What should my caster angle be?

Are we going off the pinion with a digital angle finder for caster angle? Asking my own near term use and hopes for future folks to know how we're baselining.

My understanding was that the pinion was a relative place to use but wasn't a place to get true caster angle.

Understand that pinion vs DS is most critical. Looking for a good caster angle measurement place, if it exist outside of a laser measurement system.
 
FarFire70 said:
Are we going off the pinion with a digital angle finder for caster angle? Asking my own near term use and hopes for future folks to know how we're baselining.

My understanding was that the pinion was a relative place to use but wasn't a place to get true caster angle.

Understand that pinion vs DS is most critical. Looking for a good caster angle measurement place, if it exist outside of a laser measurement system.
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Wtf are you asking? you put a digital level on the top ball joint to measure caster, the pinion is a different measurement point and I would not be as concerned with caster as a I would your d/s angles. The only two ways to adjust the caster once your pinion angle and d/s angles are correct is to cut off and rotate the inn er c’s or sometimes you can get a funky ball joint that will make a minor changes. Ymmv
 
Got my digital angle finder this past week. After the CA adjustments, I’m at 7.4* caster. Maybe slightly on the high side, but not too bad.

I still notice the darting. Now that caster is taken care of, I’ve moved on to thinking it’s the steering. When I’m driving, if I let go of the wheel and hit a dip in the road, it moves my steering wheel with the road, and the wheel stays there until either I correct it, or the road corrects it. There is nothing bring the wheel back once it’s center point. Idk. I’m ready to sell it at this point lol. It’s something ever so slight that can take joy out of driving it because it’s all I can think about when I’m running down the road.

Im going to try to get an actual alignment done next week, just to make sure all is still the way it should be in that dept.
 
Ok, it’s not caster, you have bump steer, so have someone do a dry steering test, with the engine off, have them rock the steering wheel back and forth and see what is and is not, do you have a dropped pitman?
 
astjp2 said:
Ok, it’s not caster, you have bump steer, so have someone do a dry steering test, with the engine off, have them rock the steering wheel back and forth and see what is and is not, do you have a dropped pitman?
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I don’t have a DPA. I have the stock one.

Does it still count as bump steer if there’s no actual bump? It’s literally just the curvature/dips/humps in the road that cause the wheel to move on way or another. Not necessarily a bump.
 
Jerry Bransford said:
No, that is insufficient, you really want at least 5 to 5.5 degrees.
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Jerry just adjusted caster and went in for yet another alignment……what do you think?

5093DF6A-DF07-4807-B477-58C733937E38.jpeg
 
akajibio said:
Jerry, in your opinion can I adjust my adjustable upper control arm to achieve a closer caster value or does the difference not matter ?
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The caster angle difference between the left and right sides is supposed to be there, it's normal from the inner C's being welded clocked slightly differently to cause that. They make it that way so it won't tend to drift in the wrong direction.
 
We've suggested everything conceivable, I'd call around to various 4x4 shops to find which have an alignment rack. Visit those that and tell them how your Jeep wanders on the highway and if you like the reaction of a particular shop I'd ask them to fix it. There should be a number of such shops there in the Las Vegas area. A standard car alignment shop won't be experienced enough with Jeeps with aftermarket suspension parts.
 
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