Re: Mike's 53 Clipper

Posted by Ross On 2017/3/27 16:48:20

I usually run 0 degrees camber if I can get it, and perhaps a half degree positive camber on the driver's side if the car tends to wander toward the gutter because of the crown of the road. Toe in, usually 1/16 inch just because of accumulated slop in the mechanisms. People seem to get their shorts all in a wad because of the negative caster. That was done on purpose for lighter steering as the engineers knew that the king pin inclination would provide more than enough self centering action. Both positive caster and kingpin inclination work by causing the car to rise slightly as the wheels are turned. Thus it is possible to use negative caster to mitigate the effects of the necessary kingpin inclination. I say necessary as design limitations of spindle, brake drums and wheels make a fair amount of kingpin inclination necessary to get the pivot axis somewhere near the center of the tire contact patch.

If I recall, that was one of the reasons the Citroen DS models had inboard front brakes--so they could locate the pivot axis of the front wheels where they wished without putting a huge dish in the front wheels.