Hoping you guys might be able to point me in the right direction here.

I had an alignment done today, and the tech (who is a trusted, knowledgeable friend) couldn't get my right front caster in spec by a large margin. With the camber @ -2.3, the caster is stuck at 2.5. The left front is normal @ 5.5. What could the problem be? Standing under the car, I can't really visually see that anything is bent and all the adjusters seem to move just fine (as in, not seized at all).

I've done a little searching around, but most of what I've found seems to be issues where the caster is ~1 apart from side to side.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

Any camber issues, or just caster? Could maybe be a shift in sub-frame, that was my issue at least.

 

If the camber and caster bolts are not seized, next check that your compliance bushings aren't torn to shit.

Most likely though, your knuckle is bent where it connects to the upper a arm ball joint.

The next place it would be is a bent lower control arm

 

No camber issues at all. 2.7 Front L, 2.8 Front R

I'll have to take a look at the knuckle. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

^This

+1 on starting with compliance bushings, mine were torn leaving me with stuck caster adjustment. If compliance bushings check out, move on to knuckle/control arm.

 

My the frozen bushings on my car required a lot of hammering- a little too much led to the subframe bending at the front horizontal control arm bolt. If you can see a difference side to side in the position of the vertical control arm bolt then it's possible the subframe is bent.

 

Good to look at other readings to see if something could be bent rather than the eyeball method (if there is nothing really obvious like a torn bushing). Hope this helps, not a definite answer, but should lead you in the right direction.

 

i too have bent a front knuckle. thought it only affected camber. caster was untouched in my experience. I couldnt get camber past - .8 degrees

 

It's not as simple as only as one is affected.

When something is bent, torn or worn with relation to our alignment adjustment, it means the other characteristics are affected.

This is especially pronounced when you are setting for maximum camber/caster conditions on a performance alignment.

For a street car with about 6 degrees of caster and 1 degree of camber, you maybe able to slightly bend the knuckle, control arm and still have enough adjustment to achieve your desired alignment.

However for a track seeking 3+ degrees of camber AND 6.5+ degrees of caster, this is when you will find out immediately if something is bent.

Typically, when I help my friends set up their alignment, I ask our alignment professionals to find out what the maximum camber/caster possibility is of the car, if the settings are off by more than .2 degrees of caster and camber good bet something is bent, seized, broken, worn out or miss aligned.

Btw to the guy with the issue of hammering during an alignment, don't let whoever it was tinkering with your car, touch it again, you shouldn't be beating on anything with a hammer.

 

Thank you gentlemen for all the feedback. I'll definitely get it all checked out soon.