Chad's 68 Camaro V3.0 build. LS3 & TCI goodies

[Chad-1stGen]

Got more info back from BOS and TCI. Both front wheels are back in the wheel well about 0.5" from dead center. That is also with 5.78* of caster driver's side and 6.27* on the passenger side as well as over 2.5* of negative camber.

So we are going to make the alignment match exactly the TCI recommended specs of 5* caster and 2* negative camber. This is expected to allow the tires to safely clear but will still be slightly back in the wheel well overall.

Since everything is powder coated already I'll consider modifying anything on the frame later if it is still warranted after dialing out some caster.

[Flash68]

So TCI engineered it to actually not sit in the middle of the wheel well? Did I read/interpret that right?

[Ron in SoCal]

Originally Posted by Flash68

So TCI engineered it to actually not sit in the middle of the wheel well? Did I read/interpret that right?

Just a guess, but it prob wasn't the intent...just the fix.

[Vegas69]

Positive caster moves the upper ball joint to the rear of the chassis. My guess is that they engineered the chassis with the wheel centered at 0 caster. Has anybody looked to see if a wheel is perfectly centered on a stock subframe. I doubt it is.

[Track Junky]

Sounds to me like BOS tried to make the wheels equal in the opening on each side and ended up with two different caster dimensions to make it happen. Either the subframe has been installed out of square or the sub is out of square. Could also be the control arms aren't equal or the CA mounting points on the subframe are off.

[Chad-1stGen]

Originally Posted by Flash68

So TCI engineered it to actually not sit in the middle of the wheel well? Did I read/interpret that right?

Originally Posted by Ron in SoCal

Just a guess, but it prob wasn't the intent...just the fix.

Originally Posted by Vegas69

Positive caster moves the upper ball joint to the rear of the chassis. My guess is that they engineered the chassis with the wheel centered at 0 caster. Has anybody looked to see if a wheel is perfectly centered on a stock subframe. I doubt it is.

TCI engineered their subframe to place the front wheel in the same spot as factory, which according to them is slightly back from center. I do know that my old factory subframe with 5.0* Driver and 5.5* Pass. of caster the wheels were not exactly centered, they were back in the subframe as well, it just wasn't as obvious as it the new set up which is apparently due to the radical amount of caster BOS's alignment friends added.

Originally Posted by Track Junky

Sounds to me like BOS tried to make the wheels equal in the opening on each side and ended up with two different caster dimensions to make it happen. Either the subframe has been installed out of square or the sub is out of square. Could also be the control arms aren't equal or the CA mounting points on the subframe are off.

It is normal for any street driven car to have 0.5* more caster on the passenger side than the drivers side. So they didnt' do anything funky in the alignment. The only issue is that they put in a good 0.75* more caster per side than TCI recommends. New vette's and BMW's get run with 7*+ of caster so I think it would of been a good idea to allow folks to run higher caster rates but most first gen Camaro's consider themselves lucky to get 5*

[Flash68]

This got me wondering if my fronts were ever centered. I never measured exactly but this side pic appears that they are slightly back a bit? Look similar to yours Chad either before or after?

My last caster numbers were 6.34 left and 5.26 right. Stock sub.

[Vegas69]

It's to bad they didn't use a wide angle lense. They may have got my bumper.

To me it's another one of those deals you will forget about once you start using the car again. These cars weren't perfect 40 years ago. They will never be perfect today. Factory cars aren't perfect. Finish it, beat on it, and all will be well.

[Track Junky]

Originally Posted by Chad-1stGen

It is normal for any street driven car to have 0.5* more caster on the passenger side than the drivers side. So they didnt' do anything funky in the alignment. The only issue is that they put in a good 0.75* more caster per side than TCI recommends. New vette's and BMW's get run with 7*+ of caster so I think it would of been a good idea to allow folks to run higher caster rates but most first gen Camaro's consider themselves lucky to get 5*

I've got well over the 5* of caster you are talking about so I dont know what your talking about. I dont want to give up my alignment specs but lets just say it's closer to what the Vette and the Viper are running.
As far as unequal caster....good luck with that....I would never run unequal caster on each side but I will add my alignment is done while I'm sitting in the car.

[Vegas69]

Unequal caster is for road crown. It fights the pull to the right. Simple as that.