How is caster adjusted?

[Brewhaha]

I brought my car in for an alignment at PepBoys and they did not adjust caster as they said they didn't know how and that it wasn't possible. I think I remember multiple users here saying they had changed theirs so I was curious how it was done. The alignment guys didn't seem to understand alignment at all. Not only did they not know what caster was, they originally tried telling me that my camber wasn't adjustable on my car because my coilovers didn't have camber plates -.-

Tried searching the web and all I got were a bunch of descriptions of caster.

 

[hvyman]

Generally its adjusted with camber on the lower control arms. Tho you can only adjust it so far.

I would look for a new alignment place or have someone more qualified do the alignment. The hunter alignment rack systems have a screen that will show you where to adjust camber caster and toe.

 

[Nick M]

The market is flooded with incompetent people that should not work in the field.

 

[teamslow]

I've worked at pepboys and a couple of dealerships as a mechanic in the past. Most places only adjust the front toe. Sometimes you'll get lucky and have a guy adjust the camber as well. My 4 years of working in different shops, I've never seen anyone adjust caster.

 

[Nick M]

I've worked at pepboys and a couple of dealerships as a mechanic in the past. Most places only adjust the front toe. Sometimes you'll get lucky and have a guy adjust the camber as well. My 4 years of working in different shops, I've never seen anyone adjust caster.

I have only done about 100 alignments in my life. Which is nothing. I know guys that worked only on the rack, and they did 100 over the course of a couple of months. And I have never seen anybody not know how to do it, but I have read tons like this thread.

 

[Asterix]

Many years ago, I unfortunately found a guy who didn't know how to adjust both toe and camber in the rear. He didn't know how because the book he had only mentioned the front cam bolt. He put the toe barely in spec, which put the camber out of spec.

So, I went home and got my Toyota book. When I showed him the page in the manual, he proclaimed, "It doesn't look like that." So, I went somewhere else. You can't argue with that.

Lately, I've been having trouble finding someone who's willing to give me 0 toe in the rear and barely any toe-in in the front. They all want to max out the toe in. With the polyu bushings, I don't want that.

 

[Scooter7M]

Generally speaking with eccentric cam bolts for alignment, when you have camber and caster, the rear bolt on the lower control arm will adjust more caster while the front will adjust more camber. Keep in mind moving one will affect the other. You adjust camber and caster first, set toe last. From my experience, the eccentrics will give you about 2 degrees positive or negative. Its also a good idea to adjust the rear settings first. With the mk3 supra, every angle is adjustable to some degree.

 

[IJ.]

It's a bit like patting your head and rubbing your belly to get it right.

 

[Scooter7M]

^very accurate.

 

[Jeff Lange]

Yeah the A70 is very adjustable, much more so than most of the more modern vehicles.

My Lexus can only adjust toe front and rear, you can adjust caster by replacing the front lower control arm rear bushing bracket.

Jeff