Terran2k

Caster is adjustable on 4th gen's right? I did some searching and I thought I saw a post that said there's a bolt under the lower a-arm that you loosen to adjust it? Where exactly is it? a picture would be even better. I did the LS1 upgrade this weekend, and I took it to a Firestone Mastercare shop and the toe and camber are good, but the car still has a slight pull to the right. On the read-out sheet the caster was grey'ed out, not even showing a reading. The Firestone guy said that it was not adjustable on my car that's why it's not showing up. I know this is garbage, b/c this is not my first time there, I bought the lifetime alignment from them a couple years ago, and in previous readouts, it did have the caster reading, so obviously its adjustable. I think this is my last time to have them work on my alignment. I know its not my tires either, they new, maybe a couple months old and air pressure is good.

Injuneer

Wrong forum.... moving to "Suspension........."

Yes, caster is adjustable. There are two adjustable bolts that hold the lower A-arm to the K-member, one vertical and one horizontal.

Terran2k

Thanks Injuneer, now Im kind of worried to take my car there. They'll probably want to half-*** it as they've been doing and it'll cost me a bunch more money in the end (tire wear). I'll write to their HQ to let them know about this crappy service.

mrr23

typical generic alignment tech. i use the same hunter alignment machine they do. there is a neat little button they can push called illustrate adjustments. if the tech would put a little effort into his job, he would have been able to adjust the caster. here's pics i took showing where the adjustment points are with the alignment tool to make it easier to do. don't have to have the tool.

here's where you adjust caster. you loosen the rear lower control arm bolt and slide it in, for lower caster, or our for higher caster.



here's where you adjust camber. you loosen the front lower control arm bolt and slide it out for lower camber, or in for higher camber.

Capn Pete

^ ^ great pics and explaination!

Terran2k

yep, thanks for the pics, it makes things so much easier to understand. I discovered yesterday the steering rack is leaking and my inner tie rods are shot, going to take care of everything all at once.

Capn Pete

By-the-by, how much adjustment IS THERE in the stock front suspension anyway??

Z28luvr

Can stock alignment specs be used on cars that are lowered?

mrr23

yes

mrr23

if i remember correctly, i've gotten at least -1.00* camber.

Capn Pete

^ ^ That's not too bad?

redcamaroz28

The person at firestone was just being lazy. Caster can be a pain to align only because it consumes time. Reason being is that to measure caster, you have to do a caster sweep. This involves turning the wheels to the left 10degrees (i believe it's 10degrees anyways), then to the right 10degrees, then straight forward. So every time you do any adjustment to caster, you have to do another caster sweep to get the correct caster measurement. When installed my tubular k-member it took about an hour to align my car for caster, camber, and toe, while at work if I only have to adjust a vehicle with camber and toe out of specs, it'll take a max of 10-15minutes.

Capn Pete

Will adjusting either the camber or the caster automatically affect the toe in/out? Or would it not affect it much?

Just curious ..... I may try to adjust the camber on my car to get as much negative camber as I can (going racing on the weekend ) ... just not sure if it'll affect the toe, and if so, how much? (and would it make it more toe in, or toe out? )

mrr23

adjusting either will affect the toe. camber more than caster. the more negative the camber change, the more positive the toe reading.

Capn Pete

Ok, thanks . Figured it would probably have an effect, but didn't know in which "direction" . Thx.