Titsy's 'maro tune-up...

[F Body]

Quoting: Roadkill

Fit them and use your best guess

GMC has been well out for the last 10,000 miles and is only now showing wear on the edge of the front tyres

Although I've replaced the upper tie rod, track rod ends and idlers arms I'm waiting to sort the steering box before I get it all tracked up.

[Titsy]

Fitted the tie rid ends today... It took no time at all, truely one of the easier jobs I've had to do on the Camaro...

Thanks to Philo for picking the parts up, and to Chris for getting hold of a press tool for me...

I was dubious when I looked at the parts as they are of different designs, despite both having the same part number...

One used a split-pin to hold the nut, the other used a nylock nut... But all the major dimentions matched, so who cares...

I still have to get them filled with grease and tracked, but the car is still at work so I'll get the tyre centre over the road to do it when they re-open...

[ianjpage]

sounds liek it coming together then!

[Incursus]

Quoting: Titsy

Chris for getting hold of a press tool for me...

No problemo.

Quoting: Titsy

I still have to get them filled with grease

Got a grease gun but its at the barn.

[Titsy]

Quoting: Incursus

Got a grease gun but its at the barn.

[55starchief]

Quoting: Incursus

Got a grease gun but its at the barn.

same here

[Titsy]

Another productive afternoon.... Deano polished the wing mirrors up while I filled the Tie Rod Ends with grease, then we fitted the mirrors and (after jump starting it cuz the battery was flat) drove it the 50 yards down to
he road to Buckingham Tyre and Exhaust to have it tracked.... Cost £25 to do, I took along allignment sheet so they had all the numbers, but as it turned out, there wireless laser tracking doo dar already had all the allignment for ALL generations of Camaro...

Now, when I was fitting the new Tie Rod Ends, I made sure to take extra care to ensure that everything was set the way it was before taking the old ones off.... I made sure the everything was withing a very small margin of where it had been previously....

And when it came to tracking..... It was around 13degrees toe in....

I can only assum that it was tracked wildly out before, as there is no way on gods earth I allowed things to move about that much.... Might have been a big factor (coupled with the shot ball joints) as to why the steering was so twichy.... And the snow-plowing would have helped push me down to 21MPG too....

Oh well, drive alot better now....

Was funny when they were backing it off the ramps... A customer outside heard it start up and run and said "sounds like you need a new exhaust mate"... I'm not sure he had heard 350 cubic inches of American muscle ticking over before; he was a Vectra driver...

They said take it back in a week (which is easy, they are over the road) and they will check that nothing has moved and everything is still tracked ok.....

After that we refitted the door cards and the central locking switch that I refirbed last week; it now works fine....

After that we removed the traction ECU to do another brake test to see if it was effecting the ABS and stopping it from working.... If you recall, last week was the first time I had been able to brake hard enough to lock the wheels..... Sure enough the ABS kicked in, so I need to change a couple of resistors in the TCS ECU and all should be fine.... It is known that the traction can stop the ABS working in some cars, and easy fixed, but it normally gives a warning light to let you know somethings wrong.... Cheers GM...

All in all a productive afternoon....

Cheers to RK and G-Unit for your help...

Am going back tomorrow moring to wash her down in prep for a good cleaning....

[ianjpage]

sounds like a good days work there mate, bit shocking it that far out on the treacking though!!!

[Titsy]

Quoting: ianjpage

bit shocking it that far out on the treacking though!!!

Indeed....

[ianjpage]

Quoting: Titsy

Quoting: ianjpage
bit shocking it that far out on the treacking though!!!


Indeed....

how are the tyres tho as surley would have worn them out oddly

[Titsy]

the fronts are getting toward replacement time, but they don't look worn on one side, they look more warn from over inflation...

But I have some Goodyears in stock ready to go on thanks to F-Body....

[ianjpage]

hmm odd i would have expected them to be really worn one side only (like the cobra's!)

ahh yeah the part worn virtually new tyres !!!

[Titsy]

Quoting: ianjpage

ahh yeah the part worn virtually new tyres !!!

Those are the ones....

[55starchief]

didnt you swap the rears to the front when you had bnew rear tires? also the car has been off the road a lot this year so mileage would be low

[Titsy]

Quoting: 55starchief

didnt you swap the rears to the front when you had bnew rear tires?

Nope.... One of the rears had a bulge, and one had a plug, so I swaped them both.... I left the fronts alone...

[Titsy]

Quoting: 55starchief

also the car has been off the road a lot this year so mileage would be low

Sadly yes, but I think it's been out for a while....

[ianjpage]

Quoting: Titsy

Sadly yes, but I think it's been out for a while....

well best start making up for it!!

[Jamieg285]

Nice amount of work done there

With the tracking being so far out, is it possible that the last lot of tracking was done when the ball joints were knackered and not centered in the same way as the new?  The rough ones may have been settling in an 'outward' angle, which pulled the wheels in when you put decent ones on?

[Jamieg285]

Quoting: ianjpage

how are the tyres tho as surley would have worn them out oddly

Depends on how knacked the ball joints were. They may have been loose enough to allow the tyres to move enough to prevent odd wear patterns?

[Titsy]

Quoting: Jamieg285

may have been loose enough to allow the tyres to move enough to prevent odd wear patterns?

Maybe....

[ianjpage]

Quoting: Jamieg285

Depends on how knacked the ball joints were. They may have been loose enough to allow the tyres to move enough to prevent odd wear patterns?

ahh right yeah good point

[Jamieg285]

Quoting: ianjpage

ahh right yeah good point

I can make them occasionally  

[ianjpage]

Quoting: Jamieg285

Quoting: ianjpage
ahh right yeah good point


I can make them occasionally

Yeah in amoungst all thsi hoage

[Jamieg285]

[ianjpage]

you know!!!