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Well just about a year later and its all back together, the added weight brought it down nice,.. where before the front end was 2" higher than rear, now the front end sits 1/2" lower than the rear end.

I also took it up and down the street with everything loose to help it settle before I torque everything up and do my alignment..

I read somewhere the to set caster at zero with a little negative camber and toe out about 1/16"?





Al

Ideally you want to get as much positive caster as you can get (which is pretty limited on a stock H body suspension). That along with about 1/4 to 1/2 degree negative camber and 1/16" toe in should be good. As far as the positive caster, if you can get 2 degrees or so on each side you are doing well.

Thanks Clyde...

Seems like I have another little delima ..

I cannot seem to get my caster on left above -1.50 or there abouts, where on right side I have +1.00 ..

it seems as if the caster bolt cams and camber bolts cams on the left side do not do much to change values when I turn them..I have sway bar end links connected when adjusting maybe this is causing issues with control arm moving??

Camber on both sides is -.50 left and -65 right..and toes are fine

just not sure how car will handle with +1.00 caster on right and -1.50 on left ?

Any thoughts on this appreciated

Al

I can understand not getting enough caster but they settings should definitely be changing when you turn the cams. Are you doing this at home or on a alignment machine? You do either need turnplates under the tires to allow the tire to slide. Otherwise you are putting pressure on the tire and you will not get a accurate reading. At minimum you need to roll the car back and forth after making the adjustments to let everything stabilize.

Ahh I see, I thought turnplates were only needed to find the angles..Got to find some turnplates now my garage is not big enough to roll back and forth much.

Al

When you are making adjustments you are moving the lower control arm, spindle, wheel and tire. If the tires can't move or slide you are just creating a bind in the rubber bushings and not getting a proper reading. Everything needs to move when making the adjustments without binding or creating friction.

Just a thought about your castor bolt cams. When I pulled my front end apart I found out that I was missing a couple of the brackets that are supposed to be either side of your cams. I can only assume this was because of accident damage to the LCA mount. I ended up welding a couple of bits of plate next to the cams so that could actually move the bolts. Jeez I'm confusing myself trying to explain this so I hope you can work out what I'm trying to say.

sirrick4 wrote:Just a thought about your castor bolt cams. When I pulled my front end apart I found out that I was missing a couple of the brackets that are supposed to be either side of your cams. I can only assume this was because of accident damage to the LCA mount. I ended up welding a couple of bits of plate next to the cams so that could actually move the bolts. Jeez I'm confusing myself trying to explain this so I hope you can work out what I'm trying to say.

Yep I understand what you mean, I do have one of the stops on my camber that is flattened but it would push the LCA more positive so its not really a problem, I really can't see the castor stops, how did the weld them when they are so hidden??

I did a little google search and as suggested by some people got 2 commercial tiles and greased them, it made the tires move very easily and I was able to make changes that where pretty good, then once I took the car for a spin and checked again they were off..

So it drives good and no pulling, I think I will take a break on this and just work on other things..

Al

Well if your settings are changing either the cams are moving or you still have some sort of binding while doing the adjustments, then once you drive it it settles in. This assumes all of your steering and suspension bushings, ball joints etc are not worn. If anything is worn you are wasting your time try to align it.

Anytime you make an adjustment, especially without proper turn plates, you should jounce the bumper a couple of times to settle the suspension.


Chuck