86 front suspension

[Kelly Mac]

Working on my front suspension this week, new ball joints, bushings and springs. Damn what a job. Any of yall use different alignment settings then the factory? My truck is stock height but i still want it to handle, not to worried about tire wear. How much negative camber are you using? Thanks

 

[73c20jim]

What do you mean by handle? Street, track, ?????

 

[da_raabi]

lol my first thought was a crew dually doing autocross. Now THAT would be impressive!

 

[73c20jim]

lol my first thought was a crew dually doing autocross. Now THAT would be impressive!

Don't worry about spring, etc., the flex in the chassis will provide all the handling you need. lol

 

[Kelly Mac]

No autocross, just street. I have c10 short wheel base 86. 800lb springs aftermarket large sway bar. Just wondering what camber setting your using if not stock setting. Thanks

 

[idahovette]

Depends on road crown in your area, but usually I set at 0 to -1/4 degree camber and whatever caster you can get as long as it is fairly even side to side. Preferably a little more on the passenger side . Possibly in the 2 to 4 degree range.

 

[Kelly Mac]

Thanks, i will set it too the -1/4 and see how it does.

 

[73c20jim]

Unless you get the tires to the limit a adhesion, trick settings have minimal, if any effect. Take tire temperatures across the tires after vigorous driving. This will tell you what you need to set the tires at.

But again, you got to get the tires HOT.

 

[73c20jim]

Also a larger swaybar in the front will induce more understeer, larger in the back, more oversteer.

 

[idahovette]

Unless you get the tires to the limit a adhesion, trick settings have minimal, if any effect. Take tire temperatures across the tires after vigorous driving. This will tell you what you need to set the tires at.

But again, you got to get the tires HOT.

I wouldn't call these trick settings ,just what I have used in my work for the last 40+ years. Seems to have done the trick for me and a lot of my customers!

 

[legopnuematic]

lol my first thought was a crew dually doing autocross. Now THAT would be impressive!

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[73c20jim]

trick = non stock

 

[da_raabi]

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Okay now I've seen it all. Truly. I can die happy knowing that somebody is nuts enough to do that!

 

[MikeB]

FWIW, the factory service manual for my 82 shows a camber spec of +0.7 degrees for C10. But they show alignment tolerances of +/- 0.7 degrees. So that means they want to see zero to +1.4 degrees. I'm not sure why unless under heavy load and/or braking the camber starts moving towards zero or even negative. But those aren't autocross settings, and they assume you want even tire wear.

As for a front sway bar, I recently installed one on my 82 C10. I didn't notice an increased tendency not to turn (understeer), just a little quicker response to the steering wheel and less leaning in turns. If there are any negatives of having a front bar only, the positives more than make up for them. Then again, I don't autocross my truck, which is where you can really tell which end lets loose first.

Back in the day when I added rear bars to vehicles with and without factory front bars (two 70s Novas and a 69 C10), I remember it resulting in quicker steering, flatter turns, and, yes, more oversteer. But it wasn't like the rear end would try to swap ends.