-Tom-

Hi

So i have a question about my '90 GTA. I used the search to get a answer, but sadly i dident found nothing. Maybee i am the only one with this problem or my english is to bad (i am from switzerland) to use the right keywords.
Anyway i hope you understand where my problems are and you can help me.

Now to my problem... I am looking for new wheels, so i thought first step i take the measure tape and look how much space i have for the new wheels. Sadly i saw that the right wheel in the front is much more out then the left (its little less then 1").
First i thought its because of wrong geometry or something like this, so i took the car on the lift. The factory K-Member is centered, the factory a-arms looks similar, so everything looks fine... Even the geometry is good. But no different, the right wheel is more out then the left. The car has 50k kilometre and the chassis doesent looks like the car had a crash in the past. Now i realy dont know where the problem is. Look to the pictures;


Left Side, big space between fender/wheel


Right Side... as you can see the wheel is much less under the car.

And if you want to ask me... yes i know the diamond spokes haves a different offset front/rear. But the wheels are correctly mounted. I dont have any spacers. I also checked the fenders, but the distance between chassis and fender lip is perfect.

I wrote already i was trying a lot to adjust everything and get the wheels in the right position, but it was not possible.
Now i am helpless... i thought maybee they are different spindles on the gta and maybee a pre-owner replaced one of them back in the days, but it seems all f-bodys have the same suspension components.

Do you have any idea???
How does it looks on your f-body??

Thanks a lot for any replys...! Greetings

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

Looks like the drivers side has more camber than the other side for starters

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

what he said^. correct that and they will be more even

-Tom-

Hi

Thanks for your answers...
I know it looks like wrong camber one passangers side, but this is not the problem... i checked the camber and everything is ok.

As you can see the whole wheel is more inside on the driver side, not only the top of the wheel.

How does it looks on your f-bodys? Do you have a difference L/R?

Greetings

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

maybe you have a front and rear wheel mixed up, they are different if oem equipment and on the back say front or rear

EDIT, never mind...you already had that covered

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

i assume you have looked at the k-member since you said it was centered, but check the rear a-arm mount, they can be broken off if the car was curbed hard enough, maybe one is bent or something.

-Tom-

Hi

Thanks a lot for your reply.
I am pretty sure the a-arm mounts are not broken, bent or damaged, but i will put the car on the lift so soon as possible and will check this points carefully!

Do you have the the same distance from wheel to fender on both sides on your T/A?

Greetings

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

i have not measured, but by eye, the distances are the same on both my cars.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Looks to me like THE CAR is in the right place; THE TRIM (fender), which is nothing but a sheet of tin foil wrapped around THE CAR, is bulged out more on the left.

Thinking that your suspension (THE CAR) is wrongly located because THE TRIM (fender) doesn't match it, would be about the same as thinking that your house's foundation (the HOUSE) is "off" because it isn't parallel to your Christmas lights (the TRIM).

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

My first guess would be like the others, looks like an alignment problem from the pics, but since you say it is not (have you actually had it checked?) my second guess would be that someone put a shop jack under the factory jacking point (which only works with the factory jack) and crushed it causing the fender to bow out, or maybe something similar happened in front of the wheel opening.

There is a bit of adjustment in the bolts holding the top of the fender as well as the plastic inner fender liner which somewhat locates the fender lip. if you move enough stuff around (the bottom mount, the top mounts, the braces behind the front of the fender...) you could end up with it sitting in a completely different position from side to side.

Have you tried jacking the car up, leveling it side to side, dropping a plumb bob over the fender (measure to the front and back of the wheel opening to make sure it's over the same part of the fender), and then measure from the hard frame rail surface on the inside to the plumb bob string? Maybe that will give you some idea if it's really a suspension, chassis or body work problem

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Actually, just bumping into something (say, one of those concrete pillars that they punt light posts on in parking lots) with that corner of the car, will do that to the fender. The whole front of THE CAR has enough "give" in it that it will absorb a certain amount of that, but the fender CAN'T. So you bump into something, or somebody (think, dippy blonde housewife in SUV yacking it up on the phone while parking brand-new Hummer) bumps into YOU, and voilà, instant fender-bulged-out-above-the-tire syndrome that doesn't leave any other mark. Which by the way, is VERY difficult to fix on one of these cars' fenders, without making it worse. Real STUPID design. It's actually worse if you hit the fender down low, like a curb that's more than 8" or so tall.

