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AMC Pacer Front Suspension

I'm working on a 1975 Pacer for a friend. Today I replaced the rusted-out LF fender with a really nice used one. In order to do this efficiently, I needed to remove the wheel to access the screws that hold down the fender liner. I used a hydraulic floor jack to raise the car by one of the low frame rails. The correct jack point on the rocker panel is rusted away (this car is a real "project", to put it nicely). I kept jacking the car up, and the wheel just kept moving down. It would not come off the ground. Once I had the car at a very steep angle and the tire was still on the garage floor, I just removed the nuts and brute-forced it off. I noticed that the whole front independent suspension assembly seemed to have dropped way down under its own weight, like nothing was springing it up. I also noticed that the tire was VERY unevenly worn. The wear was actually on the outside, but she just had the tires rotated so I think it was really wearing on the inside. When I reinstalled the wheel and lowered the car after finishing my body work, I noticed that the front wheels both showed extreme camber (I think that's the right word). That is, the bottoms of the wheels were splayed outwards. By the way, although the rockers, fenders and quarters are rusted out on this car, the chassis and underbody were undercoated and seem very solid, so I don't think any key suspension components have rusted away from their moorings or anything like that. Does anyone know if this excessive wheel travel problem is related to the camber problem, and what could be causing them? A broken shock, or something with a tie rod or ball joint maybe? I have never done real work on suspension components and I have no clue about diagnosis. Thanks for any help.
-Andrew L
-Andrew L
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Comments
but there should be a limit to the movement of the wheel assembly within the suspension, so perhaps you didn't have a big enough bottle jack to get there. you may or may not have ever seen folks get into a classic VW bug, and watched the wheels splay out like a swaybacked old horse... one reason the bug was so rough on tires. unloaded, the top of the tires was sticking way out, loaded it was the bottom. the pacer sounds like it's reacting the same way, and it may be acceptable.
you should be able to grab the top of the tire and try to push it in and pull it out... if it moves and clunks, you have a seriously bad bearing and/or ball joint needing real quick service.
I would get the pacer to an alignment rack and get it straightened out. it is very likely indeed that you have something out of range needing parts or adjustment. the cupping could have bad shocks, lousy alignment, or bad ball joints as contributing factors. it's going to ride a bit rough on those cupped tires, but under no circumstances should new (or good used) tires go on that beast until there is a borderline chance that they will wear evenly, and that means trueing up the alignment. they'd just get eaten up.
Harry
-Andrew L
-Andrew L