light steering

If you have raised your vehicle then the caster will be effected by reducing the amount of positive caster from the factory.

When you turn the steering wheel, the front wheels respond by turning on a pivot attached to the suspension system. Caster is the angle of this steering pivot, measured in degrees, when viewed from the side of the vehicle. If the top of the pivot is leaning toward the rear of the car, then the caster is positive, if it is leaning toward the front, it is negative. If the caster is out of adjustment, it can cause problems in straight line tracking. If the caster is different from side to side, the vehicle will pull to the side with the less positive caster. If the caster is equal but too negative, the steering will be light and the vehicle will wander and be difficult to keep in a straight line. If the caster is equal but too positive, the steering will be heavy and the steering wheel may kick when you hit a bump.


To fix you need to fit caster correction plates to the front axle mounting brackets or use offset bushes. Both will require the attention of a wheel alignment specialist.

All the best
Matt.

How long ago did you do the job?
If its just recent, I would give it some time to "settle", I changed the springs on my cruiser some time back and made my vehicle almost undrivable, I asked around about castor correction, but the best advise I got was from a place who had nothing to do with original purchase, and was wait and give it 2-3000 ks, best of all go find some tracks that will make springs work, deep wash outs that criss-cross and put vehicle weight on two corners.
Just give it some time before you spent $$$$ on something you may not need.
Shane

Yep a wheel alignment would be the answer...
When you lift a car with independant suspension the camber is also effected. The camber is the angle that the wheel sits in relation to the road & is roughly 90 degrees to it. As the suspension is moved up & down this angle changes. Normally the camber is set with the normal weight in the car & thus at the normal suspension height. When you lift the car the top of the tyre actually moves in fractionally. Thus putting less rubber on the road & thus less feel.

Have you noticed any unever wear?

Now caster if that is adjusted as I did on my Prado, will effectively move the tyre more to the front or more to the back of the car. I adjusted mine so that my bigger tyres would fit without rubbing.

When you turn the steering wheel, you are effectively lifting the car up - thats why the steering wheel tends to return to centre when let go (it should anyway!)

As you increase the caster it increases this effect - as you decrease it decreases the wheel centering effect.

Sounds like you need more caster, but I would also get the camber checked as well.

Cheers
Richard