Cannot get Enough Caster!
 

Before I put in the Electric Power Steering, I Changed the Caster To 5.0 degrees to make it easier for my wife to Drive and parallel Park.

Now I want to increase the Caster to 7.0 degrees, but I do not have enough Adjustment to get past about 5.2 to 5.5 degrees of Caster.

My question is, can the Top Of the Strut Mount go bad (Rubber Deteriorate) to the point
I have lost a Few Degrees Of Caster?

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I could see the lower control arm bushings compressing rearward to lose caster. Why do you want such high caster anyways?

Thank you! A good place to look. I will put a jack under it and see if I have any play, Movement or wear.

With the Electric Power Steering, AND 5 degrees of Caster, even with the Boost turned down (as Much as the Rheostat allows), the Steering is very sensitive. Also as you can see, I have the Plate as Far Back as it will go and all I can get is about 5.5 degrees of Caster. If I could even get back to 6.5 degrees, that would be 1.5 Better Than I have now!

I have also been looking for an Adjustable Caster / Camber Plate so I can Adjust Both like I can on my BMW 320i.

More caster will make it more sensitive.. Not sure what you are trying to accomplish?

More Caster will make the Car want to go Straight! On a Motorcycle it is called Rake. Remember the “Choppers” (like Easy Rider) with the Long front ends, they could barely turn. As I stated, I only have “5.2” degrees of Caster which makes the car want to change Direction as you Breathe. Porsche Uses about 6.5 Degrees and I cannot even get that right now.

So again what I am asking is has anyone pushed the Strut “Back” (as in toward the Rear Of the Car) as far as they can and found that their Steering Angle (Caster) was still too steep? And what did they do to Cure it?

I was looking for Caster / Camber Adjustment Plates like I used in my BMW 320i. With them, I can easily go between 4.5 and 7.5 degrees of Caster and as much Negative Camber as I want. They only thing I saw Close was sold by Pellican but only had extra Camber Adjustment And Cost Between $500 and $800 usd.

How much rake does the car have? Is the nose particularly low, or the rear higher than normal?

wait, your wife drives your Porsche?

Excellent Question! Crazy But even though if the Rear was High Enough And they front Low Enough That would change the Caster by a Lot, I never thought about it that way even though I used that thinking to level the car on my slopping Driveway.

As far as I know, the Door Sill is about the only Flat Level Place in the car. And that matches pretty close to the Flat spot on the Sun Roof. By making them Level, that “should” remove that from my problem. BTW, it does sit pretty Level and was the first thing I did 10 years ago when I got it. There is about equal space between the Tires and the Fenders Front and Rear side to side. The PO has Lowered it and the Ride was Horrible. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1568631931.jpg

It is HER Car! It is her Second Porsche. Her first was a 1976 911s that she got cut off (Twice) in a turn going about 130. Me, I like Faster Things! Like going 230 MPH Landspeed Racing http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1568633375.jpg

Goofy caster angles are usually a result of ride height being off. FWIW. Check and adjust before elongating holes or buying a camber/caster kit. That is, if you want it back to factory specs.

GOOD ADVICE!! I will do some more measuring and make sure! I sure wish you were / are Right! But since the Measuring shows what I had years ago (about 7 to be exact) I am not too Hopeful. The scary thing to me is I had to push the Struts as far “Forward” to get my caster that I now have with the Struts Pushed BACK as far as they go!

BTW, I plan to Recheck the Accuracy Of my Tool on my New Honda Civic Si that should have between 4.8 to 5.8 range and should be 5.6 degrees.

I would doubt the measurement rather than the car at this point.

One quick note, I fooled around with strings, expensive camber gauges and toe plates for a few years, thought I was doing OK. Then I bought a full blown Hunter alignment machine. What I thought was a good alignment was shown to be ridiculously way off.

My cars really drive like a dream now with my custom alignments. Too bad you are not in my vicinity so you could do your own custom alignment. Personally, I like zero toe, minimal camber and lower caster for a quick and lively setup, but my high speed long distance driving is minimal along with zero track time.

my wife wont drive mine.,

Her Other car was a Mini Cooper S That I did some work on to make a little over 200 HP that she set a Landspeed Record In. Only the Van is an Automatic. She stated that driving that car is the only time she really feels Good. No aches or pain because full Time and attention is needed.

ZACTLY!! I agree 100% with everything you did and the results. You get better Tire life, less Steering Effort And QUICK Turn In.

I had the same thing but when I installed the Electric Power Steering, I had too much Mechanical advantage. So I am trying to do “2” things. Add High speed stability and more control over the Power Steering. I am installing a new Controller that I can go from “0” Boost to 100#% Boost and a On and Off switch.

The alignment tool is Electronic and totally Computerized. Very accurate when you are Careful.

I, and many others, have enlarged the holes in the fender mount to allow more movement of the top strut mount.

What are you running for toe?

Ok, I started doing exactly that and Quickly realized that the Mounting holes are “NOT” the Limiting Factor.

The Hole The Strut Mount sticks out Of has a Lip to Reinforce that area an make it Stronger. My Strut is at Most 3 to 4/16” from that lip.

