My recent alignment shows Caster on right front out of spec at 9.3 degrees (spec is 6.9 to 8.1). The left front is 8.9 degrees, also out of spec. I have a 2008 coupe with wide body mod, Z06 wheel sizes (18 front, 19 rear). I went with a Nitto Invo 345 on rear, stock size on front.

 

I saved this from a document that Pfadt posted.

Performance Street

Front min max
Camber (deg) -0.7 -0.9
Caster (deg) 7.5 8.5
Toe -1/16" 0

Rear
Camber (deg) -0.4 -0.6
Toe -1/16" 0

Notes
These settings will provide good performance and good tire wear

 

Not trying to thread jack. Thanks for posting this. I was wondering (and excuse my ingnorance) if "any" alignment shop would know how to do a Vette or if they just try to go all "0" to make it aligned... hope that makes sense

 

Not with that much camber!! Performance yes; inner tire wear for sure!

 

I gotta ask - what settings would you use ? Not challenging - just learning

 

I am running 1.5 front and 1.0 rear for camber, 0 toe. Still get 25-30K out of my stock runflats. This is has much as I can get and still kills my r-compound tires.

 

Camber is not nearly the tire killer that toe is. You can probably run over -1 degree of camber with zero toe and not get much inner tire wear, if you drive the Corvette in a spirited but safe manner.

 

If you want great tire wear, but still have acceptable cornering capability:

Camber (front and rear): -0.4 degrees

Toe (front and rear): 0.0"

Caster: OEM spec

 

Caster is what use to be called "kingpin inclination" and has zero affect on tire wear.

 

Positve caster; Think of a chopped Harley with 24 inch extended forks.

Negative caster; Think of the front wheels of a shopping cart.

 

good stuff My thanks to the OP for starting the thread!

 

You should be able to get -2.5 front camber (maybe even more). If you want more than -1.5 in the front and have the eccentrics max'ed out, perhaps the shims behind the upper control arms are still in place?

 

So what's the question? There are a thousand posts about what is best. And the answer is there is no one best for everyone. There aren't even a dozen bests that would work for everyone. You need to define what you want the car to do and make compromises. Start with how much are you willing to pay for tires to get better performance. Is money your prime concern or performance or something in between? And when you say performance do you mean straight line or track or rough roads or...

Also you should know that with a few simple tools you can do your own alignment - http://www.davidfarmerstuff.com/align.pdf

 

I tried these specs and still wore out my tires on the inside. What is needed is 0 camber and toe front rear needs less than 1/2 degree neg camber and 0 toe this is on my 2012 z06 and so far tire wear is even at 5000 miles. caster needs to be the same on both sides in the old days one side was higher to compensate for crown in road will will cause a corvette to pull to one side or other this was my findings.
z51vett

 

Actually I can probably get there. I have Pfadt bushing set and can flip the upper pin(.75) and I have 1 washer (1/16th?) that can be removed. Still not alot I can do about the rear though. With the R888 they really need to be closer to 2 though. I hope I can get the camber kit this year so I can dial in the different setting for the different tire setups. But it looks like another year before I can run A6's.

 

rofl:

 

Speaking of specs...I told the alignment guy to set the front toe @ 0. I just looked more closely at the sheet and it notes the left front @ .03 / right @ .07

I guess I didn/t get the 0 I asked for. Are these settings going to cause more wear?

Caster is @ 7.5 Camber is @ -0.5

 

It is a combination that produces good tire wear - not perfect tire wear.

Camber is > 1* for chrissake!

 

Question is what can be done to bring the caster back into spec?

 

I tried the david farmer alignment tricks and couldn't get as accurate as the laser alignment racks in common use today.

Re-read post 13, great advice there. Figure out what you are going to do with the car and align accordingly. Pfadt has a great business with competition suspension systems plus they publish a great guide for applications for cars that see a racetrack. The trick for you is to figure out how you want to balance handling characteristics against tire wear as there are trade-offs at every level - again that is what pfadt is trying to define for you with their alignment chart.

Personally I like the phadt camber kit. I have a performance shop do the install since they do more of these than a dealership will, I can work more closely with the tech than at the dealership, and the pfadt kit physically locks in the adjustments so they can't move unless parts go missing or get bent. It is expensive but then so are tires and continuous wheel alignments using the eccentric washer method. In addition, if you track your car at hpde events, you run the risk of an eccentric washer suddenly letting loose. This happened to me during a sweeping left turn at 65mph, below the limit of maximum traction. It ruined the rest of my track session that day, had to trailer the car home and pay for another wheel alignment.

Lastly, we only talk about toe, camber and caster on the forum. There are many more adjustments than just those.