Can you have too much caster on 1st gen camaro?

[Rick Dorion]

Over the weekend I've been playing with aligning my 68 camaro ( Global West UCAs, SC&C X-tall UBJ, stock LCA, stock spindle).

To get -.5* camber I wind up with 6* caster. I run out of threads on the front UCA bolt.

If I try for more camber , my caster goes higher.

I ask because I wanted to be able to slip some shims in for additional camber if I try my hand at autocrossing.

TIA

[a67]

Too much caster manifests issues in a couple of areas. The tire can start to rub on the rear fender well or rear fender area. Too much steering effort. Or too much drift with crosswind.

If it works out, then it works.

Bob

[79T/Aman]

aren't the cross shafts offset?

[ks71z28]

Over the weekend I've been playing with aligning my 68 camaro ( Global West UCAs, SC&C X-tall UBJ, stock LCA, stock spindle).

To get -.5* camber I wind up with 6* caster. I run out of threads on the front UCA bolt.

If I try for more camber , my caster goes higher.

I ask because I wanted to be able to sip some shims in for additional camber if I try my hand at autocrossing.

TIA
Global West doesn't use offset shafts, I would stay away from too much more than 5-6* Caster, but 1-1.5* Neg camber is good and ok on the street. It is ok to put longer bolts on the upper A-arms, offset shafts are good. The Gen2 upper arms I sell have offset shafts, so you can flip them, which nets you about 1* more neg camber, and doesn't really mess with the toe, some goes just pull the upper bolts out, turn the shaft, then put it back when done for the day. Me, I set it and leave it. 6* caster 1.5* neg camber 1/16-0 toe out.

[JRouche]

Wow dude!!! This is timely for me. I have been looking and looking for the hazards of too much caster lately. Different type of car. Mine is a mustang II suspension. But as much as I could read I dont hear enough about caster.

I ran my suspension through its bump cycle, measuring the camber gain and and caster effect. Now, I know, this is only for bump, not roll, but before I rigged up a line computer scaled deal I wanted to see the numbers for bump. And I have air ride shock waves so I can run the arms through bump travel easily without having to remove springs. Kinda fun.

I am putting in some adjustable upper arms. So I wanted to play with several scenarios. Short arm, long arm , slight caster, major caster. I have been writing down ALL the combinations. Just trying to see what affected what. And I have read all the books but they dont go into too much caster for the most part.. My thinking is its because it doesnt have a great deal of harmful affect, like say too much camber or toe. Some scrub is talked about, but Im good with scrub with a great wheel placement, I got lucky there. So I think I can trade some scrub for some added camber in bump with a heavy caster.

You say what!!?? Caster effects camber? Yup. You can gain some decent, actually really nice camber gain with some heavy caster. Thats assuming you arent behind the ball to begin with. If you arent gaining any camber gain cause your suspension just wasnt designed correctly to begin with then you might not see any gain.

But... If the arms are positioned correctly by the builder to begin with, and its on a camber gain, or even no gain but not going backwards you can get a lil more with some heavy caster. Some cars are built with a camber going in the positive direction during bump and roll. OUCH!!!

So, what I was shooting for was a large caster angle, way past what the manufacture recommends. Why? Well, a large caster angle gets you some decent camber gain on bump. The bad side??? Thats what Im here looking for. Im shooting for 5 degrees of caster. I can set it up with that, I have it now. That and -.5 degrees of camber at ride height. I may go less if tire wear is an issue.

So what I get is -3 degrees of camber at 20 degrees (outside tire) of turn in at close to full bump, thats where the caster comes into play, at turn in and bump. The outside tire, loaded, gets some camber, where you need it.

So I played with all the options. I get 1.5 degrees of neg camber from ride hight to close to full bump with the wheels straight. I get an additional 1.5 degrees camber when Im turning due to caster. When I did the same thing with caster straight up I didnt get any of the bennies.

Ok. So thats why Im asking, and hopefully Rick gets some help too. What can be too much caster???? Id love to hear from you guys that know this stuff. JR

[ks71z28]

Caster can cause a "jacking" effect, so too much will really plant the tire, the inside tire will actually raise the car, this is good to a degree, but more is not always better, and thee is no magic number, that is why race teams do testing, as do I. A good balance front to rear is important, if your car really pushes, then get aggressive with it, but don't start to far out. 5-6* caster is not too much so no worries

[Rick Dorion]

All good input(s).

To get the caster down to about 5* I find myself limited to -.25* camber.

If I could go to about 6, I could get more negative camber.

[69LT1Nova]

As said above, too much caster = wheels rubbing!

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/08/PICT0924-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/08/PICT0925-1.jpg

As you can see, its rubbing on the rear of the wheel wells.

[Rick Dorion]

How much caster caused that interference?

[69LT1Nova]

How much caster caused that interference?

Lots... I rebuit my suspension and used SpeedTech control arms with the stock shim count. Come to find out that SpeedTech builds in more caster in their arms.

An exact measurement? Sorry, I don't know. :guilty:

[Rick Dorion]

When I started to align, I had equal shims at both locations, giving me -.5* camber. When I checked caster, it was +7.5!

I had (4) 1/8" shims front/back then.