Scottish Elises

Wishbones fitted back on car after blasting & painting. Castor washer measured, and inserted same both sides.
N/S = 7 Deg.......O/S = 5 Deg.

When viewing top wishbone from the side, if you remove shims at the "back" of the bush / chassis box section, does this increrase or de-crease the castor angle?

TIA

Andy

Positive caster is leaning back (i.e. lower ball joint ahead of upper ball joint in direction of travel). Often people think about it as a line drawn through the steering axis hitting the road ahead of the tyre contact patch (positive caster - negative would be behind the contact patch and would be bizarre I think).

Looking at the left wheel from the left of the car if you move washers from the left to the right you will decrease caster.

You are shunting the top wishbone back and forth to move the top ball joint back and forth the same amount and thus change the caster angle.

So I think the answer to your question would be if you remove shims (washers) from the back of the bush, this increases the caster angle.

If the steering is released on a flat surface, the car will drift towards the side that has less camber. In the UK, you want it to drift left and I think this means you need to have higher caster on the right - so if you cannot get it even, you should make sure that the side with extra caster is the right wheel not the left. OTOH, if you would rather combat the crowning of the road, make it the other way round, but that isn't fail safe

Cheers,
Robin