Castor Corrected Steering Arms

[adamsclarke]

I've been researching SOA for my DD and have come across the question....has anyone made castor corrected steering arms yet? It would seem that a bolt on deal would be attractive as opposed to a Cut and Turn???

On my rover...We drilled out the swivel housing (bolted on in a rover) for the castor correction...which works very well....but rovers steering arms are not like toys.

It seems to me that you could machine the base of the hi-steer arms with the correction already there...and still have the arms angled for correct ackerman and tie rod angles???

Has this been done...or am I crazy?

I know cut and turn will only add an hour or two while I have the axle apart for rebuild....but I'm just thinking crazy (this is my DD after all)

 

[Mark W]

You aren't understanding the problem. The steering arms have nothing to do with the caster. The angle of the line between the knuckle bearings determines the caster.


Mark...

 

[cody c]

i think hes saying to move the pin at the center of the steering arm rear-wards on the steering arm, and relocate the pin at the bottom forwards to get a few degrees closer when going SOA,
I think I know what you are trying to say, but you would have to relocate the lower pin as well, and this would be better for a smaller lift, but for larger lifts you would have to C+T anyways.

Actually i have been thinking about this some more and i dont think it will work, you would be turning the outer knuckle to appear like it is proper castor, but the actual point where the knuckle turns will be in the same axis.

 

[Mark W]

You got it.

The caster angle is determined by the location of the knuckle bearings. These are fixed in the inner knuckle and not affected by any change in the arms.


Mark...

 

[Pin_Head]

It would be possible to machine new bearing caps and arms that relocate the bearing center line relative to the knuckle to change the caster, but the work and cost to do this would be much greater than merely cutting and turning the knuckles. If you just want to change the caster without regard to the pinion angle, then just putting a wedge shim under the spring pads is even easier. This is the way alignment shops adjust caster on solid axle trucks.

 

[Mark W]

You could change the camber of the tire with offset bearing caps/knuckle arms. But not the caster. If you offset in the plane of the caster, you would rotate the outer knuckle a little bit, but you would not change the angle of the axis.


Mark...