Is my wheel going to fall off (bad Camber and clicking noise)

[HastaAlaska]

Hey guys,

I was wondering what you think about the camber on the rear right wheel. Looks pretty bad huh!

I recently did some work to reduce wheel wobble, replacing the bearing housing, new bearings etc. Although I think that this camber problem is to do with blown our bushings. To be honest I've never worked on adjusting the camber - is this something that can just be adjusted, or is it likely to need new parts when I open it up?

There is a clicking noise coming from the rear and that is the main reason I am seeking advice today. The noise is only under power which leads me to think it is the CV joints.

I've scrolled the forum and tried the advice that I've found. The noise is only audible when driving straight, actually gets quieter turning either way. which is making it hard to know which side to tackle.

I've tried lifting each rear wheel off the ground and putting it in first gear as recommended but there was no noise on either side. I've tried injecting grease down the boots but that did nothing either.

Having trouble finding the CV joints locally and will have to travel to get them (in mexico) so I was just wondering if the noise could be attributed to something else or if it could be related to the camber mention above.

My instinct tells me no, as it only happens under power.

any advice appreciated
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[cmonSTART]

Is there any freeplay or wobble when you jack up the rears? Up down, left right, in out?

Are your lug nuts tight?

Personally I think with that much of a camber issue you're probably straining that CV joint pretty hard. Might be the reason for the clicking you described.
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'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS

[BSQUARE]

It looks like the bushing on the diagonal arm pivot split or got crushed.
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1988 Ford Festiva L
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[MorkC68]

Part of the camber problem may be from replacing the bearing housing, the four bolts which hold the housing to the spring plate have some camber adjustment to them. The method of adjustment is in the Bentley manual.

It may be a case of a simple adjustment to bring it back into line.
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[Starbucket]

Did you torque the big nut? It might have worked loose and your brake drum splines might have stripped.

[Manfred58sc]

My super high mileage Bus is the same way, I'm guessing the trailing arm bushing answer is correct (crushed ) if you can't get any play out of it jacked up. Clicking is CV, take it off, grease it up, re-insert (wait ..that sounded wrong) or ..maybe parking brake lever moving about in drum??
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Fat chick owner/operator

[skills@eurocarsplus]

isn't this going to be the new owners problem, or are you fixing it before you give the bus away?
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[TDCTDI]

[stwesty]

[TDCTDI]

He's got enough seat time & wrench time (unless it was all staged) in this rig to know the basic fundamentals to at the very least jack the vehicle up, check for play in the rear hub and or trailing arm or to see if it's a bent trailing arm. If not, then he should stay far away from a wrench and a vintage anything. This feigned noob question is just another attempt at getting some attention.
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[skills@eurocarsplus]

[notchboy]

[wcfvw69]

Ben, try what the other posters have suggested. Loosen the torsion plate bolts and follow the Bentley procedure to gain as much positive camber as you can.

Check the bushing on that radius arm to see if it's worn out.

Question, When you changed the rear wheel bearing housing, did you get the rear aligned? I'm going to say no or they would have caught the negative camber and tried to get it adjusted out as much as possible. If you didn't, you need to get it checked. When you loosened up and removed the bearing housing, it will change not only your camber but also your toe in/out and tracking.

If it's off a fair amount, you will incur tire wear, poor handling and tracking. The bus won't go straight down the road in extreme examples.
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[TDCTDI]

[Wildthings]

[wcfvw69]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[notchboy]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[notchboy]