[whojohnjones]

on my 1983 buick park avenue my car has developed negative camber and when I back into my driveway I have positive camber. both positions are very noticeable. do I simply need a alignment?

[cal1320]

If you have visable camber change when changing direction, you need to give the front suspension a look over .ASAP. Loose suspension or ball joints may be bad. You will need an alignment when you finish though.

[MARTINSR]

Are both sides changing, that would be very odd. I could see one side where the shims fell out or something and the upper control arm is moving in and out but for BOTH sides to be doing it, sounds fishy to me. Maybe you are getting an illusion and it just looks like it's changing. Have you had an alignment done?

Brian

[whojohnjones]

yes it is both sides..although one side is worse than the other..no I haven't had one done

[MARTINSR]

This just simply doesn't make any sense. You need to get it into a shop and have it aligned and have them check it out. There is no single thing other than the frame being broken at the center crossmember that could make this happen, the camber "changing" that is.

Is your drive way super steep or have a large hump? If your cars suspension is being extended as it is parked over a hump or something goofy like that I can see where the camber would change and you would think it is abnormal but this could be perfectly normal as the camber will change some throughout the normal arch of the spindles going up and down.

Brian

[whojohnjones]

it changes anywhere I put my car in reverse. I'll check tomorrow and if I can't find anything wrong it's going to the shop Thursday

[MARTINSR]

It just sounds nuts. Unless there are COMPLETELY worn out bushings in the control arms I just don't see how this can happen. In some other cars, caster can change pretty dramatically with some worn parts. But in your car with camber, again, caster can change quite a bit with worn bushings.
If you can stand next to the car while someone moves the car from drive to reverse you may be able to see what is moving.

Brian

[Tony@AirRideTech]

Im with Martin here too... even with the marginal geometry under the 78-88 G body's the only way you should be experiencing camber gain change would be if the ride height of the vehicle or wheel position were changing too. Now if you have a steep driveway and the suspension is attempting to articulate one side versus the other that is one thing but if it is changing just by simply moving the car forard or backward then thats a problem...