW bug with -5 camber will go 20k+ miles on tires driving it pretty aggressively. If the toe is off they'll only last a few thousand.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Agreed. Seems like the Camber could be improved (based on the initial test w/the framing square). Seems the Toe settings are a likely suspect as well.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Thanks man.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Thanks. It's going in the shop for a full front end alignment in a couple days.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

If you get a decent tech that understands alignments, you should be able to request NEG .5 - 1° Camber w/as much Caster as he can dial in while targeting that slightly negative Camber setting.

Factory spec would be somewhere around zero - POS 1° Camber & not tear up the tires aggressively so the negative values would be similar but allow better tire contact patch when navigating turns @ speed. My lowered 1-ton CC dually drives like a sport-truck on curves w/similar settings (on LT + load rated tires to boot).

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Thanks man. just got back from the alignment shop. My 49 Chevy pickup now tracks like Sacagawea.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Decent enough numbers to work for sure. Even though you're happy w/ the work, there's def room to make it even better.

My dually was/is NEG .6 Camber & 6.9/7.4 Caster @ aligned ride height. Crazy how it transformed the driving experience even w/ the skinny 16x6 OE dually wheel/tire set-up.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

I hear ya man. As far as my 49 it has a 92 S10 front clip matted to the stock frame that has been boxed, Camero Big 10 Rearend so trying to get all this aligned right is a bit of a chore. A hell of a lot better than it was. Getting Michelin pilot Sport 235/45 r18 put on this Friday.

Re: Front Tire Wearing On Outside
 

Gotcha. Just promoting the idea that even basic stuff (like your S10 based chassis & my dually) can really be woken-up w/some good settings.

The tire sizes you chose are better (more aggressive) vs what an S10 would have come with so that's yet another plus.