I don't know about most people, but I like my muscle cars ride height set high enough in the air front and rear to survive the mangled roads out there, with the rear end about an inch to an inch-and-a-half higher than the front.

I don't like them slammed to the ground so much that you can't drive over a speed bump unless your doing 2 mph, pull into a driveway without almost stopping and being hit from behind, or not being able to drive down a gravel road. I also don't like the rear end too far up in the air and the nose down too low either. There is a balance between functionality and a positve body rake with the rear an inch or so higher than the front that just looks right.

The problem is that I can barely get any positive caster even with those tubular upper control arms that supposedly add in three or so degrees. Installing them has helped some, but I can't get anywhere near the 2, 3 or 4 degrees positive caster I want.

This has been an issue since back in the old days with my cars, which aren't famous for having a lot of positive caster adjustment available anyway. This has been something that's been largely untreatable until these upper control arms became available, but they are not the complete solution. What have you guys done about this issue?

how much rake does the car have. Show us a side shot picture?

What brand of tubular UCA's did you buy?

It doesn't look like much rake in that picture. But I can't really tell. Do you run poly strut rod bushings? You could shave 3/16" off the inner/rear one to get to factory thickness. You could also ad moog offest 7103 bushings to your tublar UCA's.

How good is your alignment shop? Are they really putting there mind into getting the most caster in your car. Some are lazy and some don't understand the concepts to get more caster (mostly both).

Is the front adjuster all the way out or the rear all the way in? You could get a longer front adjuster or shorten the rear of the arm? What camber are you set at? I assume that's what's limiting your caster.

The upper control arms are from Just Suspension(consequently, the second set I bought for my 1970 came from Firm Feel-super nice set), I'm running stock strut rod bushings, the rear upper-control arm adjusting bolt is all the way in, and it is my camber that is limiting my positive caster. I bought a set of off-set bushings, but with the tubular arms, they looked extremely difficult to chage without damaging the arms. I didn't want to attempt it and needed to take the car on a trip, so I returned them.

The car shows no signs af any previous front-end damage. I've been to two shops. The first, I'll never go back to, the second gave me a nice print-out with all the specs. Caster is currently close to zero. I'm over in Reno at Hot August Nights right now. There are some great Mopars here although they're a small percentage of the whole.

I'll post a side shot in a few days when I get back to San Jose.

If the rear adjusters are all the way in, then you are at the limit of positive caster with your current front-end, unless you:

a. are willing to go more positive on camber
b. change the front-to-rear rake
c. go for the offset bushings in the UCA's
d. do strut rod stuff (adjustable style or shaved bushings)

Here's another thread in a similar vein from the tech archives.

Life is full of compromises, and there are worse things in this world than to be burdened with a nice Barracuda with a bit of negative caster.

Something else is wrong, don't blame the rake angle of the car.

With a 108" wheelbase, which the Barracuda has, raising the rear by 1" changes the caster by only 0.5 degrees negative. With the stock setup this makes no problem for adjustment.

Bob

Here's mine during the alignment process (not finished). With stock UCA's, 7103 bushings, and shaved rear strut bushings...