Adjusting rear camber by twisting the diagonal arm

[Francoc]

The Bentley manual says “minor camber changes can be effected by loosening the four bolts that bind the bearing housing, spring plate, and diagonal arm together, then rotating the diagonal arm one way or the other with a pipe wrench. The range of adjustment by this method is quite small...”

Question #1: does anybody know which direction of rotation of the diagonal arm increases the camber (that is, makes it more positive)?

Question #2: how small is “quite small”? What are we talking about, like a fraction of a degree?

Thanks is advance.

[Wildthings]

I have done it and maybe gotten about a degree of correction. Sorry don't remember which way to twist it.

[aeromech]

I need to do this as my right rear camber is off. I may have caused this when I raised the rear end a couple years back. I don't drive it much so I'm in no hurry. Please let me know how this works out for you.
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[Stuartzickefoose]

Robbie just did this to his bus. And Colin is familiar with it as well.
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[69BahamaYellow]

Loosen the 4 bolts and put the pipe wrench on the top of the flat stamped steel outer trailing arm that attaches to torsion bar) and push down to make camber more positive; You may also have to simultaneously tap the wheel hub with a hammer to move it down, relative to the flat trailing arm. The slots in the flat outer trailing arm don't allow much up and down (vertical) movement (maybe a few mm max, which is only about 1 degree at the wheel), but the slots allow a lot of side to side (horizontal) movement, 10+ mm and this affects the toe in. Before you start making any movements, take a cold chisel and mark the current position of the wheel hub to the flat trailing arm in both the vertical and horizontal directions, so that as you change one direction, you can make sure the other remains the same.


If you need more than a degree or 2 camber adjustment, you probably need to change your inner and outer trailing arm bushings, but you could also open up the size of the trailing arm slots with a Dremel tool to allow more vertical movement. Metal does fatigue, and considering the rear suspension has held the weight of your bus for 40 years, the camber may have naturally become more negative over the years than VW had envisioned allowing adjustment for....

[Busstom]

Said another way, viewing the Bus from behind: twist the right-side arm clockwise, the left-side (driver's side) arm counter-clockwise, RELATIVE TO THE REAR-END VIEW of the Bus.

[richparker]

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php?searc...=titleonly
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[Francoc]

So you do this adjustment with the wheels on the ground?