Camber Castor Toe in and out

[steve from staten island]

I borrowed a castor camber gauge that goes on spindle hub and the toe in out gauge the kind that has pointers on each end. I get what camber and toe in/out is. Castor m not sure. What i dont get is why as per instructions you have to turn the wheel 20 degrees one way and 20 degrees back for a total of 40.
The other thing with the toe in and out is how do you know which tie rod couplers to turn? Right or left? Can anyone whose actually done this shed any light. Id like to get things close before i take it in for alignment. Thanks

 

[65wgn440]

Do you also have turn plates ? Don't believe you would ever get an accurate reading on a caster sweep without them. If these are all new front end parts, I would just center both tie-rod sleeves, basically do same with upper arm adjusters, adjust for decent camber, adjust toe-in turning each side equal turns, then install steering wheel in the straightest position you can get it, and take to alignment shop. The easiest way of describing caster to me is to think of a straight axle, and caster would be the angle of the king pin in that set-up.

 

[Dennis H]

Sorry, thought I read Camel Toe...

 

[mopar 3 B]

Did you get the guages ( giant protactors ) steering wheel centered in cycle. Each side gets set individually. Toe will be the last thing you set.

Caster needs to be set with car in a level surface. Front tires on turntables. With the hub guages the reading will be taken at what ever degrees the equipment tells you to turn the wheels to. Right turn on right side and left turn on left side.

 

[Grady Cain]

Caster is the measure of steering angle relative to the vertical axis of your wheels. Picture a vertical line through your upper and lower ball joint down through your tire and to the road surface - that is your "vertical axis" (x in the photo.) Caster, also known as "steering axis" is the positive or negative line drawn through the center of the wheel to the road (red line) which is the angular displacement from the vertical axis. This photo shows positive caster if looking at the left front wheel of a car. Most cars have some positive caster as it helps return the steering wheel to center easier as it puts the tire contact point ahead of the vertical axis. On a laser alignment machine which I have used hundreds of times, I would check caster by sweeping the wheels 20 degrees right, return to center, and then 20 degrees left. What this does is allows the alignment machine to see if one tire is getting to that specified point ahead of the other and therefore, determining positive or negative caster in each wheel. Too much positive caster makes a car more difficult to steer. Some negative caster can make a car easier to steer at slower speeds but too much negative caster may make a car "wander" at higher speeds due to the contact point being slightly behind the vertical axis.

As for toe, I'm not sure what type of equipment you have. Toe is adjusted by turning the tie rod sleeves clock-wise or anti-clockwise to achieve the proper angle. Maybe I'm not understanding what you are asking regarding toe adjustment. A set of turnstyle plates like 65wgn440 mentioned would be extremely helpful and almost a requirement to get an accurate alignment. If you are just going for close enough to get it to an alignment shop, get everything as centered as possible and drive it on over. Hope this helps...

 

[WileE]

Steve, you can get it close enough to go right to the alignment shop. I like .5 neg camber, as much pos caster 3 or so, and 1/8 toe in.

 

[67 coronet]

here is a nice little read for you.https://www.allpar.com/history/mopar/front-end-alignment.html