Question: 1980 Corvette L82 64Kmiles, Rear wheels towed inwards at the top

[coolartcreations]

What would cause the rear wheels to be inwards at the top. Wheel bearings? Someone told me that they are supposed to be that way for better handling in curves. Could it be the shocks are completely shot?
When i put it into drive the rear of the car squatted down about 2 inches and made a clunking sound before i even let off the brake. Thanks for any info.

 

[JohnGrawcock]

The clunking noise when you put it in drive is usually a bad u-joint in one of the half-shafts or the drive shaft. Probably time to replace all 6 joints.

The camber of the rear wheels can be changed by adjusting the length of the strut rods. However, if you have alot of camber and the car is squatting a great deal on take off the problem is most likely a sagging rear spring.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

Sounds like you have multiple problems. It's normal and desirable to have a slight amount of negative camber in the rear wheels but an excessive amount can be sometimes corrected with a simple wheel alignment. Failing that check the strut rod bushings for wear, differential yokes for excessive end play and wheel bearings for slop.

If the car is at normal height while in neutral and drops when put into drive, this could be simply too high an idle speed. The 'clunk' suggests free play in the diff snubber bushing or u joints as noted above. The high idle will make it sound much worse.

 

[6880 Mike]

...What would cause the rear wheels to be inwards at the top...

Some of what you see could be an optical illustion. Depending on the year, some C3s appear to squat when looked at from the rear. The illusion is less pronounced on my 68 and my 80, but my 74 always looked like the rears were tipped way in.

Are you getting undue tire wear on the rears? If the camber is actually out, you will begin to see the wear on the tires. The rear will also be twitchy on curves.

Take her to an alignment shop and let them check.