Castor angle

[PerS]

Unfortunately my left front suffers from a neg Castor.
Hans very kindly suggested this wasn´t unusual when it came to the Metro subframes.
I am hoping there was a possibility of using shims to adjust the upper arm rearwards or something?

I have had a close look at Force Racing´s lower arms, but their goal seems more to adjust Camber, or....

Any experiences regarding adjusting the Castor would be of great interest to me.

Per

[Stuart]

Shimming the anti-roll bar forwards at the mounting point is another option.

[manifold]

or a mixture of both...

[PerS]

Still Castor issue!

I have now had my spheres upgraded with new nitrogen gas and a valve on top.
Hopefully the front will loosen up a bit now when it can move a bit more with fresh nitrogen.

At the start I had a Castor angle of minus 0,8degrees instead of the plus 2,10degrees it should be!
I have tightened the arb but not reached the goal of 2,10degrees.
Have anyone managed to fit shims and adjust the upper suspension arm?
It does look very tight, both on drawings and at my suspension arm.
I have tried to estimate the amount of shims needed, and have come up with close to 4,5mm!!!
Could this be the case?
Please leave your experience and comments.

PerS

[Stuart]

Can't you just shim the anti-roll bar forward by that amount?

[Hans Efde]

Can't you just shim the anti-roll bar forward by that amount?

There is such a shim under the rollbar!

Could that be missing Per?

[PerS]

Hi Hans,

I will certainly take a look at it.
Since you pointed out that the subframe isn´t perpendicular to the body, which unfortunately is true,
the problem is that by moving the lower arm forward there is even less space between the tyre and body.
I would therefore rather be able to shim back the upper arm than having to reduce the size of tyres for the car.
I hope you see my dilemma.

Regards Per

[Hans Efde]

Hi Hans,

I will certainly take a look at it.
Since you pointed out that the subframe isn´t perpendicular to the body, which unfortunately is true,
the problem is that by moving the lower arm forward there is even less space between the tyre and body.
I would therefore rather be able to shim back the upper arm than having to reduce the size of tyres for the car.
I hope you see my dilemma.

Regards Per

Yes your tyres may not be the correct size. Do you still have the Toyo's on the car? They are not the standard size Midas recommends.It's best to get the 175/50R13 tyres although 165/60R13 tyres give a softer ride. But these are not for sale anymore, that's why I bought the 175/60 Toyo's.
Concerning the subframe somehow Midas was a master in messing up the factory drilled holes. I found on my convertible -when I was designing mudflaps- I noted the front wheel on the right is sticking out more than on the left. The difference is about 0,5 cm! Although I recall Ed Darwinkel mentioning the possibility to slide the subframe around because there is a sort of adjustment possible with the mounting points.

[manifold]

Yes there is adjustment as the mounts are slotted.

[PerS]

Wouldn´t adjusting the subframe only alter the relation between the subframe to the body?
Since my right castor angle is spot on, my wish is to make the left side spot on as well.
I need to go from minus 0,8 degreed to plus 2,1 degrees.
An adjustment to the frame would maintain this difference while adjusting the subframe?
As I understand it, the Castor angle is the inclination between the upper and lower connecting points of the hub.
Best solution I would imagine was to move the upper arm rearwards, since the wheel is a bit forward to start with.
My hope is that someone have done this and can tell if there is room for a thrustwasher more or two.
Per