Camber problems

[Wildthings]

My Thing has pulled lightly to the right ever since I got it. I had hoped that by replacing the worn out steering gear this might fix it, but it did not. At this point I have a new steering gear, ball joints, tie rod ends, and damper. Thought I would check the camber today and found that I can barely get the two side close to being the same. One side now has the eccentric with the mark all the way to the outside and the other all the way to the inside, and both sides are at about 1/2 degree negative. Still pulls though even with them both the same, maybe even a little worse than before.

The camber is also screwy on the back. One side is about 1/2 degree negative and the other is about 2 1/2 degrees negative. I did a lot of measuring today and don't see any obvious damage, front or rear. It looks like the trailing arms just weren't made correctly to begin with. I do have bushings on order for the rear, but while new bushings will obviously affect the camber, I think the two sides will still be 2° off from each other when I am done.

I will get a set of aftermarket eccentrics for the front and have them modified to fit the Thing, but what can I do for the rear, short of replacing the trailing arms?

Anyone know what vendor might stock the aftermarket eccentrics that give extra adjustment?

[joescoolcustoms]

The Thing Shop sells new eccentrics for Thing ball joints, but I do not know of anyone selling eccentrics with more offset for more adjustment. I do not think there is enough room in the eccentric for more offset.

If the car is sitting level, on a known level pad, sounds like you have a bent trailing arm. Not that hard to do with some rugged off roading and abuse.

Appears to me that you have something suspension wise bent, possibly both front and rear.
_________________
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

Member of Wagenfolks
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/870707.jpg
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479740

[Wildthings]

Spent about an hour today measuring different things in the front suspension. Seems all the torsion arms are correct, so that leaves the drivers side spindle. Haven't pulled the wheel and drum to look at it yet, but since the drum isn't rubbing against the backing plate the spindle probably isn't bent, but maybe machined wrong from the get go. We will see tomorrow. If the spindle turns out the be the problem, I guess it's time for a disc brake conversion.

For the rear I think it has to be a bent trailing arm. Don't see anything obvious at this point though. Will be doing the torsion arm bushing soon and will know more once that has been done. I have seen 22° mentioned as the correct angle for the rear plates. Anyone have better alignment data?