Help! Caster all out of whack!

[Aaron65]

I just changed ball joints and lower bushings on my '63. Before the rebuild, I was only able to get 2* negative caster out of the passenger side. Afterward, I can only get 4* negative, probably because the new bushing is tight so I can't use the slop to get more caster. The driver's side is fine...I can adjust anywhere from 1.5* negative to 1* positive or so.

Any ideas? I did some quick measurements underneath, and the brackets look like they're in the right spots. Nothing else is obviously wrong to me. I'm stumped, and usually I can work my way through problems like this. I'd hate to just start throwing parts at it.

[RedBird64]

From my experience, all those numbers are so minimal that the differences just aren't going to make any difference at all to handling.
To make a real difference, you need to get up to 6~9 degrees but that's impossible.

Just my opinion though.

Scott

[Aaron65]

It's not so much the number as the difference between the two wheels. Cross caster makes it nervous to drive...I'm going to take it over to a local old time frame and alignment shop (I hate taking my cars in) so they can get it up on the rack and do some measurements of the frame and suspension points to see what's bent. I hope it's not anything in the unibody.

[bbogue]

I was unable to achieve positive caster after a couple of professional alignment attempts. The negative caster resulted in effortless steering with no automatic return to straight ahead after a turn. I purchased my own alignment tool for about $100. I then removed the 2 adjustment struts and found them to not have identical slots. With a little grinding of the slots I was able to achieve slightly positive caster. Turning now requires slightly more effort and the steering wheel returns to straight ahead. Good luck.

Bill

[Aaron65]

Thanks Bill. I definitely have a problem with the upper control arm in my case (I think). I've ordered an upper control arm from the salvage yard because I think (and I'm not sure it's even possible) someone at some point used a driver's side arm on the passenger side. I'll update when I figure it all out.

[Ian M Greer]

Aaron if you replaced in upper A -arm inner control arm and bushing assembly's make sure you install them to the setting in the shop manual, they are not just centered to the upper A- arm as you think they might be . And this will throw your whole alignment out of wack ,Ian