Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
What is your intent for the car?
1 1/8 negative camber is a lot unless road racing or slalom.
IMHO, 5° caster max should be good. Again depending on the intended use.
The man wants MORE caster. How about this idea?
- Thread starter Kern Dog
- Start date
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1 1/8 negative camber is a lot unless road racing or slalom.
IMHO, 5° caster max should be good. Again depending on the intended use.
This car is not a commuter, it is just a toy.
I put spacers in the right side like these:
The reason? I couldn't get the camber to where I wanted with the caster that I could get. I'm being reminded of how inter-related that caster and camber can be.
In short, I started down the road of doing my own alignment because I suspected that the alignment shop that I used may have lied about the numbers on my car. I was told it aligned to over 5 degrees of caster and when I checked with this gauge, I had 3 degrees on one side and 3 1/4 on the other. I messed with the alignment cams and was able to get the 5 degrees of caster on both sides but the right side camber was only 1/8 degree and I wanted more. In theory, I could have just used those ball joint spacers to gain the negative camber.
The QA 1 arms at full caster came in around 8 1/2 degrees.
I'm just curious about what negative effects I might have with a caster number that high.
Hard to steer at slow speeds? I have a manual transmission so I could rev the engine a bit to speed up the pump.
It looks like I could get 7 1/2 to 8 degrees of caster and 1.0 degree of negative camber with this car.
I could just align it, lock down the cam bolts and drive it to see.
I put spacers in the right side like these:
The reason? I couldn't get the camber to where I wanted with the caster that I could get. I'm being reminded of how inter-related that caster and camber can be.
In short, I started down the road of doing my own alignment because I suspected that the alignment shop that I used may have lied about the numbers on my car. I was told it aligned to over 5 degrees of caster and when I checked with this gauge, I had 3 degrees on one side and 3 1/4 on the other. I messed with the alignment cams and was able to get the 5 degrees of caster on both sides but the right side camber was only 1/8 degree and I wanted more. In theory, I could have just used those ball joint spacers to gain the negative camber.
The QA 1 arms at full caster came in around 8 1/2 degrees.
I'm just curious about what negative effects I might have with a caster number that high.
Hard to steer at slow speeds? I have a manual transmission so I could rev the engine a bit to speed up the pump.
It looks like I could get 7 1/2 to 8 degrees of caster and 1.0 degree of negative camber with this car.
I could just align it, lock down the cam bolts and drive it to see.
So I ran my Duster for awhile with +8° caster, -1° camber and that was with 16:1 manual steering.
So, with power steering I don’t think the car would be difficult to steer, I managed it with fast ratio manual.
That said, the amount of body lift you get by turning the wheels is pretty significant at that point too. Like the car visibly sits at an angle in the front with the wheels turned. Is it worse than new cars that also run +8°, +9° or even more caster? Not really. But those suspensions were designed for that much, so they probably handle it a bit better.
The steering effort and amount of lift you’re getting also changes very rapidly up in that territory, so the difference between +7.5° and +8.5° would be significant. Personally, I’d try to keep the caster under about +7.5°.
Thanks Bryan.
I was thinking with the right:
I could turn the rear cam bolt in a bit to get to 1.0 N camber and see where the caster lands. For the left:
I could turn the front cam bolt in to get to 1.0 and see where the caster lands there.
Between the two sides, I should be able to get equal numbers. There isn't a lot of road crown where I drive.
Just a thought for the heck of it: Wasn't it common in the past to have different numbers left and right? Closer to zero camber left and some negative left to account for road crown?
I was thinking with the right:
I could turn the rear cam bolt in a bit to get to 1.0 N camber and see where the caster lands. For the left:
I could turn the front cam bolt in to get to 1.0 and see where the caster lands there.
Between the two sides, I should be able to get equal numbers. There isn't a lot of road crown where I drive.
Just a thought for the heck of it: Wasn't it common in the past to have different numbers left and right? Closer to zero camber left and some negative left to account for road crown?
2015 Challenger specs:
9 degrees of caster on the right side of the SRT cars?
9 degrees of caster on the right side of the SRT cars?
michiganpat
Well-Known Member
1.25 degree negative camber you might end up seeing some additional/excessive tire wear on the inside edge of your tires....
original PS I'm guessing it would feel closer to a modern car as far as effort?
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