To Much Caster

[rooster57]

Well i have been having the wobbel from time to time and the toe in and out was set to 1/8 toe in . I was at an event today and one of the other guys said you sure got a lot of caster in your front end . My response was it is about 9 degrees. He said i bet its more than that. So when i got home i put my trusty angle finder and i had almost 20 degrees. ARG how did that happen so i dug my plans out and then it dawned on me when i built the axle i put 7-9 in it then then a year later when i did the assembly after powder coating i put 9 deg in it. So i had 18-20 deg caster. Today i removed 10 deg and it sure rides better and no wobbbbbel so far . What is your take on Caster and the wobbbbble problem.

 

[Old Rotor Flap]

Twenty degrees is about what we put in our old fuel dragster back in the 60's to keep'er straight. I haven't thought to ask about those cars today.

I would have thought you would have experienced more wobble while backing up. We had a super light weight worm gear steering box in the dragster that lasted less than a season 'cause we backed the car up too fast (pushing by hand) which is NFG on worm gears given that amount of caster. Were we supposed to be using caster oil on that steering box?

The only other contributing factor on the wobble (I can think of) would be having the spindles reversed with the tie rod out front, though I've not heard of complaints from other bucketeers. That might be because I'm new here and haven't had any real world T experience.

 

[putz]

I could see maybe a little wobble because the tires are trying to follow any groove in the road. Get caster out of wack side to side and car will really pull. Turning is when caster can really effect your steering won't return to straight easy either if off alot.

 

[butch27]

Putz has it right. Must be an old racer.

 

[putz]

Putz has it right. Must be an old racer.

I am not old I am well aged. I actually do alignments at work.

 

[rooster57]

Putz it sure rides and steers better . I also reduced the air in my front tires from 25 to 15.

 

[butch27]

Putz: I thought you retired and was one of US.

 

[putz]

Putz: I thought you retired and was one of US.

I wish but my wife owns a Curves so maybe I can retire if it takes off,I am only 47 little young to retire. A friend had a bet that with his brother he could retire by 50 he did but was going crazy so he went back to work selling again. And My wife has threatened me that she will probably kill me when I retire. So I guess I better keep working on the bucket.

 

[akitagandy]

I have mine set on 10 degrees is that a good starting point? Am I doing this the right way? Top back and off the two mounting points in the pic

 

[ellis8500]

Having the same question, I read other posts on this forum about Caster and the recommended amount was more in the range of 5 to 6 degrees. Too much caster will make the steering stiffer and might introduce some amount of wobble. Why the wobble you ask? You should also have some amount of toe-in. 1/8 or so. With toe-in and too much caster, each tire will try to straighten itself causing the other to toe-in more which then tries to straighten and you induce an oscillation where each tire tries to run straight in opposition to the other.

 

[fordsbyjay]

Wow IIRC I set mine to 7 and I thought that was too much. I didn't find it steered any better and it is way harder to turn now. I was thinking of going back to 3.

 

[rooster57]

when CCR builds their axle they put 7-9 deg in it when they weld the brackets on so when you stand over the batwing welded to the axle the rad rod bolt holes should be at 90 deg to the ground. That is to say a carpenters square sitting on the ground should intersect the upper and lower radius rod clevis blots. Ford when the axle was on the original car they had 9 deg in caster.