caster gain?

Is caster gain a good thing or bad or should it stay pretty close to what u set it. Meaning only gain maybr 1 to 2 degrees. And what everyone doin to check left front i understand right frony but on left fromt do u check it in compression as well or when left front os down like goin through corner. Thanks

I'm going to assume you mean camber? Left Front and Right front will lose static due to chassis roll. Left Front will also lose due to dive. Right Front will gain due to dive. So you need to know how much RF you lose do roll. I you gain 1-2 negative on the RF due to dive where do you actually end up after you factor roll. If you start at 5* and lose 2* in roll then gain 2* back in dive your still at your static. If you truly mean CASTER which is the relationship between the upper and lower ball joints vertically that is pandoras box. You can do a lot of things weight jacking wise with caster split and high caster. If you have the RF not changing caster much and your LF changes alot you can alter your dynamic wheelbase and jack weight around depending on which way your turning.

Im good with my camber lf gains bout same amount as rf when rf is compressed and left frony is drop. On caster my rf gains 2 degress negative at compression and lf will lose 3/4 at drop and gain 3/4 at compresion i know some say cater gain is good but to much is bad so whats best way check it and whats good gaining or staying static and same

Caster change also affects bump steer. I try to limit caster change as much as possible.

I'm gonna assume your uprights are parallel to your chassis centerline and your lowers are stock which are not, and your using a stock spindle so there isn't to much your going to do. thats why some don't use the one piece uprights so they can change the upper arm orientation for caster gain. While at 2* thats not really that bad what you need to look at is how your split changes you don't wanna end up with a negative split IMO. I know its not dirt but on Asphalt with the same clips (asphalt mod) we are running some newer concepts like 3-8* LF and 5-10* RF depending on clip and lowers and spindle. Higher caster jacks more weight into the car as the wheels are turned and caster effects your camber gains as well. So you can negate Camber losses with the higher caster because as you turn the wheel it can negate losses. You don't see the cars on dirt countersteering as much as you use to so the lines are getting more and more blurred between the two disciplines. I've had a Ford Crown Vic clip for from +3* Caster to -2*. You can try slug arrangements where you get caster with your uppers by not skewing your arm away from the centerline see how that effects your caster gain they use a shim to skew the arm for the same caster and see how that effects your gain. There will be a difference thats why I use slugs

I got chevelle frame one piece uppers with recorrected spindles and tublar lowers jst ttying figure ot whats best and what best way to check it. The uppers are angle inline with lowers not parrel with lowers

So your uppers are not parallel with centerline? Your upper A Arm mount is turned to the same angle as your lower mounts are which is how it pretty much comes factory

Factory they come pretty straight mine aee angled like a bms car

I would venture to say maintian camber on both of coarse check tire wear and maintian caster on both it would make car smoother to drive. Now is there away on the chevelle clip cars not to have to run a bump spacer on lf or rf?

How much gain is to much on both sides.

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Originally Posted by CHRISTINE

I would venture to say maintian camber on both of coarse check tire wear and maintian caster on both it would make car smoother to drive. Now is there away on the chevelle clip cars not to have to run a bump spacer on lf or rf?

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Yes and its very inexpensive. The problem is the stock centerlink. The inner tie rod pickup mounts don't line up with the inner lower control arm mounts. All you have to do is cut the centerlink in half, and weld in the appropriate spacer to make the two mounts line up. grind the welds real good and paint it and no one will ever know. You will still have to check the bump and add small washers to get it dead on.

So basically u wanna have zero catser gain on rf on compression what bout left front do u check it on conpression or when its dropping down and keep it at zero gain too

Check both compression and extension on the lf

So if u want zero caster gain does that mean u can run alittle more in rf to load car with bite