I'm noticing that the outside of my tire tread is wearing worse than the inside. I also notice that the left-side rear corner seems to be sagging a bit - a common occurrence with rubber cone suspension, I know.

Will installing Hi-Lows along with a cone replacement fix the uneven wear issue do you think? I'd say it was an alignment issue, but the rears are fixed and are not adjustable alignment-wise, are they? If this is what I need, I'll try and do the project over the winter - I think the tires will be OK for the rest of the season, but if I replace them I don't want to start wearing out the new rubber unevenly, you know?

Thanks as always in advance!

-Matt

 

Was the frame off of the back? It's possible it wasn't aligned just right when it was put back on.

Is the wear smooth or cupped? Usually cupping is a sign of something loose or worn such that it fits loose.

 

If you rebuild the rear, you can add adjustable outer brackets for alignment.

You may have worn trailing arm bushings.

 

It's wearing on the OUTSIDE edges, bad enough that I'm actually seeing a bit of the steel belt winking out now. I have no idea if the frame was ever off the back, sorry.

How can I check the trailing arms? Can I rock the wheels or something similar, like you would if checking the front bearings or similar?

Looks like I'll need to get am inexpensive pair of 12" rears to tide me over until I go for a full-bore set of wheels and Yokohama tires next year - I didn't realize they were wearing so badly back there. =(

Re: Hi-Los... I was planning on replacing the rubber cones first - I've read that replacing them should true the car up. Hi-Los are on my list but for budget reasons are for a later date. I'm 98% sure the cones have never been replaced, and are 16 years old or so - well within the replacement period.

 

Jack up the rear. Let the suspension hang. Push/pull at the rear of the tire. Watch to see if the arm moves in an arc in/out-or for play at the subframe mount end, esp inside. There are bushings & bearings that wear in the arm. You must keep these greased regularly....

 

Is that the rear grease nipples? I do grease those regularly - about every 2k miles. Or should I be greasing someplace else? thanks for the testing procedure - I'll get a replacement set of $65 basic rears, and test the arms when I have the wheels off. So if they're loose, you think all I need to replace are the BUSHINGS or the entire arm(s)? I might just get new bushings on general principal - just because I've been greasing then regularly is no guarantee that the previous owner(s) did, I know.

Thanks as always!!

 

ImagoX-

both of the rear tires are wearing on the outside?

 

If replacements are needed, the bushings & bearings are pressed in place (easy) then bushings are reamed to size. You'll need to have a machine shop do this if you can't/don't have the right reamer.