Help understanding my alignment report

[brink]

Got an alignment today. Trying to figure out these values they gave me for the initial versus final specs. Anyone help me out here? I have only a vague idea of what this stuff means, so I don't really know how bad or good my initial alignment was.

Here's the info:

Front
Left Caster inital/final: 1.8°/2.0°
Right Caster initial/final: 2.2°/2.3°
Left Camber i/f: -0.8°/-0.7°
Right Camber i/f: -1.0°/-1.0°
Left Toe i/f: 0"/0"
Right Toe i/f: -3/32"/0"
Toe Total i/f: -3/32"/0"

Rear left toe changed by +1/16" everything else stayed the same.
Thrust angle, whatever that is, was initiall -0.1° and changed to 0°

So what does all this mean, was I way out of alignment? Since the values are so small I would think not. Can anyone give me a breakdown?

[88 LE]

Toe: horizontal (left / right) axis of the tire.

Toe in = tires pointing inwards.
Toe out = tires pointing outwards.

Camber: vertical (up / down) axis of the tire.

Negative camber: top of the tire tipped inwards (towards the car).

Positive camber: top of the tire tipped outward (away from the car).

Not sure about caster and thrust angle.

[brink]

Dang, was hoping you at least would know what caster is... so negative is more towards the inside of the car, positive is away from the car, right?

[88 LE]

Originally posted by brink
Dang, was hoping you at least would know what caster is...

http://www.kart-racer.co.uk/kart-boo...Steering1.html

so negative is more towards the inside of the car, positive is away from the car, right?

Yes, if your talking about camber (positive / negative).

[brink]

Good find, 88le!

The caster thing explains why my steering feels peppier now. Thanks!

[88 LE]

Originally posted by brink
Good find, 88le!

I just searched for "castor angle".

The caster thing explains why my steering feels peppier now. Thanks!

No prob.

Funny thing is that I learned about toe, camber, caster, and steering akerman from racing r/c cars. I even have a camber guage for my r/c car.

[project trueno]

thrust angle, is the angle of toe of your REAR wheels, relative to the centerline of the vehicle. Negative means the rear wheels are pointing near the left/driver's side, positive passenger side. They should be neutral (parallel to the vehicle centerline), otherwise you will feel the rear is "pushing" to either side, and you'll have to steer your car, even going straight, to correct it.

negative caster results in sensitive steering, positive results in stable and control steering, and good returnability.

[crazy_camry]

Originally posted by 88 LE
Funny thing is that I learned about toe, camber, caster, and steering akerman from racing r/c cars. I even have a camber guage for my r/c car.

Me too!

i made a camber gauge using a protractor, a bit of cardboard, and a split pin. dont how how accurate it was though.