Alignment

[David12345]

1973 GT ..
I've read a lot, but still have a couple questions. What does it mean by "the crown" of the castor washers must face inward? .. crown? And I am having some difficulties getting an alignment done to correct for the car pulling to the left. I see the specs and how to increase or decrease castor but don't understand what increase/decrease does .. assuming all else is normal, which wheel do I increase/decrease castor on?
David

[hrcollinsjr]

Originally Posted by David12345 1973 GT .. What does it mean by "the crown" of the castor washers must face inward? .. crown? ...don't understand what increase/decrease does .. ? David

I'll make a quick attempt to explain, I hope it works. Think of crown of washer as a convex washer and you want the convex side toward the bushing.

Caster: Picture a "chopper" bike with the extended front forks, this is an example of extreme "positive" caster. The bike will tend to go straight regardless. Now picture a dirt bike with almost vertical forks, it is easier to make quick directional changes. And last but not least think of the front wheels on a shopping cart that trail behind, "negative" caster. They tend to change directions at any type of deflection or change in the road surface.

Hope this helps you to understand what is going on. Remember we are dealing with a few degrees of caster "not" the extremes I used for examples so the changes are little less subtle.

HTH,
Harold

[opelwasp]

I hope your not trying to do your own alignment. Do you have an alighnment rack at your house? If not you may get yourself killed. Alignments should be done on a rack with proper equipment. If you atempt it yourself is is impossable to get exact an handling and safety will suffer.

[Paul]

If you are a seasoned Auto-Xer or Road Racer, you will know how to "String" your car and be pretty damn close to an alignment rack.

If you are a pretty decent mechanic and are willing to follow the FSM, you can make some alignment adjustments that will suffice until you can get to the alignment shop. Just head the warnings in the FSM.

Castor: don't be overly concerned if you can't get the book numbers. However, a side to side varation can cause some pulling. As a note, lack of positive castor may indicate bent A-arms.

Toe is the most important, camber is next and then castor. (IMHO)