rear end alignment

[ejust]

My rear end on my is out of alignment. My cars rear end on my 86 Jetta TD that is. Mine is fine tyvm. LOL Is there a way to get the rear wheels back to spec. I read about shims between the beam and the stub axle. Any info on this and how to get the numbers to where they should be. My camber is off (probably the toe too) and wearing the inside of the tires. Let me know what you come up with. thanks

[jtanguay]

yea it costs about 100 bucks for a 4 wheel alighment (they use shims to align the rear)

laser alignment is ur best option, as any home alignment would be very time consuming and may not give any results :S

jon

[srivett]

I think that wear is normal.  The insides of your rear tires are cupping right?  My friend who had a VW golf for many sets of tires told me it was...you just need to rotate your wheels more often.

Cheers, Steve

[fspGTD]

Yes, there are shims available that can be installed between the rear axle mounting flange and stub axle.  They work quite well to adjust rear camber and toe, usually used to to bring them back into spec when the rear axle has been somehow damaged / bent.  I have used the 2-piece full-contact adjustable plastic shims before and they work great.  You spin 2 pieces to dial in with good precision correction for both camber and toe (all at the same time.)  If you knew what corrections for toe and camber in each side needed to be made, you could install them yourself.  Remove the brake drum, behind there you will find the 4 bolts that mount the rear stub axle.  The brake hardline needn't be disconnected as it's flexible enough to allow the stub axle to move away far enough to slip the shim behind.  The shim goes between rear stub axle and mounting flange.  Watch out after you install shim especially in the areas where it is thickest that the stub axle mounting bolts still make full thread contact, otherwise you can strip them bringing them up to full torque.

A ha - this might help, found it Googling on the web:
http://www.gti-vr6.net/library/suspension/inst_rear_shims/

[ejust]

thanks for the help. ill have to locate these shims. i do tire rotations every 5k miles. ive only had the car for a few months and two of them was fixing things on it inc new suspension parts. however, the back wheels you can visibly tell there way off and were that way when i got the car.

[RAMMSTEIN]

Yes, there are shims available that can be installed between the rear axle mounting flange and stub axle.  They work quite well to adjust rear camber and toe, usually used to to bring them back into spec when the rear axle has been somehow damaged / bent.  I have used the 2-piece full-contact adjustable plastic shims before and they work great.  You spin 2 pieces to dial in with good precision correction for both camber and toe (all at the same time.)  If you knew what corrections for toe and camber in each side needed to be made, you could install them yourself.  Remove the brake drum, behind there you will find the 4 bolts that mount the rear stub axle.  The brake hardline needn't be disconnected as it's flexible enough to allow the stub axle to move away far enough to slip the shim behind.  The shim goes between rear stub axle and mounting flange.  Watch out after you install shim especially in the areas where it is thickest that the stub axle mounting bolts still make full thread contact, otherwise you can strip them bringing them up to full torque.

A ha - this might help, found it Googling on the web:
http://www.gti-vr6.net/library/suspension/inst_rear_shims/

fspGTD, that's awesome info you provided!!!!!!

So basically, you do a regular alignment (they say it's at the 4 wheels, but it's not, front only) and you adjust the rear yourself...pretty good...

On top of that, the tutorial is shown with rear discs, exactly what I have on the passat!!!!

Thanks buddy!