offset bushings questions

[flyinlow]

moog offset uppercontrol arm bushings allow more positive caster.

This makes the car (73 with power steering) more stable at freeway speeds? It wants to go straight ? Steering wheel wants to return to neutral with more force?

Does it improve cornering ability?

What drawbacks does more positive caster have?

What caster should you shoot for?

Anyone make poly offsets?

[HPP]

moog offset uppercontrol arm bushings allow more positive caster.

If installed according to the instructions, they provide more camber. If installed the opposite of the instructions, more caster.

This makes the car (73 with power steering) more stable at freeway speeds? It wants to go straight ? Steering wheel wants to return to neutral with more force?

It does provide more freeway speed stability, more of a tendancey to return to center, and increased steering effort. Typically a street car is set up with a degree more right side caster to compensate for road crown, so depending on how your caster stagger is set up and how crowned your local roads are, it may or may not make the car track perfectly straight. It will make the steering want to self center with more caster, it will want to return to center quicker. An additional change will be the increased steering effort required to execute turns. This can be good or bad depending on your point of view. It is a drag if you have manual steering. If you have power steering, it helps mask some of the over-assist mopars normally have.

Does it improve cornering ability?

Not per say, but the extra effort will give a bit more "feel" about turning in to a curve.

What drawbacks does more positive caster have?

Higher steering effort.

What caster should you shoot for?

Generally 4-6 positive.

Anyone make poly offsets?

Not that I've ever seen.

[flyinlow]

Thanks for the information.

If you install the offset bushing at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions will this let you set the castor to 4-6 deg. positive and still have the normal camber?
The picture of the moog 7103 bushing look like there is alot of offset.

[HPP]

Yes, you can still achieve normal camber with the bushings at 3 and 9. Unfortunately with a mopar, caster and caber are so interdependent that they are always a compromise of one against the other. However, provided there are no other issues with alignment on our vehicle, you should be able to get between 4-6* caster with a 0 to -.5 camber without any issues.

While a picture does seem to represent a large difference, when measured there is only around a .125 variation between a stock and offset bushing. At the ball joint, this may only equate to the ability to go 4-5*