lt16spd1

Where the steering wheel follows every single imperfection in the road making it really hard to drive perfectly straight. It's been about a year since I've driven my camaro, and it seems to be worse than I remember. I know part (or all) of it is caused by upsized tires - 275/40/17. My question, can anyone refresh my memory about what alignment values can help cure this? Something tells me more positive caster helps but I can't remember.

need4fun2469

I have the same size tires. Idt that is the problem. I had mine aligned. My camber was off. It drives straight as an arrow now. Look ma no hands.

chaman

iTrader: (5)

I think its called tracking?

therabidweasel

iTrader: (5)

Toe. Toe even or if youre ballsy a little toe out...toe out is NOT recommended for drag racing. That was my cure for tramlining. Same size tires btw.

Coppertone

I have horrible tramlining now with shitty, very old Kumho Ecsta tires. I will be installing Michelin Pilot Super Sports next week.

lt16spd1

thank you, thats definitely my problem. I went out to the garage and did a rough toe measurement with tape measure in the tread, (redneckish but I've had good luck doing it on previous cars) and I have almost 1/4" of toe out. I have no idea how or when it got like this, I might have royally messed up a tie rod end replacement a while back. Toe's easy to fix, but does anyone have a ballpark figure of how much I should have to rotate the tie rods to toe in 1/8" on each wheel? I'm shooting for a garage toe job of 0 - 1/16" toe out, this should be good, right?

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

Mine is fresh everything (including alignment) and goes crazy following low spots on the blacktop interstate. Drives me insane. Its fine on surface streets though.

Coppertone

What tires do you have? How old are they?

JakeFusion

iTrader: (7)

It's not just F-Body. Every car with over a 265 front I've driven has that problem. Ruts in the roads caused by semis in asphalt do it. It's slightly exaggerated in an F-body because our steering is vague and slow. Certain tires make it worse as well.

b.lee

iTrader: (6)

I don't have any problems with my 275-40-17's, drives straight without any hands on the wheel... but the roads might be worse in your area, if they are heavily rutted from semis and what not it might just be the roads...

Also if this happening and the roads are decently flat, you might see uneven tire wear on the front tires meaning it might need an alignment or toe adjustment.. don't forget to make sure the air in the tires is to spec... not under or over inflated.

ThoR294

iTrader: (6)

I have no issues with my 275s.... just make sure your front end is nice and tight and aligned.

03Sssnake

iTrader: (20)

Both of my cars do it, but its definitely scarier in the f-body, especially on wet roads!

patSS/00

iTrader: (6)

I definitely had the problem with the 275's, completely gone after I "downgraded" to 265's.

Coppertone

275/35 to 265/40? New Rims? All other variables held constant?

lt16spd1

Well I went ahead and fixed the toe the best I could with my tape measure lol. It's about 1/16" toed out, a little more toe out than I was shooting for but holy cow it made a HUGE difference. I no longer feel like someone is grabbing the steering wheel and pulling it back and forth. The steering wheel is slightly off center though, I need to turn both tie rods a bit to recenter it but I'm doing my lowering springs today so it's a bit counterproductive to waste time on it when I need another alignment right afterwards.

ThoR294

iTrader: (6)

Glad to hear it man. I knew it was an alignment issue

Marc3.4V6

iTrader: (1)

Our Previous car, a 2005 Saleen has 275/xx/20 up front and it was never a problem. Oddly enough, the car's set up made for uneven tire wear in the front and tires could not be rotated because the wheels were wider in the back, and still, it drove perfect. Now with my Trans Am, it is more difficult to drive. Still haven't had an alignment but will try to fit one in soon, getting tired of the way it feels. If that doesn't fix it I will try going down a size up front like patSS

patSS/00

iTrader: (6)

Oops, correction: actually went to 245/50/16 (stock Z I think?) - well it was like 9 years ago.

Steering also improved after this.

nitroheadz28

iTrader: (3)

I have the same issue, running 275 up front and 315 rears and it gets pretty bad.

On a perfectly flat road it tracks straight, but the slightest imperfection makes it pull pretty hard. I've gotten used to it, what I don't like though is that I feel like my steering has a dead spot. Not like it has slack in it, it just feels mushy in the center like theres a damper there which I don't like. I like my steering very tight and precise, I don't have any other f-bodies to compare the feel to though.

therabidweasel

iTrader: (5)

These are the exact symptoms of the shitty stock alignment specs, with the toe in. People are going to disagree but ive kept mine at max positive caster, max negative camber, and toe either at zero or the tiniest bit out For 12 years. "Max" means the max you can get both sides equal. Never had wear issues and the steering/control is phenomenal 275 g-force kds up front, 1le springs and da konis. Its your alignment, specifically the toe, I promise.