What Did You Do To Your G-Body Today? [2023]

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Put the wheels on the ground last night after a full front suspension & steering linkage replacement/rebuild. String alignment is up next. With all stock components except for tall lower ball joints, I'm currently at a degree of positive camber. What do you all think of that? If I can get a DIY alignment that I'm happy with I might just leave it at that. If I have to mess with caster/camber I'll probably take it to a shop.

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Positive camber is the devil. Put a shim behind both bolts so you only add camber. Adding to a front bolt will increase camber and decrease caster by rolling the knuckle forward. Adding to the rear only will increase camber and caster. The car will pull to the side that has more positive caster or more negative camber. One is more impactful than the other for that, I don't recall which is which.
 
Positive camber is the devil. Put a shim behind both bolts so you only add camber. Adding to a front bolt will increase camber and decrease caster by rolling the knuckle forward. Adding to the rear only will increase camber and caster. The car will pull to the side that has more positive caster or more negative camber. One is more impactful than the other for that, I don't recall which is which.

I'm planning on using the 'performance' specs here. It calls for -.25° of camber & if I'm measuring that in a DIY alignment, that equals the top of the wheel being set in about 1/16" more than the bottom. I'd like to do this myself but I don't know if I want to deal with it on jack stands. Toe & 'straightness' is relatively easy w/ the tie rod sleeves.

Rephrasing the question: I'm currently on tall, non-performance 215/70 tires. Eventually I'll upgrade to 17" wheels & tires, but for now, for occasional daily driving, is there any harm in leaving the camber alone & getting the toe & alignment right, then I'll dial it all in later with new wheels & tires? The positive camber affects cornering, possibly tire wear, but shouldn't cause any drivability issues, right?
 
I would not drive w/POS Camber. Shim it to get that -.25 Camber set-point @ the minimum. I target -.500 minimum. Even my CC dually runs slightly negative Camber.
As far as 'drivability issues', I could see it likely pushing awkwardly on turn-in.
 
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If it goes straight down the road now, add a shim in the front and back of the upper a arm, set toe and send it. And I don't agree with those Global West specs, I'm a fan of having even caster. You may have to counter on a crowned road, but it won't be pushing you into oncoming traffic when the crown is gone. The total amount of camber and caster is pretty funny too, but I know back in the day I think the Chargers called for like 1 degree of caster. Any trace of negative camber should do here with as much caster as you can get if you're going to bother with that. If you set the camber evenly on both sides and the car pulls to one side, either remove caster from that side as mentioned in my last post or add caster to the other side, taking care to ensure camber remains even on both sides. Positive camber isn't going to drive all that weird, but it will degrade your cornering performance and accelerate your tire wear. Plus it just looks plain dumb and is ridiculously easy to correct on these cars. I think I tried the strings once, it's too tedious for me. Tape measures and either toe plates on the tires or something rigid mounted to the rim that sticks out past the tires for the tape measure to grab is what I use. And for camber I just use a Longacre camber/caster gauge. For me it sucks at caster, so I just set camber and toe and tweak caster until the car pulls straight.
 
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If it goes straight down the road now, add a shim in the front and back or the upper a arm, set toe and send it. And I don't agree with those Global West specs, I'm a fan of having even caster. You may have to counter on a crowned road, but it won't be pushing you into oncoming traffic when the crown is gone. The total amount of camber and caster is pretty funny too, but I know back in the day I think the Chargers called for like 1 degree of caster. Any trace of negative camber should do here with as much caster as you can get if you're going to bother with that. If you set the camber evenly on both sides and the car pulls to one side, either remove caster from that side as mentioned in my last post or add caster to the other side, taking care to ensure camber remains even on both sides. Positive camber isn't going to drive all that weird, but it will degrade your cornering performance and accelerate your tire wear. Plus it just looks plain dumb and is ridiculously easy to correct on these cars. I think I tried the strings once, it's too tedious for me. Tape measures and either toe plates on the tires or something rigid mounted to the rim that sticks out past the tires for the tape measure to grab is what I use. And for camber I just use a Longacre camber/caster gauge. For me it sucks at caster, so I just set camber and toe and tweak caster until the car pulls straight.
I almost resigned to do this myself, but I just found a very reputable alignment shop about ten minutes from me & I think I'll just let them do it. It's supposed to be cold for the next few days anyway, and I'm just anxious to drive the thing after all the work I've done, even if only to the shop. Thanks, all..
 
I almost resigned to do this myself, but I just found a very reputable alignment shop about ten minutes from me & I think I'll just let them do it. It's supposed to be cold for the next few days anyway, and I'm just anxious to drive the thing after all the work I've done, even if only to the shop. Thanks, all..

They're gonna give it back with 1* of positive camber, tell you it's in spec, and send you down the road. Most of alignment shops suck and most consumers aren't discerning enough to notice. Post your alignment sheet when it's done, I'm curious to see how much cross camber and caster they give you.
 
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Absolute debacle.
****in wheel bearing left the chat, got off work early to fix it in the day time, went through two wrong bearings, had to cut the God damn bearing race off with a hacksaw in the work parking lot, nicked the spindle, stripped the ****ing threads on the spindle putting the nut on, now paying some dickhole who's late $250 to tow me 50 miles back to my house. Left the God damn starter I bought for the k1500 on my dad's car, his phone is shut off so I can't contact him.
Sitting in the cold *ss parking lot next to the highway patrol station in my loud *ss car waiting for a tow.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay
 
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Also my ****ing window cranks broke. One was my fault admittedly, the other the wind blew the door into my *ss and ****ing thing snapped off..
Great day today.
Hope it repeats tomorrow again and again and again until the end of time.
 
Absolute debacle.
****in wheel bearing left the chat, got off work early to fix it in the day time, went through two wrong bearings, had to cut the God damn bearing race off with a hacksaw in the work parking lot, nicked the spindle, stripped the ****ing threads on the spindle putting the nut on, now paying some dickhole who's late $250 to tow me 50 miles back to my house. Left the God damn starter I bought for the k1500 on my dad's car, his phone is shut off so I can't contact him.
Sitting in the cold *ss parking lot next to the highway patrol station in my loud *ss car waiting for a tow.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay
Next time around sign up for AAA premier... 1 free 200 mile tow, 3 free 100 mile tows, and free service calls. Much cheaper than that one tow and if your daily is as old as what you drive is the only way to go with long distance trips and no friends to bail you out when stuck like that.
 
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