HOW TO: Adjust your BJ caster and camber at the front wheels
 

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...der/Image2.jpg

i don't know if i can post this as it is, but here it is anyway

btw, you don't want that much positive camber kiddies, you want a lil bit of negative camber... but positive caster can be good in high speed, but beware this will put extra strain on your power steering....

thank you sir gavmeister

wow james, thats incredible, i did this mod on saturday and took it on the old pacific highway... i only have one thing to say..... weeeeeeeeeee!!!


free mod!!!!
lost all the normal rocking in the corners, and the car now runs around corners flat to the ground!!!

hahahahahaha - no wonder you sms'd me!

so what did you adjust your struts to?

hehe i had the biggest grin when i sent that txt!!!

i adjusted for positive castor, coz i don't want that much positive camber!!!

so did you go to position C on both?

yes i did!!! makes an unbelievable amount of difference, and cornering stability!!

how is general steering effort? straight line stability?

minimal effort required, the feeling of fighting the car around bends is gone, low spped (ie parking) you can feel the little bit of extra strain needed, so just turn the wheel a bit slower, or park straight the first time!!!

cool - so does the car look any different? ie the wheels angled in like negative camber?

nope, looks all standard, no extra noises, less bouncing, more handling, and less sway!!!!

schweet!!!!!!

amazing it changes the handling that much!!!

i will do this after the drag racing on the 31st

bugger doing it after the 31st - i'm doing this tonight!!!!

everything i've read says this is a fantastic mod to do and EVERYONE should do this.

well it's done. took about 40 minutes tops.

damn easy to do.

i only went for a short drive, but you could feel the car really wanting to be pushed harder than before. i will take it for a real drive probably this weekend.

you could feel the steering was a little bit heavier, but nothing to complain about, even when the car was stationary

i'm sure you bg and ba guys can do this as well. nate i'd think you'd be a prime candidate to do this since you've been wearing the outside of your tyres....

i don't think they can, as they have the tri stud thingos.... like in the rear of the BJ

they could still swing the tops around, just will get in between the figures above i guess???

anyone have a ba or bg manual that can check this?

that would be best to check the manual....

ok there are some options around for smaller adjust ment, by replacing the front control arm...
whiteline parts

BG - KCA324 +/- 0.50 degrees $135.45
BG - KCA324X +/- 0.50 degrees plus anti lift $190.00

BA - KCA337 +/- 0.50 degrees $144.55

BJ - KCA337 +/- 0.50 degrees - BJ-1 only $144.55

all prices are current as of 20/07/2004 and are gst EXclusive and don't include delivery

oh btw, thinking about the manual i'd say the adjustment is actually 3 degress not 30

it's actually 30 seconds (well i think that's how it goes).

on the opposite page in the manual it says 1*30' etc.

* = superscript o

30 seconds?? noooo its minutes
thats like an adjustment of 0.5 degrees then

it should of clicked when i saw 30(')

hmmmm i could go advanced and create 1 full degree of change!!!!

bum bum bum

that would cost money.... something i don't have

and for those who don't know about degrees/minutes/seconds
degrees go to 360 total
minutes go to 60
second go to 60

minutes - ok cool. well it's better than nothing!

yep checking now

I made the conversion on the weekend as well. Hmmm, I don't think that it is a placebo effect, but damned if it doesn't reduce the tendency to understeer. I guess that the theory has something to do with it. Add a little bit of dynamic negative camber on the loaded front wheel e voila!
I had issues on one side with the stud location relative to the holes on the strut brace mounts, but that only slowed me down 5 minutes or so.
It will be interesting to see if there are any long term adverse effects...

Bah BG (well SP model) has 4 studs, but they are rectangular

**

**

so its either on forwards or backwards. So if the diagram thingy is any clue I'll be adding positive camber as well as castor, right? Do I want to do this??

