• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Front tire wear - insides

Share this page

RickB

RickB

Yoda
Offline
I noticed my front tires wearing unevenly, the insides are wearing faster than the outsides.
My front geometry must be a little off.
The car feels fine but tires must be slightly like

// \\

What causes this and is there something I can do about it?
For now I put them on the back and the backs moved to front.
 
You may have toe-out - that wears the inside of tyres. That's a simple alignment check.
 
Toe out can cause this, but the offset of your wheels and ride height may be affecting the geometry of the front end. After checking the toe-out, use a straight edge and a "digital level" app to measure the camber.
 
Maybe you need to simply take it in for an alignment to find the problem(s)...My issue with that is finding a shop that can take the Spridget's narrow wheel base! If you can't find a shop Rick, there's the Les S on 198th in Lynnwood. (other Les S have different lifts that don't work)
 
Right, well I have lowered the front a bit and have non standard wheels and tires.
The shocks are new PeterC units.
 
Rick, I believe you have quite a bit of offset in your wheels. Check your camber since the offset is probably going to aggravate suspension bushing wear. Have a look at the inner wish bone rubber bush'es and top trunnion bush'es.

Kurt.
 
Yes they do have a bigger offset for sure.
I replaced most of the bushings with new ones received from Peter at the time I replaced the shocks.
This was soon after the trip to Midget 50, since that really finished off my old bushings.
The inner A arm bushes didn't seem bad and the old ones didn't want to come out so I left them.
I'll put it up on jack stands today and take a look, that may well be the problem.

I could use some helpful hints for removing the old ones if they are still as I expect them to be - reluctant to be removed.
 
bug_sixty said:
Heat..and hammer! repeat...if that doesn't work save your pennies and buy brandy new!
Click to expand...

That's a big commitment and I just pulled our other car off line for driveline replacement.
I guess once I have a fallback vehicle (our Datsun 210) so I can have something to drive I'll get under there with the torch and the BFH.
 
I had a tiny bit of toe OUT when the tire on the left was used. That wear pattern was with less than 1000 miles on new tires!
I adjusted the alignment for 1/16 toe IN and I'm getting pretty uniform wear on the new tires, one of which is shown on the right.
The car is less darting prone as well.
 

Attachments

  • tire wear.jpg
    tire wear.jpg
    52.5 KB · Views: 98
Mine have 1/16 inch toe in.
Must be the inner A arm bushings, so that's the next biggie on my list of things to fix after I get the Datsun back on the road.
 
Gundy said:
I had a tiny bit of toe OUT when the tire on the left was used. That wear pattern was with less than 1000 miles on new tires!
I adjusted the alignment for 1/16 toe IN and I'm getting pretty uniform wear on the new tires, one of which is shown on the right.
The car is less darting prone as well.
Click to expand...

Toe out makes for very interesting driving! Especially on our semi-truck reshaped roads! [big valleys where there wheels run]

Kurt.
 
X2!!! I did find when I rebuilt front suspension and replaced metal bushings in A Arms and new Fulcrum Pins/Kingpins to tighten up the front end it made a significant improvement in Bugsy going where pointed and less tendency to follow ruts and road grooves. Speeds over 60 mph required pretty much constant correction at speeds over 60 mph even on a smooth road. Guys it's more than the rubber bushings that need to be replaced when the suspension gets rebuilt. It's not cheap to do but oh the difference in handling and responsiveness.
 
Back
Top