Great site dyent! I actually referenced that when doing the alignment, and did the spring perch relocation (great cheap modification). I love the stiffness of my front end now with the cut 6cyl springs and perches moved
I don't believe you cud get that much w/o binding LCA's at some point. Unless u have some pretty big tires don't think valance be any issue.
Yeah, i presumed the same thing, i think it's possible, but not without some detrimental effects, that's why i decided to keep it at 2.75* rather than crank them up to 3+. Tracks+drives amazingly well! I don't feel like im going to wander or be thrown into the car next to me on the highway haha.
I actually took the Open Tracker specs to my alignment shop hoping to get at least 2.5 positive caster. With the strut rods adjusted as far forward as they will go I am still at only 1 degree positive. The car does drive much better now because it was over 2 degrees negative before alignment and it is a power steering car. I have replaced upper and lower control arms, spring perches and springs with after market (not Open Tracker) parts. Going to try the adjustment on the upper control arm and possibly the 1/8" shim and see what happens.
I took my lower arms and brought them as far forward as possible so the tire was close to the valance panel when turning the wheel , then added 1/8 inch shim to the front of each upper a arm bolt , I ended up with 2.5 positive on each ( power steering ) could probably get a little more , but it drives very good with 2.5 , I have global west lowers , made it easier to adjust . Roller perches made a big difference for me too
It's interesting that there is so much variance from car to car, I wonder if it was just shotty build quality, or a year to year difference.
With all the stock parts , the car wondered and didn't feel very stable , a few changes made a huge difference , bigger front and a rear sway bar also helped.
Thanks for the info. I also have Granada spindles but not sure if that made a difference in the caster as I did not have the alignment checked prior to the changes. Since I have owned the car I have added 4 leaf rear springs with sway bar, 1" sway bar on the front, Grabatrak springs on the front with KYB shocks and new upper and lower control arms. Car handles much better now especially after the alignment. I would like to get it to that elusive 2.5 though.
I wonder/suppose these cars are different by quite-a-bit over years of road battering and not best tolerance integrity from the factory at the differences in caster adjustment from car-to-car. My struts were all the way out and barely got 2deg's. I went to tublar SPC brand UCA's to get caster needed. I had to shim the pass side cuz spring took to much prying to line up w/ holes in UCA after centering spring in tower. I don't know where the caster is set, forgot to get spec sheet. I had a shop install new low arms and tie rods and I have a banging/knocking noise somewhere in suspension. I have not had any luck finding the noise and the shop cud not find it. I am going to install my OE arm w/ shims and start a process-of-elimination. If the noise ceases I know that is the problem. If it solves problem, selling SPC's going back to OE and shims. I had the car on the highway today, went to a car show 70 miles roundtrip. This was first time I have had it up to 70mph since starting Borgeson changeover 2yrs ago. The car was very unstable at just bout all speeds. Today, was much better tracking, but still need some tweaking; at least I can drive it while figuring out where my suspension noise is coming from... I was only able to get near 2 deg. caster B4 changing to aftermarket UCA's w/ 2-3 deg built in. Getting this sorted out is/has got to be a real PIA...
