Jason Stevenson wrote:

> To the list at large-I need help (yet again).  I need some ideas on
> what might be causing the problem I'm having.  As the title suggests,
> I'm having seriously abnormal tire wear, especially in the front.  I
> have a 1984 Vanagon (standard).  I replaced the tires about a year
> ago, when I bought the vehicle.  Shortly thereafter, I noticed
> accellerated wear on the insides of the front tires.  That was easily
> solved by having it aligned front and rear.  I then rotated the front
> tires to the back, and vice versa.  It wasn't too long before I began
> to see rapid wear on the fronts again (this time on the OUTside of the
> tires).  I naturally assumed that they had simply not done the
> alignment quite right, so I took it back, and they redid it free of
> charge.  They told me when I picked it up that one side was off by 1
> degree.  I remember thinking that didn't seem like enough to account
> for that kind of wear, but went on my way.A short time later, I
> noticed still more wear, especially on the front tires.  I'm now past
> the service warranty period on the alignment.  But I'm starting to
> think that isn't the problem to begin with.  The most obvious thing I
> can think of is shocks.  Does that sound like my best bet of what to
> do next to the experts on the list?  Or should I be looking elsewhere
> in the suspension/wheel location system? Thanks in advance-Jason
> Stevenson

I recently learned that very worn ball joints can make attempts at front
end alignment meaningless.  After replacing the power steering rack on
my daughter's Saab, I thought that I had set the toe in correctly.
After about a year and 20k miles or so, the Michelins on the front were
nearly worn out, in a pattern that suggested too much toe in.  Sure
enough, there was about 5 times too much.  It finally dawned on me that
all that clunking from the front end might have something to do with it
(duh!).  Found that the lower ball joints had about 1/8 " slop in them.

Larry A.
quickly older, slowly wiser.