Dumb ? about steering knuckle

[jaduncan]

Pulled the front steering knuckle this evening to replace it ( easier wheel bearing change) The original one (87) had a thick washer like piece with a cam on it that recessed into the knuckle on the upper strut bolt ( haynes book says its to adjust camber) The replacement one (off a 89) does not leave room to put this on. the strut isnt bored to accept it either. The arm on the knuckle fills the space in the lower strut mount completely. What gives? Was there a change/upgrade made somewhere. Anybody know if this will affect alignment? Do I need to change out both sides for it to work right? Or have I got an renegade part? It got dark on me so I didnt get it finshed to test it out (still got to customize the rotor dust cover a bit cause it was bent and get the tie rod end bolt to hold still so's I can tighten it up or go get a new one) But stuff like this bugs the heck out of me. HELP Please


Allen

[white90dx]

Whether or not the knuckle you got has the cam on it, you should get the car re-aligned after suspension work like this... If you need chamber adjustment when its aligned, the shop can put in aftermarket chamber bolts.

-Charlie

[jaduncan]

Charlie Thanks for the answer. Yeah Im going to take it to get the alignment checked tomorrow. (nothing open on sunday except Wally world) I just didnt want to confuse the guys there. The only people doing alignments here are the tire shops and dealers. And the dealership always finds that you need some kind of work. (plus they dont like me looking over their shoulders) lol Best thing I can say about the tire people is that they dont do mechanical work so I trust them a little more on something that they wont make money on. I took it out today and did some corners, it didnt seem to have any probs with cornering or returning to straight after a turn., no unsual tire squeal or chirps. Almost rolled the wheel covers on a couple of them. (I did get some noise there) lol So it must be close. Specs on this thing seem to have a bit of tolerence on camber (3/16n to 1& 5/16p) so theres some room to be off and toe-in's ok. (1& a touch in) They'll check it for free. Or so they say. I wont argue with the guy on the machine but I will keep an eye on what he's doing
I took the car to a local garage originally to have the job done as I didnt really want to do it myself. The first quote was $250 to replace the wheel bearing, this quickly grew into $699! (They said it was labor intensive) I said I'll pick up the car and they said ok give us a couple of hours time to "button it back up" hah I went in early and they had only pulled the front tires. (which is all that was needed to check it anyway) That didnt set too well. So I priced parts at NAPA and got a $39 price on the bearing. It looked easier to replace the knuckle/hub than to change the bearing so I got one at the local pull your own yard for $20. add $10 for a tie rod end and my free labor and my bank account feels much better. The he*# with my back. lol Avg labor here is $65/hr. I did the job in the driveway in a little over 4/hrs total (had to wait untill the next day to get a tie-rod end) and didnt really have access to the tools that they should have had on hand. I still dont know how they came up with $699!

I went back to the pick yard this afternoon and they have 3 90 models on hand and none of them have the camber adjusting cam so it must have been a change somewhere The Haynes book from the library was published in 88 so thats (im guessing here) probally why it didnt show it without the cam. Just hope the guy don't get bent out of shape because one side has the cam and the other don't. lol


Allen

[Novice_cardude]

The camber adjusting cam is probably an aftermarket camber kit. We sell those if the customer wants his camber adjusted. Careful, it's usually an additional charge to intstall the camber kit. Although if it's not too much it would probably be worth it to pay someone to jack it up, take off the strut bolts, put it in AND align it.

Your call though.

Good luck!

[JetspeedCamry]

Originally Posted by Novice_cardude

The camber adjusting cam is probably an aftermarket camber kit. We sell those if the customer wants his camber adjusted. Careful, it's usually an additional charge to intstall the camber kit. Although if it's not too much it would probably be worth it to pay someone to jack it up, take off the strut bolts, put it in AND align it.

Your call though.

Good luck!

Camber adjusting cams are standard on Gen 2's. They provide limited adjustment.

[tracyf]

When I replaced the front struts on my wife's 90 V6 Camry there were no camber adjustment sleeves on the bolts - on either side. I took it to a tire store where a fellow fireman works and got it aligned - they said nothing about any missing parts (adjustment sleeves) when they aligned it.

[Doctor J]

According to the part interchange guide, the 89 and on US build cars requiring an aftermarket kit to be installed for aligment of camber.