Best Camber, Castor and Toe Settings ????

[zskinner]

Hey guys i have a vp and have just got a front wheel alignment done and was wondering about the printout i got from the company that did the alignment for me. the printout says that my car now has -

* Left Tyre Toe - 1.0mm Toe In
* Right Tyre Toe - 0.9mm Toe In

* Left Tyre Camber - Negative 1.52 degrees
* Right Tyre Camber - Negative 1.86 degrees

* Left Tyre Caster - Positive 3.59 degrees
* Right Tyre Caster - Positive 3.23 degrees


Just wondering if these are all pretty normal figures that would make the car handle ok or if they would send the car a bit wild? just cos after this alignment my car seems to wonder a bit more than it did prior to the alignment.


and theres a bit of a difference in caster and camber degrees on each tyre, are those small differences ok or should each tyre's castor and camber degrees be more closer to each other?

cheers

 

[Shearer]

One thing I've noticed in with the caster there it slightly less on the right then the left. This is called Caster offset to make the car track straighter on slightly curved roads. Without this the car will pull to the left, and the problem gets worse of lowered cars.

I take you would have adjustable strut tops?

 

[zskinner]

ah true that, thanks ay at least now i know the caster is normal. yeah just got some adjustable strut tops installed not too long ago. havnt lowered the front of the car yet but will be in the near future, so figured i should probably get the adjustable strut tops when my original strut tops died a few weeks ago

 

[Shearer]

Adjustable ones are the way to go, the factory strut tops have very limited adjustment

 

[acarmody]

One thing I've noticed in with the caster there it slightly less on the right then the left. This is called Caster offset to make the car track straighter on slightly curved roads. Without this the car will pull to the left, and the problem gets worse of lowered cars.

I take you would have adjustable strut tops?

I remember hearing AGES ago (and keep in mind it might be pure bullcrap) that its always better to have a SLIGHT pull to the left, that was if you ever fall asleep behind the wheel or something, you hit a barricade or something, as opposed to incoming traffic.

 

[Shearer]

I remember hearing AGES ago (and keep in mind it might be pure bullcrap) that its always better to have a SLIGHT pull to the left, that was if you ever fall asleep behind the wheel or something, you hit a barricade or something, as opposed to incoming traffic.

I've heard that too. I dismissed it as B-S

 

[hiy_po]

just cos after this alignment my car seems to wonder a bit more than it did prior to the alignment.

If they adjusted the toe it may feel a bit more wondery (is that a word?). Its a common wheel aligner trick to add a bit of toe to cover any pulling, when you cant adjust the castor corectly

 

[levymetal]

I remember hearing AGES ago (and keep in mind it might be pure bullcrap) that its always better to have a SLIGHT pull to the left, that was if you ever fall asleep behind the wheel or something, you hit a barricade or something, as opposed to incoming traffic.

yeah i read that once too, but what if you were on a normal street and fell asleep and you and ran over a bunch of pedestrians instead? i think cars should track straight - it's not anyone's decision as to who dies first. i'm sure there would be a lawsuit in it if the car was purposely made to track left instead of straight anyway

 

[wortus]

I'd be putting as much negative camber on the car as possible until the inside of the tyres started to wear more then the outside and as much positive caster as you can, the VN's didn't have much positive castor because they had a delete option for no power steering and too mcuh caster the wheel would be too hard to turn. More castor helps to stop the car wandering around when driving in a straight line and makes the steerign return to centre better.
There should be some toe in maybe 1/8 of an inch all up because when you brake in a car with old (not saying worn out) bushes the wheels splay out at the front, think of it this way you brake and the castor rod is put inder tension so the lower control arms swing back a bit and this changes the wheel alignment settings.
I had to replace my bearing plates on my old VN about 2 1/2 years ago, I just used genuine replacements there was enough castor and camber and nothing to ever come loose. I figured if the old ones had lasted as long as they did then these would more than see the car out. The rest of the suspension was standard, original bushes except for the sway bar links and it had new shocks all round when I bought it in 1998.

 

[zskinner]

hey thanks heaps for all the replies. so im looking at getting another wheel alignment done, and after reading everyones replies and google-ing a bit i think i want something like this -

* Left Tyre Toe - 2.0mm Toe In
* Right Tyre Toe - 2.0mm Toe In

* Left Tyre Camber - Negative 2.0 degrees
* Right Tyre Camber - Negative 2.0 degrees

* Left Tyre Caster - Positive 4.0 degrees
* Right Tyre Caster - Positive 4.0 degrees


what do you's reckon? does something like that look ok or should i adjust something a bit differently? also i dont want my tyres to wear too much so would 2 degrees of camber per tyre be bad on tyre wear or should it be alright?