Seized cam bolt camber question--

Alignment shop couldn't correct the negative camber on my front end due to seized bolts. Truck is a 96 and pretty rusted out, but the bolts don't look all -that- bad (probably thanks to engine oil seepage over the years). The alignment guys I think just put air tools to it, and wrote it off when it didn't move. They said if I could get the bolts loose, to bring it back, and they'd be able to do it. So for the last week I've been wire brushing and PB-Blasting all four bolts, getting ready to get under it with a breaker bar and see if I can torque them free. My question is this:

If I can get the nuts loose, and the bolts at least moving, will they still be able to adjust the camber if it's seized in the metal sleeve that runs through the bushing? I've heard it will turn the sleeve with the bolt of it is, but since I can not seem to figure out exactly how camber is adjusted, I'm not sure if it matters if the sleeves spin with bolts-- unless I was trying to get the bolts out, which I'm not.

Thank you for any perspective on this.

 

the way they're set up is the bolt goes through the adjuster sleeve (part with the cam and adjusting marks) which goes through the control arm bushing. The bolt should be able to spin freely inside the adjuster sleeve once broke free. Usually getting the bolt out is the easy part, the bad part is that usually the adjuster sleeve seizes inside the control arm bushing and this sleeve is what needs to turn to align the truck.

 

oh and DO NOT try to break the nut end free, you must break it free on the bolt head side. the adjuster sleeve goes into the "nut" and aligns it all together, if you break the nut end free youll be replacing the adjuster sleeve. i learned this the hard way.

 

Thanks a lot, Vern. You may have just saved me a from a fatal mistake-- I was going to crank on the nut first thinking it might be easier to loosen the bolt end after freeing that up.

If the bolt spins freely, how is the adjuster sleeve adjusted? I'm still struggling to get my head around how these bolts work exactly, but I thought the bolt was attached to the sleeve rotating it in the bushing was what moved the control arm up down left right a degree or so. But maybe that's the nut, as you say that is what's attached to the sleeve?

One more question, do I need to get the wheels off the ground, and/or relieve the tension from the joint with a jack, or can I attempt to loosen these just crawling under there as it sits?

The bolt on the rear doesn't have enough room between it and the rubber boot on the power steering rack to fit a socket wrench in there. Can I undo the boot and side it down, or will that mess up the rack? I'm not sure a regular flat head wrench would be good for breaking bolts free.

 

see how the bolt is on one side of the big cam on the adjuster sleeve, once the bolts loose the alignment shop will turn the adjuster sleeve from the nut side to align it. Turning it so the big lobe is towards the center of the truck will push the lower arm out and vice versa.

you can break the bolt free with it on the ground. Also an old redneck trick that works well for extra torque on a combintaion wrench is to put the box end on the bolt then take another wrench and hook the box end of it over the open end of the wrench that's on the bolt for more leverage. Its kinda hard to explane how exactly to hook the second wrench over the first but if you play with it a bit you should figure it out. But if all else fales you can unbolt the rack and push it up towards the bottom of the truck out of the way to get a socket on without hurting anything.

 

3/4 of the bolts came loose, luckily both did on the side that the camber is off more than the other. They came loose pretty easy. I used the redneck double-wrench method for the ones behind the rack instead of dropping it. Taking it to alignment shop tomorrow, fingers crossed that they can do something with it.