I have a 68 cov. that came with a little 6 cyl. I pulled that and put in a 396 BB. Knowing I now have more weight I got new beefer, lowering springs and all poly bushings (every thing is new). I swiped the from disk brakes from a 74 nova and put it all together. For the first little while all seemed good then I noticed wear on the inside of the front driver tire. I took it back to get aligned and they said an upper a-arm bushing had failed. I replaced that and all attemps to get this aligned since then have failed (three different shops and five attemps). All have said I need more caster? My latest copy of chevy high performance has an article on after market a-arms that allow more adjustment. Does anyone have expierence with those or any other fix. I really need some help as my car is scary to drive and the tires are going fast. HELP!!!

What have you had the shops set up the alignmnet to so far even with the five failures??

I myself dial in (with stock control arms and locating points):
+3 1/2" positive caster
-3/4 to 1 1/4* negative camber
1/8 total toe in

When using a 15 inch wheel and tire.

**EDIT for spelling

[ 06-20-2004, 09:49 PM: Message edited by: chicane67 ]

Any chance the rear of your car is higher than the front?
David

I'll check tomorrow to see what the specs were set at, also I lowered the rear the same as the front and I'm running on 17" wheels.
Thanks, Dean

I just got off the phone with the 2nd guy that tried to align the camaro and he said the most positive caster he could get without throwing off the camber was +1.3 on the right side and +.9 on the left side. So do I need an after market a-arm that will allow more adjustment or is there another fix?
Thanks,

Sounds like your sub frame is bent...... but what was he trying to set your camber too in the first place?

Last year with stock everything up front, my alignment guy could only get about the same caster. Over the winter, I rebuilt the entire front end, installing GW coils,GW UCA/LCA bushings and GW offset control arm shafts. My alignment guy easily got 2.5 + caster, -1 camber and 1/8 toe. I'm not an expert but I believe the offset shafts helped achieve the results.

That was my next direction after hearing what the camber was being set to....

Good call Rick!

I'll repeat chicane67's question - what are they trying to set the camber to? The stock specs call for a positive camber setting. If they try to keep this it makes it hard to get much caster. (When I don't specify, they always want to go with the stock camber, which is too positive.) Ask them to go at least to zero camber and up to 1 degree negative.

This will allow more caster, but not much.

Next would be to try offset shafts as Rick mentioned, these will allow slightly more caster.

Next would be the aftermarket control arms with more built in caster. This option would give the most caster, but also be the most expensive.

Ray

I talked with the mechanic again and he said he went from 1 degree negative caster to around zero trying to get more caster but not much luck. Could I order a offset control arm shaft from someone and see if that does it before I go with the after market a-arm or do they come as a set? Thanks for all the comments.

Global West (http://www.globalwest.net/Camaro%20and%20Firebird%201967%20through%201981%20 suspension%20parts.htm) offset cross shaft part number 702.

I had to get offset shaft arms on my 69, and had no problems at all. Just a question though, what kind of wear? Was it sanding on the inside or chopping?

The wear wasn't so much choppy just wear. The center of my tread looks new but the outside edge is about gone. I think I'll be trying the offset shaft and see how it works. Thanks for all the comments.