>Caster is more complicated. If you consider how the wheel swivels when
>you turn the steering wheel, you can imagine a line drawn roughly from top to
>bottom, an AXIS that the wheel swivels on. Older cars had an actual physical
>axis, called a "kingpin". In those days, caster was known as "king pin
>inclination". But cars with ball joints work the same. Just imagine a line
>drawn through the top ball joint and the bottom one.
>
>"Positive caster" means that the upper ball joint is further BACKWARD than
>the lower one. This means that the wheel swivels rather like the front wheel
>of a motorcycle or bicycle. Positive caster makes the car "want to go
>straight". NEGATIVE caster would make the car want to go any direction but
>straight. This is usually undesirable! My TR2 has ZERO CASTER, which means
>that the only thing making the car want to go straight, is the silentblock
>bushings in the steering gear ( GAAK ).
I guess that this means that you cannot adjust (or it is very difficult) to
adjust the caster.
You may have noticed that engineers prefer negative caster on supermarket
trolleys...
OK, so the Moke has positive camber. Why do racing cars have negative camber?
Does this give better steering, or does it stop the wheels from being pulled
under the car (| --> \ --> _) during high-speed turns, or is there some other
reason?
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| John Taylor [The Banshee] Victoria University of Technology |
| s883351@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) |
| MOKING IS A HEALTH HAZARD. Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|