Hey All,
I've searched around but couldn't find a sufficient answer.. Car is 2008 C6 w/Z51.

I don't track my car; I took it in for alignment after having bilstein sports installed. The car seems to drive fine, but I'm thinking it may pull to the left a little, but it could just be me. I'm mostly concerned about the cross caster, is it too much? Apparently the car is lowered on stock bolts (did not know until bilsteins were installed).

So the question is, is -1.3 too much cross caster for DD? Also, are the caster settings in general something to be concerned about? Everything else on the sheet is green.

Thanks a ton!

 

Specs seem to call for equal L & R caster. My '08 was set at 7.9 for both sides.

Pro shop set mine for street driving @

LF camber 0.4 RF camber 0.4

LF caster 7.9 RF caster 7.9

LF toe .05 RF toe .06

LR camber 0.4 RR camber 0.4

LR toe 0.00 RR toe 0.00

The 7.9 Front caster was the most that could be set with the factory parts.

Drives great , equal tire wear @ 7,000 miles.

 

I'm no expert but this is an example of a good setup for hard driving:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/1563071618-post2.html


As he explains, if you don't drive hard and don't track you probably would want to reduce the camber closer to "0" for better tire wear, if that's important to you.

 

Thanks,
My camber is fine, according to my research, caster (which is what i'm curious about) does not affect tire wear, but steering.

 

Cross caster is introduced to counter the crown of the road. It's to keep it from always pulling right. Generally you will see 1* to 1.5* but that's really on the high side.

If you plan on any serious driving have it brought down because it does effect camber in the turns.

 

As a Tech who does alignments, here is my 2 cents:

I always set my caster (when it is adjustable) as even as possible. There really should be no need for cross-caster to counter road crown. I'd rather have my suspension geometry to be correct and maybe have to counter-steer a little on a steeply crowned road.

And yes, I think 1.3 degrees of cross-caster is excessive. The fact is that excessive cross-caster will always cause a pull to the least positive side. That would be the left on your car based on the alignment settings you supplied. So what you are feeling is probably accurate.

Did the alignment tech explain why he added so much caster to the right side? My guess is that he wasn't all that experienced or just didn't care. I work on German cars by trade, but I've aligned 2 Corvettes (my LS3/Z51 C6 and my friend's blown C5). I spent a considerable amount of time on each car to get everything right. It can be a pain to dial in the eccentric bolts on the lower control arms. It takes a lot of patience to get everything perfect, but it is not impossible.

For what it's worth, here is what I ended up setting my car to:

front camber: -0.81/ -0.85
caster: +8.21/ +8.30
front toe:+0.01 /+0.01

Rear camber: -.50 / -.50
rear toe: 0.0 / 0.01

Thrust angle: 0.00

I'm really happy with where I set it. It tracks straight as could be and the tire wear is quite even considering how it is driven. You might want to have someone else align the car again. Might want to try a performance shop that will really take the time to get it right. Good luck with it,

Andy

 

Thanks Andy,
That is exactly what I was looking for; the tech did explain it was to counter the road crown, but I was rather confused that they really did adjustment being the cross caster was .4 to begin with.

I'm going to try and get it into the shop tomorrow to have them set it closer. Really appreciate your input!

-Kevin

 

StreetK14 ... (GREAT to have someone like you on our Forum!!!)

I'm in the process of returning our SCCA Solo SS class C5 Z06 to street settings. I'm having trouble getting enough Caster.

I've taken the washers behind the front upper A arm mounting bar and added them to the rear mounting bar, ie. doubled up the rear washers. I have the rear lower eccentric max'ed out, and the front eccentric centered.

I haven't measured the Caster since doing that last night, but the car doesn't self center as well as I think it should.

For fun and education, I tried driving the car with the Caster at near minimum. Interesting ... very light steering with little feel and one HAD to continuously steer, ie. poor tracking.

Thanks!

 

So someone had their advice backwards. I put the double up washers from the rear of the front upper A arm attachment bars and put them under the front bar ... and NOW I've got Caster = firmer steering, steering feel, and auto centering!