Well I was going to change stuts in front in next few weeks, so what harm could it do to try out? :D :shock:

Would I be better waiting till I have shockies that actually do anything before trying this out? Cause the Astina, she handles like a boat at the moment. :roll:

yeah i'm not sure about the BG, it may or may not have room for this adjustment

i had my car 4 wheel aligned on saturday everything is up too specs cost $64
considering ive had everything out to fit the new struts an air bags i was suprized all the readings were so close

yeah that is suprising! i think just with changing the caster around that the steering is slightly out...

what actually will be benefit from adjusting the caster?

I tried loosen the 4 nuts but it is just impossible to push the shocks down and turn it

is there any tricks? i just don't wanna put the whole thing apart if possible.

thank you

did you jack up the front corner you were trying to adjust?

I found it easier when I jacked the front end completely - I didn't have to fight the sway bar as much.

Oh don't try to turn the coil... :oops: just the mounting plate.

i did jack up the front corner, tried and failed, then jack up the whole front tried again failed again, finally i just take the whole shocks down and turn it.

i did feel the difference after this mod, the steer seems to be heavier and the front seems to have more grip than before.

I had read through some articles, but i still don't understand what it is and how would it make such a difference. can anyone pls kindly explain in detail.

thankx in advance

good article, but doesnt explain what caster does.

basically increasing the positive caster does nothing while the wheel is straight, it's when the wheel turns that it starts to be of benefit.

let's say you're turning right. obviously the wheel turns right, but also, the wheel turns in giving negative camber. more negative camber (esp at high speed cornering), the more rubber is on the road.

best of all with positive caster instead of just negative camber, the outside wheel gets negative camber, the inside wheel gets positive camber...both of which give the maximum rubber on the road.

does that sort of help? in simple terms, you are getting dynamic cornering camber. you turn left both wheels tilt over to the left, turn right, both wheels tilt over to the right.

thankx rupewrecht and twilight
rupewrecht: I had read that article before but just don't un, thankx anyway
twilight: thank you i start to understand but still no quite clear.

so pos caster will cause the wheel to be one pos. and one neg. camber when turning
0 caster will not change the camber when turning
am i on the track?
what does neg caster do?

So what setting have all you guys been using? "c" looks like the best one. Hopefully I'd guess this may help my tire wear to be more even??

ok, assume the | / and \ are the wheels with the top of the line being the top of the wheel.

0 everything when straight = | |

negative camber when wheels straight = / \

postitive caster and 0 camber when straight = | |

0 camber and positive caster when turning right / / - so you can see the car turns into the corner so to say

0 camber and positive caster when turning left \ \

positive camber and positive caster when turning right = / |

above turning left = | \

so as you can see (hopefully) driving straight with negative camber will wear the inside of your tyres.

never go negative caster. makes the car very squirmish

anyway, does that make sense?

and yep chipa - play with the C-spot :twisted:

ic thank you
but just wanna ask one more, from the explanation above when turning left,
pos camver and pos caster | \ vs
0 camber and pos caster \ \

wouldn't that the first one (pos camber and pos caster) should provide tyres more road contact ?? the second one put force more onto the sidewall

or do you mean NEGATIVE camber and pos caster?

doh - yeah negative camber and positive caster.

the reason the \ \ is better is because your car doesnt stay flat around corners, it rolls.

so in effect when you include car roll, the tyres compaired to the ground are actually | |

That and peak lateral grip occurs at some small negative dynamic camber. Grab an eraser and hold it perpendicular to a table. Push it to make it slide. Now tilt the top away from the direction of motion and repeat. You should feel it more difficult to slide. The same theory holds true for your tyres and the road.

The only real downsides to positive camber is increased steering effort and a higher proportion of mechanical trail to pneumatic trail (which means it becomes more difficult to FEEL the limit of traction at the front). Power steering takes care of the first one...

Don't forget that strut style suspensions typically reduce negative camber at the outside wheel in roll (as twilight mentions in the last post). Positive caster increases negative camber at the outside wheel.

I was going to say something else, but I can't remember what it was :oops: