View Full Version : 68 Camaro steering problems
Hi all we just got done building a 68 Camaro and having some steering problems. The car is a Ls with stock steering gear box. When you turn the wheel and apply the drakes the wheel gets very heavy let off the brake and steering gets easy. We took car out for a shake down and the car wants to wander or not center. This is driving us nuts so any help would be great.
Thanks Ken
130fe
04-25-2018, 05:06 PM
Has the car been aligned recently? You might want to list what brakes, master and suspension you have in your car. Those would help diagnose your problem.
Yes car has been aligned , stock disk drakes stock power booster , Chris Alston coil overs a-arms and spindles.
dhutton
04-25-2018, 06:13 PM
Aligned to what specs? Factory?
Don
We set it to .7cam 3cast and 1/8 toe.
dhutton
04-26-2018, 03:17 AM
We set it to .7cam 3cast and 1/8 toe.
Was that -.7 camber? Should have been. You could try adding more caster.
Don
So how much caster is good to have for a street/play
dhutton
04-26-2018, 03:13 PM
I would try 5 deg caster. Was that toe in or out?
Hopefully David Pozzi will weigh in.
Don
Chad-1stGen
04-27-2018, 08:24 AM
5* positive caster is minimum I'd try to achieve. 3* isn't good for the street or any sort of performance driving. Higher caster numbers will help with tracking straight too.
However, that shouldn't be the cause of the steering getting heavy while braking. Unless your motor isn't making much vacuum and bogging when turning?
Ok moved it to 4deg caster and that helped but now need to see if we can get different slugs for the up a-arm. We are having to stack to many shims.
ULTM8Z
04-27-2018, 04:45 PM
Are you running factory control arms?
MuscleRodz
04-27-2018, 06:59 PM
Ok moved it to 4deg caster and that helped but now need to see if we can get different slugs for the up a-arm. We are having to stack to many shims.
reduce your camber to under .5. You don't need that much camber with as little caster as your running for the street, and reduce your toe to 1/16. That will help reduce your shim count and help increase caster.
David Pozzi
04-29-2018, 12:11 PM
Does the car have power steering?
Do you have a hydraboost system on it?
What size front tires?
ryanleiker
05-06-2018, 05:14 PM
The braking-heavy steering sounds like a hydroboost problem I was having for a while in my swap.
Are we all sure it doesn't have hydroboost?
Update We replaced the power gear box installed ride tech tru turn and all the rest of the linkage with new. This was a big improvement. Still having a problem with steering not wanting to center. The wandering is gone. We set the front end up with -.4 camber and 2deg caster with 1/8 toe in. This is what Chris Alston guys said to set there front end at. Alston a-arms and coil overs stock frame. Tires are 245/35/18
The car does not have a hydro boost. Also can't figure out how to do pics.
MuscleRodz
05-20-2018, 08:17 PM
Update We replaced the power gear box installed ride tech tru turn and all the rest of the linkage with new. This was a big improvement. Still having a problem with steering not wanting to center. The wandering is gone. We set the front end up with -.4 camber and 2deg caster with 1/8 toe in. This is what Chris Alston guys said to set there front end at. Alston a-arms and coil overs stock frame. Tires are 245/35/18
The car does not have a hydro boost. Also can't figure out how to do pics.
2 deg caster is not enough to center the steering. It will be more neutral. reduce your camber some more and increase your caster to 4 deg min.
[attach=config]152734[/attach. This is a pic of the car
ULTM8Z
05-21-2018, 01:55 PM
2 deg caster is not enough to center the steering. It will be more neutral. reduce your camber some more and increase your caster to 4 deg min.
If the control arms are stock, you'd be lucky to get 2 deg out of them (if they're anything like 2nd gens)
I'm actually running about 6 deg caster on mine with my aftermarket uppers. It was a phenomenal improvement in pretty much everything about the front end (especially the self-centering at speed).
We set the front end up with -.4 camber and 2deg caster with 1/8 toe in. This is what Chris Alston guys said to set there front end at. Alston a-arms and coil overs stock frame.
umm no! run 4-5 degrees positive caster (more if you can), .5 - 1 degree negative camber & 1/8" Toe in,,,, I don't know what Alston thinks your driving? 2 deg caster is factory,
Chad-1stGen
05-21-2018, 04:12 PM
Yup. 2* caster is your problem. I was able to get right under 5* on stock control arms year ago on my 68. If you now have the ridetech arms 5* should be easy.
We have Chris Alston A-arms. When trying to get more caster we have to stack lots of shims. Is there h a mod that can be done to keep camber and gain caster. We also have 2” lower tall spindles.
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