94 LX 4x4 2" coil lift front now 5 degree pos camber Help!

[sed1213]

TRS has been a great help with my truck!
Alright, I've so far installed a 20% under drive pulley, upgraded the ignition coil, 2" coil spacers in the front and 4" drop pitman arm. The ignition coil and under drive pulley for fuel savings. I've improved mileage about 12%. Next comes the electric fan. I'm trying to get 20 MPG to work and back, that would be 2 gallons a day. The coil spacers to level and the drop arm to get the steering geometry back right. My problem now is I now have about 5 degrees positive camber from the coil spacers. I went to the local garage and they want $350.00 for bushings, installation and front end alignment. I've bought the adjustable bushings and I was going to install them myself. Camber I'm not worried about, measure off the wheel rim. It's the Caster I'm not sure about. Is there a surface on both sides that can be used to measure this? After the electric fan comes 31's. Love this truck, take it off the asphalt to go fishing on weekends. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[adsm08]

Caster is a bit of a funny angle. It is measured from the bottom of the lower ball joint through the top of the shock (at least in Mcpherson applications,) and is not a tire wearing angle. It's biggest effects are steering stability at speed and steering wheel returnability.

Ever drive a full sized van where you are sitting right over the front wheels? Ever wonder why the wheel doesn't return on it's own? Not enough caster. If you don't get the caster dead on but the wheel doesn't start to wobble all over and it doesn't wander on the highway I wouldn't worry about it. It isn't going to screw your tires up or anything.

 

[sed1213]

Adsm08 Thanks,
I figure take the old bushings out, look at what they are for caster and camber. Set the adjustables for the same caster and dial in the new camber.
Crossing my fingers, worst case pay for an alignment only.

 

[doorgunner]

I put new coil springs under my '89 Ranger/adjustable caster-camber bushings came with a chart to dial them in/after 200 miles on 2-lane highways, I had to readjust the camber...FYI

 

[adsm08]

I put new coil springs under my '89 Ranger/adjustable caster-camber bushings came with a chart to dial them in/after 200 miles on 2-lane highways, I had to readjust the camber...FYI

That was my first though too until I saw coil spacers. If he reused the old springs settling won't be an issue.

 

[gribly]

More caster makes it so you get more positive camber on the inside tire in a corner, and more negative camber on the outside tire in a corner. Basically, the tires "lean" into the corner so that the inside edge of the tire bites more, plus it combats the tendency for the tires to lean out due to bushing flex and body roll.

You actually use a temperature gun to get readings to fine tune this sort of thing on a race car. In a truck, you just want it so that your steering centers correctly, like was said. It's only super-important for high performance and race applications, or when designing a car from ground up. You generally can't screw it up bad enough to matter with stockish suspension.

 

[doorgunner]

You actually use a temperature gun to get readings to fine tune this sort of thing on a race car.



Far Out!