7.9 degree caster?! that can't be good

[JohnI3laze]

I got a printout from my alignment today that says my right caster is 7.9 and my left is 7.. I had both tie rods replaced as well because of a drifting accident. That may have something to do with the caster in front. I slid rather hard over a curb sideways.. Anyway the guy who did the tie-rods said he'd never seen rods bent into S like shapes before. Also I should mention i have Lowering Springs (about1.5 ") and KYBs. I also have about -1.5 degrees of camber on both sides in the front. My question really is this.. How does that much caster affect drivability? Drifting? I've heard a little bit of camber is good for sporty driving but I know nothing about caster and 8 degrees just seems like a LOT

[NISTECH]

there is a .9 degree difference between the 2. Caster gives you steerability your car will likely pull left with the right being so far forward. Basically on a more dramatic scale if you were to look at your tires standing from one side of the car and there was a perfectly straight line across you car through both sides the right front tire would be slightly forward of the left front tire. Caster is like a motor cylces rack on the forks. choppers are hella positive, street bikes are still positive but at a more managable level. Choppers are very hard to make quick turns on to avoid collisions where crotch rockets are more agile and can manover quickly. Caster on cars is pretty much the same way. I dont know the spec on your car but I would think anything more then .5 degrees is to much, I personnaly try to shoot for .2 difference.

[s13sr20chris]

let me mention that the spec is somewhere around 7 degrees and the z32 has even more. i would try to get closer as well.

solution: heres what i did. go to phase2motortrend(sponsor) and buy some tein tension rods($200). slap them on and adjust to get 8 degrees exactly on both sides. boom, you get a little extra camber in the turns. cars with struts in the front need this extra camber in the turns. this will work well with the -1.5 camber you have. i would crank the rear camber to just over -2.0 and go for zero toe at both ends with a little margin of error towards toe in(just a little) because you never want to have toe out.