Alignment. No castor adjustment???

[fish10782]

I just got the Unicorn aligned and tires balanced/ rotated. all good right? WRONG I get on I80 about 60mph and it shook violently and pulled to the right. it felt like the wheel was falling off!! I get out and take a look, LF wheel, outside wheel weight wedged between my caliper (stoptec bb kit) and rim scratched a groove the whole inside radius and the caliper as well!! I bring it back and they said there is nothing they can do about the pull because there is no castor adjustment .. the rim is bent I guess, but now scratched and caliper scratched as well. but the castor no adjustment ??? I need two factory aristros NOT BENT!!

[Airy32]

True, no castor adjustment unless you use aftermarket camber/castor plates.

So did they not notice/inform you wheels were bent when balancing? Or are you implying that something during this incident caused bending? Either sounds fishy or I'm just confused.

[fish10782]

the did not tell me the wheels were bent. than the wheel weight happened. I brought it back told them wtf?? they took the wheels off and spun them for me, sure enough they were bent. must have been the previouse owner...

[Arizman3]

My R has no adjustment for caster and it does not pull violently to the right or the left. You probably got the pull from the wheel weight being jammed.

[jmh2002]

Yeah, this is 2 separate issues.

No there is no Castor adjustment from the factory.

However, this is nothing to do with the incident you described.

[delawareR32]

Find a better shop.. Castor has nothing to do with pull anyway.. that would be a toe/tierod issue if it were adjusted. They should have done a better job attaching the wheel wieghts that cause the problem. rebalancing the wheel with the thrown wieght might be enough to get by.. did you have vibration issues at any speed prior to the shop work?

[Arizman3]

Just what the heck is "castor"? castor oil?

[YikeGrymon]

Could be time for a new poll thread.





vs.



vs.




Hint: One makes you barf (and is useful for inducing labor, if you're preggers). Another is good for rolling your isht around the garage. Another is what we're talking about now.

[waabaah]

Of course your steering wheel was shaking at 60. That wheel weight wasn't correct. Get them rebalanced. A slight wobble in rim, if balanced correctly, shouldn't be that noticeable. That's the whole reason of why rims have weights. Nothing is truly round.

Reasons for pull, caster, camber or tire wear. Please post specs of your alignment. Any cross caster or cross camber greater then .5 can create pulls. If it is an alignment issue then currently sitting, your left front has to have more negative camber then your right OR Yoir left front caster has to be more positive to make it pull right.

Tierods won't make it pull. Tierod is a steering component. It controls steering. So if your wheel is crooked then I see a steering issue. If your wheel is crooked to the left AND you straighten it out, then of course it would pull left because you are turning the wheel.

Another note on pulling right, road crown. All roads are curved to allow water drainage towards sidewalk. Some worse then others. Make sure it's a straight road or drive over the yellow line.

This is what I would do... Get tires rebalanced. Try to do an alloy 2 balance and not static balance. Try to get weights on the inside and on the outside as close to the edges as possible. Think of a tight rope walker. He balances his weight by a long stick, the longer the better.

Rotate your front tires side to side. See if the pull goes away. You have directional tires? Then go ahead and swap them back after you clarify that your issue is not tire related. It won't hurt the tires to swap them side to side for 50 miles.

Check air pressure, granted alignment shop should have done it before aligning but some people don't. Air pressure can affect weight of corners resulting in alignment changes.

From there, post your specs and see if cross camber/caster is greater then .4

[waabaah]

Also the wheel weight being jammed on left side would have created friction resulting in the left wheel being harder to turn. This would have made the vehicle pull left from that action and not to the right.

[fish10782]

Obviously the wheel weight did not bend my rim and wouldn't cause the pull to the right. The fact that they scratched my wheel and caliper is the worst part. I posted this thread mainly about the alignment. I am not an alignment expert and thought they were messing with me about the CASTER being not adjustable. no need to correct my spelling of castor neither you all know what I ment and it's clear my Grammer hasn't improved since pre-school. I will post the sheet they gave me of the alignment. I am very familiar with the crown of the road as well. There was a vibration before I brought it there, I thought it was a balance issue and my steering wheel want straight while traveling straight. that's why I brought it there.

[YikeGrymon]

... no need to correct my spelling of castor neither you all know what I ment and it's clear my Grammer hasn't improved since pre-school...

I was just taking an opportunity to chuck in some crappy humor. People always say we should go with our strengths....