In any case, however it got that way, you don't have a CAR (suspension) problem, you have a TRIM (fender) one.

-Tom-

Hi

Thanks for all your answers... actually i have no idea where the problem is. Let me explain.

This saturday i was on the lift... and i had idea to measure everything what is possible.
Now....

First, inner chassis to fender lip > same distance on each side (48cm or something like this). So for me it looks the fender is not bow out, maybee it seems on the picture but i have the same distance from inner chassis to fender lip on each side, it means everything is ok.

From inner chassis to the wheel on the top... again, a difference from 1,8cm.
(The same 1,8cm i get when i measure to the fender lip)

Then from brake disc to the rim (wheel). Same distance each side, so it means the wheels are the same and the brake discs are even. And of course no spacers.

The K-Member absolutely centered, mounting points for a-arms are ok by the eye.

Distance Shock absorber to the inner lip from the wheel seems to be the same on each side. Only by the eye, but i think 1,8cm would be visible.

Again camber.... 100% pefect each side.

Toe In (if this is the right word). Good. The steering wheel is in the middle and the car handels good.

All other things i cant measure, because i dont have any points.

I am realy helpless now. The only thing i can imagine that the A-Arm maybee had a crash and now it is bent, by the eye it is ok but maybee its not visible very easy.
Other thing i think about is the spindle, but i cant imagine it can be bent something.

One thing i forgot to say... the height of the car is different also. On the left side the car is 1cm more drop then on the right side, maybee it is because of the same reason.

I realy dont know what can be the problem now. Maybee A-Arm, i realy dont know. I see i need to look once more and cross my fingers finaly i find something.

Thanks a lot, greetings

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

There has to be something, try measuring from the point on the a-arm pivot bolt to the ball joint zirk fitting (should be centered on the ball joint).

Another place you might have something is that there is usually a little bit of room where the 2 pinch bolts clamp the bottom of the strut to the spindle where you can change the angle things are mounted a little bit.

Some of the numbers that you list don't really mean much, like measuring from the chassis to the tire/wheel, since there could be a lot of variation in the tire. I would pull the wheels and do all the measuring to the rotor.

I'm also wondering if you might have 2 different rotors on the car with the bearing races in different places putting the mounting flange for the wheel in different places.

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

i dont know how you are measuring it, but the drivers side camber is off. pretty obvious to me... it is leaned way in on the top of the wheel. either it is aligned wrong, bent strut, or bent spindle. this could also cause the front drivers side to sit lower by a cm or so.

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

That's why my first response repeated that even though he said no... it does look like the camber is off in the pics

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

yup. had a '95 altima that had 2 bent struts in the front. both front wheels sat like that. however, since i still got ~40,000 miles out of a set of tires, i never fixed the struts. lol it was my daily beater.

Hipster

I see the same problem with the fender, left side is bulged, loses the scalloped area as the right side has.

hellz_wings

iTrader: (2)

Wish I would have seen this thread earlier.. But I had/have a similar problem, except for me it's on the driver's side.

All my measurements are perfect, just like you (a-arms are new, k-member straight, frame, front right to rear left points etc etc.) so I brought it to a garage and they told me the same thing that people on here are telling me. The fender on the driver's side, at one point, got into an accident of some sort and repair work was done, so the fender doesn't go over the wheel enough.

At the same time, I have an LS1 front brake kit which pushes wheels out 0.3 inches on both sides, and I didn't have wheels aligned at that point and my camber was off (yours definitely looks like the camber is off.. You have more negative camber on your driver's side than your passenger side so that needs to be addressed.

The best way to find out is get an alignment with a printed out sheet with specs, make sure camber is equal on both side (preferably negative, that will make the wheel appear less "out" since you probably have this fender problem like me) and then pull the fender out a bit more (or in if doing the other side) and you should be fine, I don't notice my wheel sticking out anymore at all and neither does anyone else.