Questions on recent alignment
I read a lot of threads man, I forgot about the new tire bit. I thought it was worth mentioning just because of the other post all about tires.
As for the cross-caster, it really just depends on your preference. If you drive on more than one kind of road, you're just picking which kind of road the car will pull on. If you set the cross-caster for a heavy crown like yours is now, it will pull left on things like freeways or multi-lane highways because they aren't crowned that much. If you set the cross caster to zero, your car will pull to the right on heavily crowned roads. If all you do is drive small, heavily crowned roads, then set the cross caster up to pull left, that's fine. IMO .6* of cross-caster is too much even for most crowned roads, but I don't drive where you live. If you're in Orange county California I don't know why you'd want to be set up for heavy road crown, because the majority of roads there aren't like that. I set mine to zero, I'd rather have the car pull right on crowned roads because they tend to be small streets/roads where you're usually doing a lot more steering anyway, corners, stop signs, cross walks, people, whatever. On the freeway I prefer to have the car not pull, because you can let it do it's thing and it will stay in the lane rather than constantly putting pressure on the wheel for long distances. And since I do a fair amount of driving on freeways and multi-lane roads, I deal with the slight pull right on smaller roads. Around here even most of the small roads aren't crowned that heavily, and usually they've got ruts and potholes anyway so with my wider tires my car tracks the ruts anyway regardless of a small amount of crown.
The thing is that with that little total caster, your car will have very little return-to-center for the steering. Since its a manual steering box all of that return-to-center action comes from the alignment. It will tend to wander, and any "pull" that's built in will be exaggerated. I'd rather have +1.3* caster on both sides to get as much stability as possible if that's all you can get. You can set up a little cross camber to help with the road crown too, if you bothered to read the article I posted. Set the driver's side to zero, set the passenger side to -.25*, and it will pull slightly left. That's such little camber it won't effect wear anyway.
You asked about your alignment and why your car wanders and has very little return to center, you got the answer. It is your alignment. Set it up however you'd like. Personally, I'd pull the UCA's and swap to offset bushings so I could get up toward +3* of caster, it makes a big difference. I dropped my car from +7* caster down to +6.25*, it made a big difference in steering effort and stability. Going from +1* to +3* will make a significant difference. And UCA bushings are pretty easy to do with just some homemade tools. I do mine with a section of pipe, a hardened bolt, an assortment of heavy duty washers and a nut. With a 1/2" impact it's super easy. This is my set up, I think I misplaced one of my smaller washers for extraction. But you get the idea. Should be around $10 from most overpriced hardware stores.
Or Mancini's version, $35. Mancini Upper Control Arm Bushing Remover/Installer
I'd rather spend an afternoon doing that than dealing with a car that's going to wander all over the place, but maybe that's just me. Good luck.
I read a lot of threads man, I forgot about the new tire bit. I thought it was worth mentioning just because of the other post all about tires.
As for the cross-caster, it really just depends on your preference. If you drive on more than one kind of road, you're just picking which kind of road the car will pull on. If you set the cross-caster for a heavy crown like yours is now, it will pull left on things like freeways or multi-lane highways because they aren't crowned that much. If you set the cross caster to zero, your car will pull to the right on heavily crowned roads. If all you do is drive small, heavily crowned roads, then set the cross caster up to pull left, that's fine. IMO .6* of cross-caster is too much even for most crowned roads, but I don't drive where you live. If you're in Orange county California I don't know why you'd want to be set up for heavy road crown, because the majority of roads there aren't like that. I set mine to zero, I'd rather have the car pull right on crowned roads because they tend to be small streets/roads where you're usually doing a lot more steering anyway, corners, stop signs, cross walks, people, whatever. On the freeway I prefer to have the car not pull, because you can let it do it's thing and it will stay in the lane rather than constantly putting pressure on the wheel for long distances. And since I do a fair amount of driving on freeways and multi-lane roads, I deal with the slight pull right on smaller roads. Around here even most of the small roads aren't crowned that heavily, and usually they've got ruts and potholes anyway so with my wider tires my car tracks the ruts anyway regardless of a small amount of crown.
The thing is that with that little total caster, your car will have very little return-to-center for the steering. Since its a manual steering box all of that return-to-center action comes from the alignment. It will tend to wander, and any "pull" that's built in will be exaggerated. I'd rather have +1.3* caster on both sides to get as much stability as possible if that's all you can get. You can set up a little cross camber to help with the road crown too, if you bothered to read the article I posted. Set the driver's side to zero, set the passenger side to -.25*, and it will pull slightly left. That's such little camber it won't effect wear anyway.
You asked about your alignment and why your car wanders and has very little return to center, you got the answer. It is your alignment. Set it up however you'd like. Personally, I'd pull the UCA's and swap to offset bushings so I could get up toward +3* of caster, it makes a big difference. I dropped my car from +7* caster down to +6.25*, it made a big difference in steering effort and stability. Going from +1* to +3* will make a significant difference. And UCA bushings are pretty easy to do with just some homemade tools. I do mine with a section of pipe, a hardened bolt, an assortment of heavy duty washers and a nut. With a 1/2" impact it's super easy. This is my set up, I think I misplaced one of my smaller washers for extraction. But you get the idea. Should be around $10 from most overpriced hardware stores.
Or Mancini's version, $35. Mancini Upper Control Arm Bushing Remover/Installer
I'd rather spend an afternoon doing that than dealing with a car that's going to wander all over the place, but maybe that's just me. Good luck.
