Hi everyone !

I'm currently seeking the correct values to have a correct wheels alignment, as it is somewhat difficult to find a bench in France that has in memory the good values for a 1988 Chevy Camaro IROC-Z fitted with a 350 TPI engine.

What I'm seeking exactly is :

Caster Angle (Min - Max - Avg)

Camber Angle (Same as above)

Toe-In Angle (Same as above too)


Thanks in advance to those who will be able to help me ! (Thanks a lot too to those who understand my poor english lol)

 

I'm getting my car aligned tomorrow morning, and I just got finished throughly searching these forums for some good specs. Stock specs suck and will wear your tires funny.

People throw out lots of values for many different applications for third gens, and based on what I saw I've decided to bring the following values to the alignment shop. It seems to be a decent average for a street car, all the recommendations I found hover right around these values.

Driver Side
+3.5* Caster
-0.5* Camber

Passenger Side
+4.0* Caster
-0.5* Camber

Total Toe In:
1/16"

The reason for the extra caster on the passenger side is the roads crown to the right for water drainage. Also, I doubt you use fractions of an inch for your Toe settings, and I don't know how to properly convert it to something you can use. Should be a starting point though. Others will chime in.

 

If you drive on the left side of the road in France, you might wanna think about swapping the values left to right he listed above.

I know he listed the as Driver's & Passenger sides, but just in case there was any assumption of Left & Right according the American standards.

 

Thanks for your answers guys.

We in France drive on the right side of the road, just as you do in the US.

You're right, but I think I'll find a correct unit converter over the internet that will convert everything to the metric units I'm used to.

By the way, we also have something that is ****ing common on our roads and that helps a lot in wearing right side tires of our cars. I don't really know what the english word is to describe this, but I think the correct word is "Roundabout".

Here's a pic of what I'm talking about :




By the way, do you think you could also give me the manufacturer's specs concerning wheels alignment, just for me to check the difference with the values you gave me ? That's just because I'm also participating on a french board dedicated to Camaros and Firebirds, and some guys out there also gave me different settings concerning wheels alignment, and they'd like to know who was right lol

Anyway, I'll ask my mech' to apply the settings you just gave me.

 

I bet a Millimeter is pretty close to a 1/16"

 

Also, you need to be careful about having just any shop do it. Here in the USA, most shops will charge you full price of a 4-wheel alignment. However, they will just bring it on the rack, and do a quick toe-'n-go alignemnt in 10 minutes. They wont touch the caster, or camber, no matter how bad it is.

 

Actually, 1/16" is about 1.5 mm. (25.4 mm per inch) The exact value isn't super critical, so if you use mm, 1.5 will do it.

Yes we have a fair number of those "roundabouts" or "traffic circles" in some parts of the US; but most of them are quite a bit larger than that one. That looks TIGHT, like turning into a parking place tight.

I agree with those settings as well, subject to the one edit, of making the negative camber on the right slightly greater than the left (like -.5° on the left, and -1° on the right) You absolutely DO NOT want to use the factory settings; I don't know what they were thinking about when they invented them, but they're BAD wrong, especially for tire wear.

 

I understand that the caster / camber spread will help on crowned roads, however, what happens when you cruise in the far left lane on the highway? Does the car always wanna pull into the median?

 

Not really.... the car will roll in a straight line; however, it does produce a slight tendency for it to drift left whenever it's upset, like going over small bumps or whatever. It's not like, you let go of the steering wheel and the car dives into the median, or anything like that.

Or of course, you could jump out and re-adjust your alignment every time you turn onto a different type of road like that....

 

Lol, according to MY point of view, this roundabout is quite of a respectable size (but it's only according to a my lil' frenchy point of view). However, my IROC manage very well with them.

Indeed, I now understand why you americans have such big cars

Please, tell everyone to stop buying small japanese cars ! USA have such an heritage in automotive history that it shouldn't be lost like that...

 

That rotary is pretty big compared to ones I have usually seen up in NH and mass.

As for the heritage, yeah thats true. I guess, in america our Middle Class is being gotten rid of very slowly. For the poor, little KIA and all those cheep cars is what they can afford. For the upper class, it is socially un-acceptable to drive an american car.

My uncle owns a business, and he started doing really good a few years back. Now, they live in a big house in a rich neighborhood. If I drive my car over there, you should see the looks I get in that neighborhood. I am like their white-trash relative.

 

My alignment tech recommended against staggering the camber. He liked the specs I gave him and I mentioned the camber and he said it's best to keep them equal. Not to say you're wrong, thats just the input I got.

 

Must be a northern US thing then. I've only been in Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, a piece of Oklahoma, and flew to Florida. Never saw a roundabout in those states. Not saying there are
NONE, I never saw one, and there CERTAINLY aren't any in Austin, TX...my home town.

 

Well the south is alot different than New England. Whole different culture ect. Part of the reason I want to get the F*** out of here and move to georgia alabama or tenesee. My grandma has always lived down there and I love the way of life alot better. (People say I have to have some ******* in me, if my grandparents used to own a huge Mobile Home Park in NC)

Anyhow, about the camber spread. I think I wold prefer to set both sides even too. I do drive alot on the roads in town, but I also drive in the left lane on the highway. Even if it doesent pull in the median from the alignment, I already have enough work keeping the car in the lane. I always have to hold some right-steering as it is now, and my arm is numb after a long drive lol.

 

I love the smoking man avatar. Hard core X-Files fan here...seen every single episode start to finish. Soon as I get the cash I'm buying the complete series box set.

 

i just had an alignmeht done when i rebuilt my front end. when they were finished tere were some notes on the sheet. the guy set my caster to 5.9* on the passenger side, the note said "increaced due to kit" what the hell does that mean? he was also trying to set my thrust angle using my panhard bar (can that even work?) and wrote "track bar at max adjust" which it was not. when i left my car wouldn't drive in a straight line and i ended up resetting everything using an angle-finder and a tape-measure. not trying to thread jack or anything, i just needed to vent.

 

I cant really help you because I dont do alignments. That caster sounds kinda high tho. I would go back, and either get your money back, or have them make another tech do it. If they will do it again for you, stand right there while he does it, and make sure he doesent f* it up. Also, you can make sure he sets these values and not the facotry ones.

 

Just took it for a spin with those specs. The guy actually messed up and gave me 0.5* positive camber instead of 0.5* negative camber. So I'm going to bring it back on monday so he can correct it. Also, how much is TOO MUCH caster? What are the NEGATIVE effects of running higher caster? One thing I love about my mom's Honda Odyssey is the way the steering wheel resists movement at highway speeds. I long for a thirdgen that has steering that just SNAPS right back to center and loves to stay there like that car. Should I ask for an extra degree of caster on each side?

Also, I notice with the caster difference the car pulls towards the side with less caster. I don't think our roads are crowned enough to need that, so I think I'm gonna have him even out the caster. I'm thinking maybe +4.5* on each side? +5? Sorry to thread jack but I figure I owe it to discuss this here since I gave you those specs.

 

Please give us your feedback Darkshot, it's very interesting.

My wheel rim should be repaired next month, so i'll get the alignment fixed up right after and I'd like to have the best settings on my Cam' (Cam' is the nickname we give to Camaros in France, how do you call them on your side of the pond ?)

 

Finally got it finished. I ended up with +4.3* caster both sides and it feels just fine. I don't notice as much feedback through the wheel and it returns to center nicely. Stable at high speeds. Little pull to the right but I think that's because I have a bit of camber spread because one side he couldn't get past -0.1*. I'm happy with it.