Dougie's 383 Challenger

[DougieJ]

Thought I'd start an occasional thread on things I'm doing to the car. The rate I go at though - don't hold your breath between posts!

On that note should have been doing this sooner but couldn't get the library finished so the car has had to be delayed longer than planned.

Said at the end of last year that I needed to get on and sort out the steering.

Forgot to take a pic before removing them but here's what came off.

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Guestimation from how they were sitting (ahead of the upper bump stops) is that the castor was all the wrong way.

Set about fitting SPC adjustables with some new shocks.

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Just waiting for some new bump stops to arrive from Rockauto and once fitted can take it off for it's mot and to get the alignment more accurately set at the same time. Currently roughly neutral on the camber and as much castor as will allow.

Based on a review of the advice available here I'm looking to stay about neutral on the camber, as much castor as will come (SPC seem to reckon on being able to get up to about 3 deg.) and about 1/8 toe-in.

[Dave999]

they look nice more robust that what come off

morgan has some of them i think
ultimate in adjustability

ignore the book when you do the set up for its cator settings you need some + castor, based on taste and whether its manual or power steering, depending on year and car the factory manual may state 0 or negative castor. negative is a no.no if the steering linkage breaks you want the car to go straight not hard left or hard right so self centering is necessary

the rest is pretty bob on but was designed around 6.5 inch wide cross ply tyres, tweak the camber, upright or a tiny bit negative and put in a smidge of toe in and you're good...
keep in mind also that the US settings are for driving on the other side of a pitched road i.e designed to resist the urge to go into a ditch when driving on the RHS of the road in a LHD car. swap side for side or set up both the same as most of our roads are pretty flat these days. the days of a high pitch to the road and a ditch each side seem to be gone....

[DougieJ]

Cheers Dave,

The car is power steering so plan on going for quite a bit on the +ve castor.

Thanks for the advice on the camber. Tyres on the front are 215/70 BFGs but showing slight signs of possibly having had a little too much toe-in. Will be good to get it set properly.

Interestingly re high pitch on roads - Transport Scotland are heading for increasing the crossfall on the Trunk Road network up here from 2.5% to 3%. I suspect to do with their preferred wearing course these days being one that holds on to surface water!

[morgan]

they look nice more robust that what come off

morgan has some of them i think

Yup. Same as. Now I am no Dave when it comes to such things - BUT I can tell you that a) Dave approves and b) Roger (alignment guru) loved them so much when he set my charger up he ended up going a similar route... This is high praise

[DougieJ]

Yup. Same as. Now I am no Dave when it comes to such things - BUT I can tell you that a) Dave approves and b) Roger (alignment guru) loved them so much when he set my charger up he ended up going a similar route... This is high praise

Thanks Morgan

Glad to be in such good company.