Camber wear on tires

[Rovohn]

I recently replaced the upper and lower ball joints on my 72 P6
I took the car on a 1000 mile trip last month,I am planning on another trip so I pulled the wheels to have a look and I noticed that both front wheels had inner wear down to the steel belts.
Does replacing the ball joints affect the alignment?
I thought that the car had more neg camber after I did the Ball Joints,but I thought it was due to new parts
Any ideas?
Cheers,John

 

[harveyp6]

Have you checked the FWA?

 

[Rovohn]

i assume you mean alignment,no I havent as of yet,I didnt think that changing the ball joints affected it,the factory manual doesn't mention an alignment after changing the ball joints
John

 

[harveyp6]

You're assuming that the tyre wear is a consequence of the worn ball joints. Too much toe-out will cause the same problem.
It may well be that the ball joints being worn will affect the FWA, if thet is the case, and if the alignment was set with the worn joints and then those joints were replaced then that could cause the wear as well. FWIW whenever I was asked to set the FWA I always checked all the balljoints first, and replaced any worn ones before setting the alignment.

 

[Rovohn]

The upper and lower ball joints we replaced last year,when I got the car back on the road I noticed there was more negative camber than before they were replaced,what would cause that?the workshop manual doesn't mention getting an alignment
John

 

[harveyp6]

The upper and lower ball joints we replaced last year,when I got the car back on the road I noticed there was more negative camber than before they were replaced,what would cause that?

Perhaps the play in the worn joints allowed the pillar to sit in a position that gave more positive camber, but either way, the joints needed replacing, and you've done that so all you can do is investigate why it's as it is now. You could check the camber, but if you do that you should check the FWA and all the suspension/steering balljoints before doing so anyway.

the workshop manual doesn't mention getting an alignment

I never checked the FWA after fitting balljoints either, but then again I never had the problem you've got. If I had I would have started with the easy things first, and top of my list would have been checking the FWA, if only to eliminate it as the cause.

 

[Rovohn]

I wonder if this might be my camber issue,the upper ball joints don't seem to be fully seated,yet they wouldn't go in any more.
Could this be my issue?
John

 

[harveyp6]

It looks as though you've pulled the joint in using the bolts, that will bend those mounting tags downwards and stop the joint seating correctly in the pillar. Once again I don't know whether this is what is causing your camber problem, but it needs sorting out regardless of that.

 

[Rovohn]

I used a suitable drift to seat the joints in the pillar and then tightened the bolts,it seems the ball joints are about an 1/8 to long
John

 

[harveyp6]

I haven't seen that problem before.