caster increase and steering effort in manual steering

[sharp67]

My car (67 Camaro) currently has manual steering and I am considering going with the truturn system. Im trying to figure out if, when I change over to the system and increase caster, will it be managable. Currently the steering effort is enjoyable, with good feed back, at speed. It sucks for parking! thoughts and input would be appreciated. Jay

[David Pozzi]

Try maxing out your present caster and drive it around & see. Take any alignment shims off the front bolts of the upper A arms and put them on the rear bolt. Toe in will be off but it should give you some idea. You probably will only get 3.5 deg positive caster and you really want 5.5 deg for street use. Even more for autocrossing. I don't think manual is going to work with very much caster. With the right PS box and pump, the steering feels very good.

[sharp67]

David, Thanks for your input.

[David Pozzi]

The more offset your wheels, the worse it get's too.

[pitts64]

You can also bring up tire pressure to the max rating as you increase caster.. A few pounds of tire pressure up or down can make a big difference in feel..

[UMI Tech]

My car (67 Camaro) currently has manual steering and I am considering going with the truturn system. Im trying to figure out if, when I change over to the system and increase caster, will it be manageable. Currently the steering effort is enjoyable, with good feed back, at speed. It sucks for parking! thoughts and input would be appreciated. Jay

It also matters how you're going to use your car. I know that even if the effort is manageable there simply isn't enough time to auto-x with manual steering. Street use may be a different story if you can handle the parking lot effort.

[chpr1972]

A piece of advice!!. If you are going to be a SERIOUS autocrosser then fine spend the money for all the neat stuff. If you are going to be a street cruiser mostly put the less expensive stuff in like a Jeep steering box. Save the money for a OD trans either auto or stick. Put a set of adjustable upper control arms on it and a new set of stock[1/2 to 1 coil cut off] springs and good shocks, not the 100 way adjustable ones. A good set of 350-500 rated tires that will last a while. The car will be fun to drive , handle real good, and ride reasonably well and the wife/girlfriend won't be bitchin all the time. The only person you will wow is yourself as most people only care about is it is an OLD car.