pratner

So, I have been doing my own alignment for the last few autocrosses of the year, after the autocrosses I put it back. What I am having a problem with is on the driver side front tire, I'm nearly maxing the adjuster to get the camber where it needs to be, and I don't seem to have quite enough to get my castor where I want it. I didn't have this problem the first couple times and I haven't hit anything. I thought I read somewhere that you can have this fixed fairly easily but I have searched the threads with no luck. Does anyone know why this would happen and what I can do to fix it?

Bill Dearborn

Check the lower control arm bushings to see if they are pushing forward out of the control arm. Under heavy braking the bushings are under a lot of stress and the control arm will slide backward. This limits the amount of caster you can get. When this happened to my C5 I couldn't get anything more than a degree of caster.

Bill

davidfarmer

the subframes can be off, and it's been discussed here, but I doubt it's moved since you started doing your own work. If you haven't already, you can remove any washers behind the upper control arms to get more camber, and can actually shim them to get more/less castor as well.

If you have washers up top, I'd remove the rear 2 washers to rotate the upper control arm rearward. This would give a bit of extra camber and castor on that corner, giving you more adjustability down at the concentrics.

pratner

I know that it's moved because I marked the original alignment spots and they aren't close. Can I get the subframes adjusted if that is the case?

davidfarmer

you would need to trim the alignment pines, or enlarge the holes, then slide the subframe to the side that needs more camber/castor. You can loosen the subframe and drop is down "just enough" without disconnecting any wiring, brake lines, etc.