I have just purchased adjustable bottom arms and tie bars for my front suspension and intend to have a go at doing the alignment myself.

Is the order of doing the alignment, Castor, Camber and then Toe?

As camber affects castor and vice versa, is it appropriate to recheck the castor after the camber is done?

Regards Fritzie

yes, caster and camber go together, but (I think) camber effects caster more than the other way around so do the camber first then the caster and then recheck the camber but I don't think it will have moved much.

I have about 2° camber and 6° caster

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Before you do the toe in (after camber and caster), make sure the steering column is centered on the rack correctly, and the steering wheel is also centered correctly.

Do your ride height first.

I am running hydrolastic on my Mk2 S with adjustable arms. The wheel alignment specs provided to me by the experts was 1/2 deg neg Camber, 3 positive caster, Toe out 1/16”. Ride height 300mm measured from centre of hub to wheel arch. Drives like it is on rails.

Thanks Stibbsy, I recall the advice you were given and took a copy of those settings at the time for future reference. I intend to set my 1969 "S" up very similar. I reset my hydrolastic ride height at the front wheels to 310mm yesterday as I want to make sure that I have the minimum 100mm clearance underbody for when I get my roadworthy. I intend to drop it back to 300mm maximum as I would rather have less pressure on 50 year old bags and I also like a lowered look.

My intention is to set it up with 0 to 0.2 neg. degrees camber initially and hopefully it might increase to around 0.5 neg when I lower it back to around 300mm. As long as I can get 2 1/2 fingers under the flares, I will be happy.

As per Simon K advice, I set the camber first up with 0 deg. Before I installed the adjustable lower arms, I had 0.9 positive on the RHS and 1.4 positive on the LHS and 1.5mm toe out on each wheel. I did a very quick check on the castor this afternoon and came with about 5 degrees positive on the RHS and about 7.5 degrees on the LHS. Toe Out has increased to about 30mm, so I have some adjusting to do.

I reckon one of the best things I have bought for the mini is the red pressure testing pump for adjusting the hydro. It just makes evacuating and pumping up the suspension a breeze. Thanks to GTO Green 1969 for recommending these, I really appreciated the advice. If anyone is interested, I should write up a post on how to use these pumps and get a virtually air free system.

Hi Fritzie,
I use the red plumbers test box to pump my suspension up,I think you are talking about the same test box.
If so that would be great if you could write the procedure you use to get the air out of the system.
Thanks Felix

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1967 Morris mini Deluxe
1968 Buick Riviera
1979 HZ Kingswood
1979 CM Valiant
1982 Jaguar XJ6 series 3
2002 VX HSV
2013 Mazda 6
2018 Gt Mustang

I should not have used the word "evacuating" , should have used the words "releasing the pressure". It is a great tool to use to release the pressure in the hydro system. I will do another post detailing how I pump up my hydro using the red plumbers pressure test pump.

Sorry about the confusion
Regards Fritzie

Can anyone supply a picture of a "red plumbers test box". It would be good to know what it is.

This is mine. There are others by different makers but of similar design.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=96455&p=1029128

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43