(First posted on MLR forum in July 2015)

After spending a while tweaking the ride height and camber of the new coilovers I thought I’d check the caster to make sure everything is as it should be.

The mount for the camber caster gauge is magnetic so I made some steel plates and extended wheel nuts with studs to fit the plates over the wheel.

I set the plate parallel to the wheel by spinning the wheel and adjusting the plate until the plate was spinning flat with no sideways movement.

To measure the caster you have to steer outwards a certain angle, zero the instrument, then steer the same amount back the other way and read the value. Easy enough to do by myself on the driver side…

not so easy on the passenger side so I had to fetch my ‘glamorous assistant’

The values I got.

I didn’t spend too long setting the plates perfectly square as that doesn’t effect the caster reading but it is why the camber reading isn’t quite right. I know the camber is about 1.3 degrees on both sides from my other measurement method which I trust more. Happy the caster is as it should be and even both sides. Also the angle of rotation, lock to lock, matches both sides too.

Got a couple of pictures of it at work, as it sits now.

Happy with the ride height and rake.  If you go too low you ruin the suspension geometry, particularly with the MacPherson strut up front. Sticking with the 17 inch wheels helps too.