Rack and Pinion problems?

DJE55 said:

I'm not sure he did adjust the camber setting. Thanks for giving me some place to look.

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65 fastback said:

The Camber setting has nothing to do with "return to center" of the steering wheel. It's the Caster setting that needs to be adjusted.

The original stock alignment setting for '64 - '66 Mustangs are:
Caster: -0.5*
Camber: -0.5*
Toe-In: 9/32"

The Performance alignment settings are:
Caster: +1.5° to +2.5°
Camber: 0 to -.5°
Toe: 1/8"

The biggest difference being in the Caster setting. Caster is the angle of the steering axis. If you were to draw a line through the ball joints on the upper and lower control arms you would have 0 degrees Caster. If the lower control arm is moved toward the front of the car you would be increasing positive caster.

A positive Caster setting will help the car to track straighter and return to center more quickly after a corner. The easiest way to describe it would be to think of a bicycle and the angle of the front wheel fork. If the fork that connects the handle bars to the front wheel were to be straight up and down (0 degrees Caster) you would constantly need to steer to keep the bike going in a straight line. Now if the front fork were installed at an angle (think chopper - Positive Caster), you could take your hands off of the handle bars and the bike would continue to track in a straight line.

If the alignment shop used the stock Mustang alignment settings, that's your problem.

Tim

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