I understeered into a curb at about 25mph and bent the passenger side rim on my 89' t2. I put the spare on and drove home, but didn't notice anything drastically different. (slight pull to the left and the steering wheel was out of alignment). Upon closer inspection I noticed my passenger side wheel had noticeable negative camber (around -5 degrees). I disassembled the front suspension on both sides but didn't see anything bent or stressed. I took measurements to verify congruency on both sides, and everything checked out. However I did notice the passenger side control arm was about 4-5mm higher than the driver side. My question is this: What could've possible bent to account for such camber? Spindle, knuckle, control arm, tire rod, subframe? I've eye balled everything but am obviously missing something.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

I'm a liscenced bodyman up here in Vancouver BC and what your looking at can be a nightmare. When most suspension parts bend it can be hard to see as they have a usually long area to bend over. Your only way to tell is to carefully compare measurements with the good side. On the other hand a simple but often overlooked problem that might be there is that some of the bolts might have gotten bent which can affect the overall suspension geometry. So I would suggest baking out the major bolts and watch them for any bends or twists, it might be hard to see right away so check carefully.

Good luck

 

Get right under neath it and look every crack and crevace over for split paint or split dirt. When something tweaks - it often sheds a layer of paint (or dirt if its ditry) since the material isn't bending along with the part in question.

You might have tweaked a few things more then likely however if there's nothing that jumps out at you.

Your best bet is to take it to a qualified shop if you turn up nothing obvious and have them tram the car out. If the frame rails and subframe are still straight then you know its just suspension related.

I fail to see how curbing the car would give you negative camber so thats a little puzzling. But nonetheless, knowing the design of the FC suspension, I'd say the spindle and strut are the most likely to be tweaked in that case.

 

I'd guess that you bent the tabs on the strut, that'd cause a lot of negative camber.

 

check the lower ball joint. its a 5" long arm with two bolts through it and a ball joint on the end. bolts to your control arm and the hub.
its the weakest part of the front suspension, and isnt too obvious when its bent.

 

Thanks for the help guys! Per ClassicAuto's advice I'm taking it into a bodyshop to get the frame and subframe checked out. Once that is eliminated, or found to be the problem, I'll tear down the suspension again (including bolts this time). Hopefully I'll find something this time around.

Thanks again guys!

 

Thanks Josh, I missed that one all together.

 

also could have bent some of the sheetmetal/frame where the strut bolts to the chassis up top, they arent too beefy and can be out of spec but look okay to the naked eye. hopefully its not that.

also the tie rods for the steering rack and the balljoint like josh said, check those out for sure. good luck.