I seemed to gain about 0.2 degree for about every 1/16” of Mounting Plate Hole I Removed. So to just get to 6.0 I would need to remove about 5/16” and roughly 1/2” Just to get to “Factory” Specs. Also the Front Bolt Hole (Shock Side Of the Hole) is at Most 1/4” from the Strut Flange . See my Dilemma?

So my thinking is to Find Out (Before I Remove all Of That Metal) is to see if anyone had my Problem and How (If they did) Resolved it?

The Only Options I think there are is
#1 a New Top Strut Mount. (Which The Old one may be the cause of this problem!

#2 an Adjustable Top Strut Mount. (I have looked everywhere and not found any!

The easy way to get more caster is simply by raising the front end.

Some of the alternate top mount options have a smaller bearing that helps a little vs the rubber donut in the oem plates.

Excellent Thinking. What I will do to find out how much is Practical, maybe “1” inch at a time, raise it up and see how much I can gain and not look like a “GASSER”
Drag Car of the 1960’s.

It is starting to look like I may need
New Strut Mounts
Raise the Front of the Car
Notch the Mounts to the Max.

If I can get Mid to high 6’s then I can live with it.

There right now. Talking to Elephant Racing because they Make Adjustable “Camber” Plate But not Caster. Yes the Top is a LOT Smaller (even if it is Pricey). The only Draw back is the Front side of the Shock Mount. The Mounting Bolt would have to be Notched into that lip and to Maintain the Strength, I would need to add (Weld in) a piece of Angle steel to keep the Strength AND have a place to continue the Notch for the Bolt.

Right now my Thought is to get the Bushing they sell ($100 for a set) And Remove the Strut Tops And Press In this new Bushing and then “KNOW” if that is really part of the Problem. My Hope is that just that will add maybe .5 to 1.0 to the Caster. Then the Rest is Easy! I really do not want to cut out that area unless I have NO Other choice.

I am still trying to get over that my Cheap 1982 BMW 320i I can buy a Plate for under $100 and move that Strut to ANY degree of Caster and Camber.

I am taking a look at a Mustang Strut Mount That has all Of these Adjustment and for about $75. I need to buy a Junk one and see what the measurements are.

That tells me that the rear is too high, or the front too low. Fender gap is not a really accurate way to measure (which I'm sure you know), but in general, a 911 that is sitting relatively level (or set to factory ride height spec) has a fender gap at least ½" bigger on the front, often as much as 1". Fenders are cut out larger by the factory to allow for the wheels to steer.

You know this car. Yes, as I said elsewhere I had to raise the car. I do have it sitting Fairly “Level”. I did this On Flat Ground with a Level on the Door Sill And Measuring from the Floor Pan in the “4” Corners. Now it is slightly “Down” in Front (Tank Full). I had one of those Porsche Spec Little Books And Have No idea where it is now.

I just took a look and Feel. It has just about Equal Distance Between the Tire And Fender. So this WILL help the Caster if I raise the Front. Now I do not know if i am going to like the Look but if Raising it maybe 1/2” I can Gain .5 in Caster, then THAT is Exactly what I am going to do. (After some Research to KNOW where the car should be!!

Thank you for bringing this up in a Way “Even I can Understand”!!

You measured your garage floor or platform to make sure it’s flat, right (or use shims under the ties as needed)? It’s common for a floor that looks flat to be slanted 1 degree or more, which would obviously throw off your measurements by that amount.

Used Level on the Door Sill and Backed the car on a ramp to get to level. Yes because a Few “Degrees” ANYWHERE Adds or takes away from the Caster. A Degree is a Degree.

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Where everyone else uses a flat shock tower, Porsche decided to do a hemispherical one. Maybe for strength reasons? I don't know. But that makes the plate mating surface a lot more expensive. There's cheap cast camber plates on eBay, but the bearings on mine died almost instantly. I retrofitted some nicer bearings but at that point it's a total PITA.

I did buy a set of the KW ones, which have a unique design of putting the bearing flush with the plate instead of above it. Much smarter, as you can slip the bearing under the sheet metal further without modification to the tower. Small loss of strut travel is fair. Unfortunately, the design is also real dumb as you can't use them to get the camber they're designed to get without chopping up the plates.

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Not sure if these would hep you get the range you're looking for, but something like this might let you get away with modifying only the mounting holes and being able to leave that rolled lip center hole. Me, I wasn't comfortable modifying anything up there.

I think the smartest product would be a top mounted bearing plate that moves in both axes, but that doesn't exist.

AMEN To 100% of everything you said!!

You Truly have Been There and Done That! WOW �� What is the Brand of those plates Where did you buy them! How much?

Thank you for posting this. BTW, it looks like for Camber Adjustment, you must make Marks on the Plates and make your Setting then Mount them “THEN” check your Camber. Then remove them and make more adjustments and remount until you have the settings you want. My thought is that they needed to do this USD so you could leave them mounted and make the adjustments Under the Tower.

They're KW camber plates, I bought them from, uh, not our host.

:D:D

I know they (our Hose does sell Elephant products.

BTW, I raised the Front to its Max but not level so this reading is off By “0.5” so the real reading is 6.5

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