Adjusting Camber with SPC Uppers

[cooki3mnstr]

I recently got my front suspension buttoned up on my '70 Chevelle. I'm running SPC Adjustable UCA, Stock LCA, .9" taller Upper Ball joints, .5" taller lower ball joints, BMR 1" drop springs, and Stock style spindles. I have a Joe's Racing Caster/Camber gauge and I've been attempting to get my alignment squared away. I am able to get my camber set to about -1* Camber, and the Toe set, but I am having a hard time getting the caster adjusted. I followed the sheet that came with the gauge, and I have watched a handful of Youtube videos that address the alignment. No matter what I do I cant get the caster to go more negative. After I swing the tires +/- 20* and re level the gauge it still reads +12* which is maxxed out on the gauge.

Does any one have any experience/advice for me on how to get this sorted out? I'd really like to get it done myself so I have a better idea of how my car is set up and can make adjustments if necessary.

[dhutton]

Deleted.

[Chad-1stGen]

If you have watched videos and read the sheet then I'm assuming you know that positive caster moves the upper balljoint backwards? So to reduce the postive camber you currently have you want to move the upper balljoints towards the front of you car. On your SPC arms you should be able to tighten the front adjusting sleeve and lengthen the rear adjusting sleeve to reduce caster. Can you take a pic of your current upper control arms?

[cooki3mnstr]

If you have watched videos and read the sheet then I'm assuming you know that positive caster moves the upper balljoint backwards? So to reduce the postive camber you currently have you want to move the upper balljoints towards the front of you car. On your SPC arms you should be able to tighten the front adjusting sleeve and lengthen the rear adjusting sleeve to reduce camber. Can you take a pic of your current upper control arms?

Correct, I understand the that ballpoint to the rear is positive, I think I mistyped what I meant in the first post. Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough.

Per SPC’s data sheet I have the long adjuster in the front and short one in the rear. They state this is the correct way to install them to get 3+* of positive caster. I was playing with the adjustments last night and no matter what I did I couldn’t get the bubble to move on the gauge.

I started out by adjusting both adjusters the same amount in opposite ways to get it to move, then I tried just one and still nothing. I’m shooting for +4-6* caster.

I’ll get a few pics tonight when I get home.

[Typhoon1015]

shoot for as much caster as you can get. I would go for 8 to 9 degrees if possible. When going to the ideal caster, you would also want to put in a bump steer kit and adjust for moving the arm higher up with the increased caster. Camber can be from 1-2 degrees negative depending on end use of the car and tire wear.

[bryant]

It does seem like something is being missed here. Does the actual spindle look like it's leaning back over 12 degrees?
You can remove the wheel. If you have a coil over, detach it from the control arm and support the suspension at ride height. If you are coilspring then jack up the suspension as far as you can. you should be able to take an angle finder (lots of free phone apps) and put it on a flat surface on the spindle and measure the actual angle.

[pitts64]

I have the same uppers on my 69 el Camino. After installation, I tried aligning it at home with no luck.. I took it to a local shop (Allegheny Automotive Etna) that aligns buses on a Hunter Hawkeye. The tech spent 3 hours on it aligning the adjustable four link and front end to the street specs of even 5 caster, .50 negative camber 1/32 toe in..

The car slighty drifted right and felt boring and I expected this but it felt so much better, it was straight now.. I then got my home alignment stuff out and went to tuning it and now its tuned just the way I like it..

Find a shop with a Hunter Hawkeye rack then tune it.. Frankly I would use the performance specs.. I now have around 7 driver side/ 8 passenger side degrees positive caster and a little over 1 degree negative camber... Too much caster (10 in my case) will made my cars steering slow, return to center slow and clumsy/heavy feeling.. I ran caster up till too heavy then backed it down..

I made a cardboard chart with the number of flats I turned each adjustment sleeve, including tie rods so I can always go back to square one..