Alignment Question

[diablopony]

I just had my front-end aligned and my car seems to wander a bit on the freeway. Yesterday I was talking to our local Mustang shop owner and he said that for older Mustangs running radial tires, the camber should be between +3 to +3 1/2 degrees. This, he said, will improve stability on the freeway, but make the steering a bit stiffer. The camber on my car was aligned at +1 1/2 degrees.

What is the impact of positive camber on steering? Will increasing the camber help the stability problem on the freeway? Thanks for the help.

 

[Opentracker]

I'm sure guy you talked too was talking about caster not camber. Pos. caster should be in the 1.5 to 2.5 range. It's hard to get more than that out of these old cars without adj. strut rods. Camber should be 0 to 1/2deg neg. We run 3deg neg. camber on the track but you wouldn't want that much on the street. Toe in should be 1/8". The settings should look like this:



Daily driver:

Camber - 0
Caster - 1.5 to 2deg pos.
toe in - 1/8"



Weekend worrior:

Camber - 1/2 to 1deg neg.
Caster - 2 to 3deg pos. (or as much as you can get)
toe in - 1/8"



Track car:

Camber - 2.5 to 3deg neg.
Caster - 2.5 to 5deg pos. ( will need adj. strut rods)
No toe in




This is what we use with our cars and it works. The more neg. camber you have the more the tires will wear on the inside but the car will stick better in the corners. Caster keeps the car going in a straight line at speed and adds some camber in the turns. Make sure the settings are the same on both sides or the car will pull. I will be glad to help more if you like.

John


[edit - spelling]

 

[diablopony]

Thanks John, this is exactly what I needed to know. My car is a mild weekend warrior. I have upgraded the suspension with new coil springs (620), new leaf springs, 1" sway bar in front and 3/4" sway bar in the rear. All other suspension parts are new with poly bushings.

I'll try your recommdation for the weekend warrior and see how it works. Thanks again.

 

[mustangracer]

Weekend worrior:

Camber - 1/2 to 1deg neg.
Caster - 2 to 3deg pos. (or as much as you can get)
toe in - 1/8"

That's about what I've run, I mananged to get about 3 1/2 deg castor on mine though. It doesn't seem to eat tires, I drove it cross country and don't see any uneven wear on the fronts.

 

[HistoricMustang]

My track set up is very close to "Opentracker".

diablopony, how does the car act under hard braking. Does it still "wander"?

HistoricMustang
www.historicmustang.com

 

[splinterddt]

That's about what I've run, I mananged to get about 3 1/2 deg castor on mine though. It doesn't seem to eat tires, I drove it cross country and don't see any uneven wear on the fronts.

Caster is not a tire wear angle. Caster is a stablility angle. Camber is a wear and stability angle. The higher the caster is positive or negative will increase the stability of the car, without eating up your tires. Camber will eat up the edges of the tire when too high or low. Toe will flat out eat up tires if it is out of specs.

 

[diablopony]

My track set up is very close to "Opentracker".

diablopony, how does the car act under hard braking. Does it still "wander"?

HistoricMustang
www.historicmustang.com

It is not bad under hard braking. I wanders only when the road is uneven.