Ride height setting confusion
If you're talking about "was new" as in the 1970's, the factory alignment specs call for 0° to -1° caster for a manual steering car and no more than +1.25° for a power steering car. That's because of the bias ply tires. But even with bias ply's that gives you very little "return to center" effect for your steering, so something like crossing over the crown of the road would do exactly as you describe. You can see the factory specs in the picture from the FSM below.
For radial tires much more positive caster can be tolerated and is needed to a certain extent because of their construction. If you run radials with the factory alignment specs it feels like driving a shopping cart, and the factory specs should NEVER be used for radial tires, that's where the SKOSH chart comes in. But even accounting for radial tires, most modern cars run A LOT more positive caster, as it adds the "return to center" effect and makes the car much more stable. It also makes the car more difficult to turn to a certain extent, but given modern steering systems that's a lot less noticeable than it used to be.
But like I said, I run manual 16:1 steering and +6.5° of caster with 275/35/18's, the car still turns just fine. Some of that is clearly driver's preference though.
This is the FSM for the later A's (this is a couple of pages combined to show the entire ride height process and height/alignment specs)
Here's a blown up version of the picture, you can clearly see the "A" and "B" locations are the bottom of the lower ball joint and the torsion bar adjusting blade
If you're talking about "was new" as in the 1970's, the factory alignment specs call for 0° to -1° caster for a manual steering car and no more than +1.25° for a power steering car. That's because of the bias ply tires. But even with bias ply's that gives you very little "return to center" effect for your steering, so something like crossing over the crown of the road would do exactly as you describe. You can see the factory specs in the picture from the FSM below.
For radial tires much more positive caster can be tolerated and is needed to a certain extent because of their construction. If you run radials with the factory alignment specs it feels like driving a shopping cart, and the factory specs should NEVER be used for radial tires, that's where the SKOSH chart comes in. But even accounting for radial tires, most modern cars run A LOT more positive caster, as it adds the "return to center" effect and makes the car much more stable. It also makes the car more difficult to turn to a certain extent, but given modern steering systems that's a lot less noticeable than it used to be.
But like I said, I run manual 16:1 steering and +6.5° of caster with 275/35/18's, the car still turns just fine. Some of that is clearly driver's preference though.
It does. All of the FSM's for the 67+ A-bodies do. RRR may be referring to an early A FSM.
This is the FSM for the later A's (this is a couple of pages combined to show the entire ride height process and height/alignment specs)
Here's a blown up version of the picture, you can clearly see the "A" and "B" locations are the bottom of the lower ball joint and the torsion bar adjusting blade
