Need more positive caster

[Doraville]

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum. I don't actually own a G Body (well, I have in the past... does that count?). I do own a 1952 Ford F1 pick-up that has a front frame spliced from a 78-82 G Body that was done by a previous owner.

They didn't provide enough positive caster when the splice was done, and I'm looking for ways to compensate short of cutting and reinstalling the sub-frame. I need another 5 deg of positive caster (I'm at -3, spec is +2).

I've found that Moog makes upper control arm bushings with eccentric holes that can add caster, but I can't find one that fits the G Body control arm.

I have also found one supplier that has tubular control arms that are adjustable, but they're rather expensive.

Have any of you ever had to add more positive caster, and if so how did you do it?

Thanks!
-DV

 

[DRIVEN]

If the F1 frame simply had the Gbody frame grafted (at the firewall area) to it, then you are dealing with a simple alignment issue. This can be corrected with alignment shims. If the stock F1 frame has just had Gbody control arm mounts welded to it -- you may be looking at inaccurate installation and will need to start from scratch. Are you sure that the upper control arms are on the correct sides?

 

[Doraville]

Thanks for responding. Yeah, that's the first thing I checked (to make sure that the control arms weren't reversed). I wish that's all it was.

I'm not an alignment guy, so please pardon a dumb question. Is the way that you adjust caster and camber is to put the shims between the upper control arm pin and the mount? If you put shims under both sides of the pin, it affects camber, but if you put it under the front side of the pin, it adds positive caster (and some negative camber)?

I've already installed offset upper control arms pins to get enough positive camber (barely) with no shims. If we put shims in there to get more caster, then it's going to take the camber negative.

Anyway, I need 5 more degrees of caster, that seems like a lot of shims.

-DV

 

[Doraville]

By the way, yes, it is an entire G Body subframe from the firewall forward.

-DV

 

[Doraville]

After doing more research, I'm not sure that the lack of caster is the fault of the previous owner who installed the Monte Carlo clip. In order to adjust caster, you need a lot of camber adjustment (adding caster takes away camber). I need more camber so I can adjust for more caster.

The fact that I don't have enough camber is most likely due to settling of the crossmember, which I understand is a common problem. I'm going to take it to a frame shop where they can bend the frame to get more camber, then use shims to get more caster.
__________________
-DV

 

[anakputa]

Take it to a frame shop and have them tweak the frame. Little bit of pull in the right direction.