caster

[wedgie]

I recently installed the adjustable, tubular A arms from RMS. Beautiful parts. Having said that, what is realistic caster setting to ask the alignment shop to shoot for? The car is a 1965 "B" body, big block, street driven only, manual steering, radial tires (215-75 fronts). I assume that 1/8" negative camber and 1/16" toe in is correct. Thanks in advance.

 

[65-440]

idealy you want everything to be close to 0 degrees as possible ..... unless you plan on running some road coarse ! for an all street car, set for 0 degrees .... will be better on your tires !

 

[brandon64]

idealy you want everything to be close to 0 degrees as possible ..... unless you plan on running some road coarse ! for an all street car, set for 0 degrees .... will be better on your tires !

zero degrees of caster would be, for lack of better words, not good at all. your car would have no idea were "straight" is and would "wander" horribly.

 

[brandon64]

I recently installed the adjustable, tubular A arms from RMS. Beautiful parts. Having said that, what is realistic caster setting to ask the alignment shop to shoot for? The car is a 1965 "B" body, big block, street driven only, manual steering, radial tires (215-75 fronts). I assume that 1/8" negative camber and 1/16" toe in is correct. Thanks in advance.

1/8 neg camber will help in the corners with minimal wear on the tires, 1/16 toe in is standard as the wheels want to toe out as you go down the road so 1/16 in will give you 0 at speed. If you have too much caster at low speeds it will shimmy. For a moderately aggressive street driven car I would shoot for about 4 degrees of caster. a little more if you drive it more aggressively.

 

[65-440]

0 degrees of camber toe is fine, you talikng about 1/16" .... that would make no difference at all .... thats like 1/10th of a turn of the tie rod ! .... and as long as the caster matches each other the car will go straight ...... when was the last time you did an alignment ???? normal toe specs are b/t 0.00 degrees - 0.05 degrees .....so like i said before, if you dont have factory specs you cant go wrong setting to 0 .... caster might not be 0 but as long as both sides match youll be good .....

 

[Cranky]

I NEVER go by factory specs! Factory specs may work for the skinny bias ply tires of the day but imo, they are outdated for the wheels and tires of today. Does your car have manual or power steering? More caster means the car will not wander at higher speeds but more caster will also make turning at very slow speeds more difficult such as parallel parking. There's a ton of info on the net about alignment specs and you can get a good idea of what's good for your type of driving. Another thing you can do is experiment with the factory specs and then change them a bit at a time to see what you like. Btw, I learned how to do my own alignments after the last shop screwed things up so bad that it pissed me off and started learning how to do it myself! It's not that hard and there are some basic and simple tools available to help you do it. I started out with a level, tape measure and string.

 

[wedgie]

I NEVER go by factory specs! Factory specs may work for the skinny bias ply tires of the day but imo, they are outdated for the wheels and tires of today. Does your car have manual or power steering? More caster means the car will not wander at higher speeds but more caster will also make turning at very slow speeds more difficult such as parallel parking. There's a ton of info on the net about alignment specs and you can get a good idea of what's good for your type of driving. Another thing you can do is experiment with the factory specs and then change them a bit at a time to see what you like. Btw, I learned how to do my own alignments after the last shop screwed things up so bad that it pissed me off and started learning how to do it myself! It's not that hard and there are some basic and simple tools available to help you do it. I started out with a level, tape measure and string.

I did the strings and level thing in order to get it fairly close. I can't figure how to get an accurate caster reading, therefore, big bucks at the alignment shop. I say big bucks because of the time and effort involved. The major caster and camber adjustments are now made by disconnecting the upper A arm and turning in or turning out the adjustments. Of course, fine adjustments are made with the original cams.

 

[Cranky]

There are caster tools on the market...some good, some not so good and turn plates are available too or you can even make your own. Heck, two pieces of flat iron plate with grease between them will work ok too. Thing to remember is if you roll up on a set of turn plates, the rear should be at the same elevation as the front.

 

[wedgie]

There are caster tools on the market...some good, some not so good and turn plates are available too or you can even make your own. Heck, two pieces of flat iron plate with grease between them will work ok too. Thing to remember is if you roll up on a set of turn plates, the rear should be at the same elevation as the front.

I wonder who makes the "biggest bang for the buck" American made caster tool? I would much rather do this job myself and still have the tool to do it again if ever necessary.

 

[Cranky]

I wonder who makes the "biggest bang for the buck" American made caster tool? I would much rather do this job myself and still have the tool to do it again if ever necessary.

Been a long time since looking but the net has many listed. OTC is one that I might give a look at and Eastwood has alignment tools too but not sure what brands. There's even YouTube vids on tools and how to use them.