Scaaary

[silver 80]

Well it's warm enough to take all of my tire off and get an eval of the suspension
You know everytime I look at something I have to fix it, the last owner must have just driven the vette and didn't do any maintenance
from the pic can you tell whats wrong here?
it is on the right rear and on the inside of the tire.

 

[Trixie]

:eek

 

[silver 80]

I'll post a pic of the offending part tomorrow.
tom

 

[69MyWay]

I can see the air in that tire!

 

[69vettester]

Silver 80,
If the other rear tire has worn correctly, Im thinking the camber set for that wheel is wrong. The specs for C3 camber is for somewhere between 0 and -7/8 degrees, depending on which manual your looking at. Yours may be much more than this,
say -2 degrees possibly more. If you have the original strut setup, It could be the struts cam adjustment has slipped and youve been running with that wheel angled out at the bottom. If this is the problem and you fix it yourself, youll need to put a wheel on, and adjust the cam lobe until the wheels camber is pulled back in to -1/2 degree or so. You can eyeball this , when the wheel and tire are exactly perpendicular to the road, your at 0 degrees of camber. Of course , in between adjustments, you must lower the car and relax the suspension by moving or rocking the car, then eyeball or stringline the new camber setting until you get it close. After your satisfied its close, take it to a reliable shop(familiar with vette suspensions ) and have it laser aligned to specs.
Watch it closely for several hundred miles, because if the camber slips out again, the old cam adjust setup(C3 poor engineering going on here) wont work anymore and your looking at upgrading to new and better strut mount and strut rod components.

Is that a nail in the tread of that tire or just look like it ??

Hope this helped..
TC

 

[silver 80]

the other tire is ok for wear.
I have ordered the smart strut form VBandp. when i took this tire off I almost fell down. I looked at the strut rod and it looks like the bushing is gone. I haven't even put a 10 mile on this vette sense I bought it. I think I might have gone around the block twice. still tring to get it road ready.
tom

 

[wolf_walker]

I've had lots of step back and thank my gurdian angel times on cars.

There was the 73 Challenger that you could pick the front suspension up and down two inches, the 87 Caddy with the dangeling sway bar and tires that looked like yours, the 76 Firebird that the tire shop neglected to replace the lug nuts on one wheel except for one, the list goes on..

Glad you cought it in time. If you pay attention to C3's on the road, it seems like the majority of them are either squatting in the rear with tires bowed out and/or tracking sideways somehow.
Scary...

 

[69vettester]

Tom,
IMHO getting the smartstrut kit is the best thing you could have done for a start on the rear suspension. Maybe thats all youll need to get it road worthy??
Keep us posted on your progress with it.
TC

 

[vigman]

OUCH

That's too close to disaster for me!

New strut rod & alignment is in order.


Great you found it out NOW instead of later!

Mike

 

[silver 80]

New tires tomorrow:Twist
good thing i have a truck too. going to see if I can get the rims indexed( vale stem same spot on each tire)
tom

 

[wolf_walker]

speaking of tires.. I took the bare rims to have the tires mounted, not trusting the shop to be careful with them.
They managed to put wheel weights right where the trim ring clips attatch to the rim at. Live and learn....

 

[silver 80]

pic of strut rod