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help me find out what is wrong with my front axle alignment

12david34 said:
yeah, im fighting with caster.. camber is just fine.. maybe a bit more than i wanted..
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Caster?? Well I couldn't read the Czech or Slovak the machine display. I pushed the buttons on the photo to display English or German, or French or Italian--anything else but pushing the button on the photo didn't change the display...I think the machine must be broken.

If the car has a few degrees more castor, and IF you have PS then don't worry, you will have a bit, a tiny bit more feeling and the car will self center better--which is good when you do high speed linked turns or recovering when you do big sideways drifts around traffic rondels or fountains. I personally shoot for at least 4 degrees castor on my cars
 
12david34 said:
hey man, im glad you posted this.. seriously.thank you
i just dont understand hows that possible..(maybe the answer is in Johns comment?!)
that i cant have more then +3? caster on both sides.. have you tried to set more caster on your car? because i did.. i ended up with -1,2? camber and +3,1? caster on passanger side while the other side was like: +2,8-2,9? caster, but camber was crazy.. like close to -2? if not more.. cant remember now
D.
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Dont forget that the strut towers where the normal top mount studs stick thru is slotted quite a lot.. so you have the fancy-schmantzy adjustable things but the bodyshell with slots is an extra factor...
 
John V said:
Caster?? Well I couldn't read the Czech or Slovak the machine display. I pushed the buttons on the photo to display English or German, or French or Italian--anything else but pushing the button on the photo didn't change the display...I think the machine must be broken.

If the car has a few degrees more castor, and IF you have PS then don't worry, you will have a bit, a tiny bit more feeling and the car will self center better--which is good when you do high speed linked turns or recovering when you do big sideways drifts around traffic rondels or fountains. I personally shoot for at least 4 degrees castor on my cars
Click to expand...

John that what im talking about whole time.. i want to set as more caster as possible.. but it cant be done without going into very negative camber..
let me explain..
we have a passanger side, which can be adjusted easy peasy.. i had no problem to adjust it at -1 camber and +3 caster.
the problem starts at the drivers side, where i used same method as on the opposite side, but using the same metod ended up with +2,8 or +2,9caster, but the camber was very close to -2?, so that means im not sure if im dumb, but i just couldnt set the caster at +3? without leaving the caster -1,5? or more.. everytime i tried to reduce camber i reduced caster too..
 
If you want more caster, can you rotate the top mounts 90deg and then move the strut too back? This should allow you to adjust camber with the factory slots.
 
My 242 has only 1.5 degrees of caster with -2 degrees of camber - it goes down the highway just fine and bites pretty hard in a corner. I'd say you're doing pretty well with the set up you have.
 
woodenpudden said:
Posting for posterity. I'm in a similar situation. Lowered quite a bit in front, using the same camber plates. Steers, tracks, wears tires just fine, so I'm really not worried about it being .5 - 1 degree off in caster.

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/perrylens/22389834236/in/dateposted/" title="image"><img src="https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5636/22389834236_fbb0537b8f_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="image"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Interestingly enough, this is almost exactly the final specs on my wife's 85, on stock front suspension :-)e-shrug:), but with the caster angles switched between driver/passenger sides. Goes straight down the road, no pull, wheel is centered and the tires aren't wearing unevenly.
 
Canuck said:
My 242 has only 1.5 degrees of caster with -2 degrees of camber - it goes down the highway just fine and bites pretty hard in a corner. I'd say you're doing pretty well with the set up you have.
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oh, this coming from you gives me a good feeling.. like everything is ok. than i probably should worry about it.. but still i would like to have +3 caster on both sides.. becasue why not?
 
12david34 said:
oh, this coming from you gives me a good feeling.. like everything is ok. than i probably should worry about it.. but still i would like to have +3 caster on both sides.. becasue why not?
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If you want to fight it - that's fine. But we're now in the range of splitting hairs just a little IMHO. You're already in the zone that the factory has specified as being OK so unless you want to shift the upper strut mount back a hair or the lower one forward, then that's about all you've got.

I'd like to have a few degrees more caster so that I could realize the benefit of an improved contact patch while steering (more caster allows the inside tire loose negative camber and the outside to gain it in a turn). The hard part is knowing what is optimal without a working model of the suspension or the ability to test this empirically. I've tried with tire temps, but the variable is confounded so there's no way to know and that's it for caster for my car without chopping the towers even further (which may happen one day). So given the amount of work involved in this - I've concluded that for now it's not worth the trouble.
 
12david34 said:
but... why it is not possible to gain 3-4? of possitive caster, when that is what the greenbook says?
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Many good reasons. First of all, there is very limited adjustment so you get what you get. I'd be willing to guess that time has taken it's toll on most of them. My car has a different sub-frame due to an accident...so that's not the same as it was originally. Things flex and sag over time. Just toss an upper and lower chassis brace on and see what a difference that makes. It sort of speaks to how rigid that chassis is up front.

I've gotten close to taking my car down to a local body shop with a frame jig to have it pulled, but just can't justify the expense for a degree of caster. All of my comments have assumed that your suspension is in serviceable condition and doesn't have worn out bushings, ball joints and strut bearings.
 
Check for bent control arms too. I've seen a few that have been folded back ever so slightly from frontal impacts that it may not be so noticeable at a quick glance. The one you have pictured looks like it has been boxed, but it could still be possible. Ride height is another possibility. It should not give you much of a difference side to side, but may be why the angles are so low. How does the car sit on level ground?
 
Canuck said:
Many good reasons. First of all, there is very limited adjustment so you get what you get. I'd be willing to guess that time has taken it's toll on most of them. My car has a different sub-frame due to an accident...so that's not the same as it was originally. Things flex and sag over time. Just toss an upper and lower chassis brace on and see what a difference that makes. It sort of speaks to how rigid that chassis is up front.

I've gotten close to taking my car down to a local body shop with a frame jig to have it pulled, but just can't justify the expense for a degree of caster. All of my comments have assumed that your suspension is in serviceable condition and doesn't have worn out bushings, ball joints and strut bearings.
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will take some time till i will accept the fact that i cant do ,,nothing??(unless more money are spent) with it.. :-(
the upper/lower braces are on for 2 years now.. but still want to make some strut brace..
also no worn out parts..
 
ghettobrick said:
Check for bent control arms too. I've seen a few that have been folded back ever so slightly from frontal impacts that it may not be so noticeable at a quick glance. The one you have pictured looks like it has been boxed, but it could still be possible. Ride height is another possibility. It should not give you much of a difference side to side, but may be why the angles are so low. How does the car sit on level ground?
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yea the arms are oe boxed version , how can i check if the are 100% straight?
car sits good.. ,,in level??
 
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