Steering geometry





I managed to repair my right strut rod. WOW! was that a Bit@h. Really rusted solid. After torching it apart and repairing threads. Back on the car. After a few evenings of adjusting. Left rear wheel. 0.0 according to the bubble dead in the center of the level and clinometer. Right rear wheel, 0.1 neg according to Clinometer. Looks dead on by eye. Front wheels, .5 neg on the right. .3 neg on the left.
will be going on a club run this weekend on some VERY tight curvy roads. Will recheck, reset everything next week after a good run to settle it all in.
I managed to repair my right strut rod. WOW! was that a Bit@h. Really rusted solid. After torching it apart and repairing threads. Back on the car. After a few evenings of adjusting. Left rear wheel. 0.0 according to the bubble dead in the center of the level and clinometer. Right rear wheel, 0.1 neg according to Clinometer. Looks dead on by eye. Front wheels, .5 neg on the right. .3 neg on the left.
will be going on a club run this weekend on some VERY tight curvy roads. Will recheck, reset everything next week after a good run to settle it all in.
Sounds like you really have your camber dialed in well. They do not have to exact side to side, just close like you have. Nothing wrong with running .4 neg all around. Doesn't change tire wear much til you go past that. Does help cornering a little. And usually balances tire wear better. The wider your tires the more you pay attention to camber.
FWIW the more neg camber you run (like .9+), the more close to zero you want to keep your toe-in. With neg camber and toe-in you can get into some horrible inner edge wear/cupping. Some other brand cars were well known for it. (F***)
Last edited by leigh1322; Oct 15, 2020 at 04:38 PM.





just did a VERY careful 6 foot string front toe measurement. Running 1/8th inch toe in. Car felt great in the twistys. Coming home a short run on the freeway at 70MPH. front felt light if that makes any sense. Thinking I'll knock a bit of the toe out of it. Get it close to zero toe and tighten up the spreader bar a bit more to get camber closer to zero as well. Haven't re-measured the rear camber yet. But back out to the garage now.
thoughts on the "light" feel at speed?





I have a stack of shims on both rear A arm studs. None on left front stud and one fairly thin one on the right front. About as much caster as I can get without changing A arms. That's why I'm trying to dial in the last of the camber with the spreader bar. And it looks to be working.
And it doesn't feel nervous or twitchy at all. Just "light".
Last edited by 4-vettes; Oct 18, 2020 at 12:28 AM.
The main way to increase the heaviness or decrease the too-light feel is to add caster. 4-6 more like the newer cars. Works better with radials too. Makes the car go straighter when you let go of the wheel. Has more self-centering. When you turn it, with more caster, you are actually lifting the front end and that is what what adds the heaviness, and why GM did not build it in because of the manual steering cars. It also gives you much better feedback on what the front tires are doing at the limit of adhesion. You can actually feel it losing traction much better. I am slotting my stock upper a arm shafts mounting holes to give me 1.5 degrees extra caster. 1/4" does it. Slot to the front, slide arm back 1/4" Would take your 2.75 caster to 4 degrees caster with no new parts required.
Other than that, or trying a little more toe-in, I think you're good.








