• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TR6 4 wheel alingment on a tr6

Share this page

J

johnbellavance

Freshman Member
Offline
Hello everyone,I am new to the forum,late July 06.I have been lurking and learning in the background and I guess its time to come out from the shadows.I have 1972 signal red tr6 that has had a body off restoration. A good friend Paul was following me from the Legends weekend on Cape Cod sunday and noticed that my left side rear tire tips out at the bottom.Paul recomends a 4wheel alingement.Now here is the question. Where in south eastern MA or northern RI is there a good place to get a four wheel alingmenton a tr6?
thank you,John
 
John

I had a wheel alignment on my TR250 recently. Used "Smith's Alignment Service" on Rt 111 in Boxborough (Street address is 1092 Mass Ave - its just before you hit 495 on 111 going west). This may be a bit far from you, but they did a great job. The guy who owns the shop, Robert Smith, took care of me. We spent about 3 hours all up getting it just right. This guy is a real perfectionist, which suits me, and really knows his wheels and tires.
Was quite happy to have me hang out while he did the work, and talked me through every step of balancing and alignment (which turned out to be a bit of a project on my car). And they are very sympathetic towards old English cars.

Their phone number is (978) 635 0549, and "Al" is their office manager (and an ex-E-Type Jag owner).

Hope they can be of help.

Rob.
 
John, There are a number of possible reasons for the negative camber noted by your friend. The rear suspension swings the wheel in an arc. If you were to jack up the car and allow the rear wheel to hang with no weight on it. The suspension will be at the bottom of the arc. The bottom of the tire will be tucked in slightly. With the car on the ground when you load the car with a driver the suspension will be nearer to the center of the arc and the tire will be straight up or possibly tucked in a little at the top. When you drive and hit a bump or a depression in the road the suspension (springs) will compress so that it is at the top of the arc and the tire will be out on the bottom. The same squat occurs to a degree when you accelerate hard. The front end lifts a little and the back end squats.
If you had your car pretty well loaded for your return trip the negative camber is normal for the suspension design. However if your springs are weak you may notice negative camber when there is not much load or you may bottom out frequently (fully compressed springs). If this is the case alignment will not eliminate the negative camber.
Were new springs installed during the restoration? You may want to consider new springs. Heavy duty, or competition, springs are available. Search on springs or squat in the forum and you will find other postings from members who have experienced the same problem.
As far as a 4 wheel alignment. Camber adjustment is a little bit tricky on the rear wheels. Richard Good sells adjustable trailing arm brackets that greatly simplify the task. Take a look at his site for information.
https://www.goodparts.com/shop/index.php?categoryID=13
Also if you have a Bentley manual you can read up on camber adjustment. You might want to call the Mercedes, BMW or Jaguar dealer service departments and ask who they use for 4 wheel alignment. Mention that you are trying to get the camber corrected.
Oh yeah, how about a picture of your car?
BOBH
 
I bought a set of the adjustable rear brackets and the alignment place I used was able to set the camber w/o having to swap brackets around like the Moss Parts catalog shows. One of the best investments I made. Good Luck.
 
BTW - if you do need a wheel alignment, make sure you have plenty of shims.

My TR runs about 1.5 - 2 deg -ve camber at the back. I am considering flipping the inside swing arm brackets (from notch-up to notch-down) to get me to approx. neutral but will wait till I need to do something else on the rear end.

See the articles "TR6 Suspension I" and "TR6 Suspension II" at the link below for a useful description and guide to the TR rear end.

https://home.comcast.net/~v.navarrette/TR6_tech/tr6_tech_index.htm

Rob.
 
[ QUOTE ]
...I have 1972 signal red tr6 that has had a body off restoration. A good friend Paul was following me from the Legends weekend on Cape Cod sunday and noticed that my left side rear tire tips out at the bottom....

[/ QUOTE ]Is it just the one side, or do both sides appear about the same? Seems to me that there might be a mechanical problem here of some sort. Granted, that's the side a driver is on, but even with a driver, there shouldn't be a noticeable difference in camber between LR and RR wheels.

Alignment might help, but you might have a weak spring, or problem with bushings and/or suspension mounts, or ????
 
RobT is right. The first visit to the alignment place I didn't have any and they laughed when I asked if they did. So I left and ordered 4 for the front and 4 for the back. and went back and I was in business.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I have 1972 signal red tr6 that has had a body off restoration.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi John. I am inferring from what you have said about your car having been a total restore, that you bought it that way. Am I wrong? It is not uncommon for some restorers to overlook a weak spring. Again, I may be totally off base on my assumption but if indeed this is he case, it may behoove you to have someone really expert on the TR6 to go over it with a fine-tooth comb and check it out completely. It sounds as though you have a really nice car, just want to be helpful.

Then again, it could just be alignment. Any good alignment shop can do a four- wheel alignment, but go to a shop that specializes in alignments.


Bill
 
I think Dr Bill is on the spot here, ride height problems will not be helped by an "alignment" Measure all 4 corners on a nise level spot of pavement, if you are not within 3/8 of an inch on all 4 you will be doing spring work before alingment can be properly compleated.
md(mad dog)
.
 
John, I told you that you would get good advice here. RobT, thanks for the tip on the shop in Boxborough.

John, I got your odometer cable from Bill today. I'll put it in tomorrows mail for you. In any case, it sounds as though you should at least order the shims to have them just in case. Mine was done several years ago and is still in spec. You may still need to do it even if you do replace the springs.
 
Thank you guys for all the input.the springs and trailing arm bushings where all replaced.I think I will order the adjustable brackets to avoid all the differeht combinations of brackets.to RobT I will call Smiths when I get the new brackets.The restorer of this car played with the different brackets but i don't think he got it right.Thank you again
 
John, order the extra alignment shims while you are at it.
 
Other than swapping brackets around, there is no alignment for the rear camber. I recently recieved my Good parts to adjust the camber, but have yet to install them. Since my car also was previously restored, and also one rear tire was more in error, I was advised to swap the rear springs to see if the lean followed. -Then I was more sure the new springs would correct the problem. (swapping springs is much easier than I expected) New springs helped, as did the bushes, but the problem will be corrected with the new Good parts (I hope). Good luck.
 
Back
Top