Positive camber on front tire

[jjaynes]

Good evening.
My '92 festiva has positive camber on the drivers side, just wondering if it could be because of bad ball joint? How can I fix it?
Thanks.

[mikemounlio]

Are you on a stock suspension?

[ryanprins13]

Hey, need to know what suspension you have like mike asked. Also are you eyeballing it or was an alignment done and you have numbers?
Is it noticably different than the passenger side or are they about the same?

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[mikemounlio]

I would start by inspecting all the components. You need to look under the hood at the strut mount. Look up under the fender at the top of the strut itself. Look at the two mounting bolts that hold the strut to the knuckle. Look at the lower control arm to knuckle and the lca to the body. Also its a good idea to look at the wheel bearing.

Look for damage 1st. Then grab each part and wiggle it. You might get lucky and find something lose or worn out.

many different things could all be slightly bad. Just gotta start looking it over to find whats worn out.

[jjaynes]

It's stock. Definitely positive camber I can tell by eyeballing and wear on the front tire. I don't see any damage and the rubber on the ball joint is cracked and dry rotted. However, the wheel isn't mixing like a bad ball joint as far as I can tell...

[jjaynes]

image.jpg

[mikemounlio]

Take the nut off the top of the strut and inspect. Check to make sure all that is fine.

then get the car in the air and on a jack stand. Remove the tire and inspect closer. Look at the two bolts that bolt the strut to the knuckle.

[FestYboy]

If all is stock, the tire exibits excessive toe-in for the given camber angle. There is a .5* adjustment built into the factory suspension via the strut mount. As you look at the top of the strut mount, you should notice that the mount is not centered in the strut tower hole. If the center of the mount is closer to the fender (gap on the engine side) then you can unbolt the 2 mount nuts, lift the front of the car, push the mount down and rotate 180*, then reinstall. If the mount is closer to the engine first, then you need to look for damaged parts.

https://goo.gl/images/chx8bv

If you look closely at the pic, you'll see a small nub on the strut mount. That shows you the direction of the offset built into the mount. If yours faces the other direction, spin it. If it is in the shown position already, something else is bent.
No matter the solution, you must get your car aligned afterwards.

[jjaynes]

The gap is on the gender side like it should be. I'll take the tire off again and look around. Doesn't look like any problems though other than the nasty ball joint

[mikemounlio]

I have a hard time seeing the ball joint adding camber. Do you have a rattle when you hit bumps?

I would pull the 2 bolts lose that hold the strut to the knuckle. Inspect them 1st.

[bhazard]

If you have any doubts about the ball joint, replace the control arm. Moog parts only.

[jjaynes]

Took the ball joint off. Definitely shot.image.jpg

[mikemounlio]

Still check the other items! Its likely that the ball joint failed and the strut to knuckle kicked out due to the bumps in the road. Even with a new ball joint it could still be out of alignment.

[bhazard]

Make sure you replace the control arm to sway bar bushings too. Moog k9737.

[ricko1966]

Be sure to get new stabilizer bushings they are the front to rear locating point on our lower control arms, If they are sloppy the arm can move forward and back altering toe and altering caster as it changes it's relationship to the rack and upper strut mount centerline. Now FWIW even though our cars do not have caster adjustment I have juggled these bushings 2 new 2 worn to effect a caster change,Even thought about slotting the front bar mounts and upper strut mounts but,my car just and econobox beater.