so after all of this beautiful snow up here in WA, and getting to miss school, I was a douche and slid into a curb in my new accord, and I jacked up my castor pretty bad. I got it re-aligned so the toe is all straight again, but the castor is bad and I want it back to how it was.

on one side, the good side, I can fit about 6 fingers between the wheel and the side of the well closest to the cabin, on the other its only about 4 fingers, The technicians that did my alignment said the tie rod didn't seem to be bent, so what could be the problem? I've heard ball joint.

Any opinions? Thank you.

 

Could you please include the vehicles discription in your signature? That way we don't have to keep asking

I would suspect that the impact drove the lower ball joint towards the rear by bending the lower support which anchors the Radius Arm rearward, thus allowing the wheel to shift furthur back.

Refer: http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...RONT+LOWER+ARM

P

 

Or maybe you've pushed one side of the forward subframe backward. If so you may be able to move it forward again by loosening the four mounting bolts and levering it forward (on the side with least caster). Caster can be fine tuned by adding spacer washers behind the forward bushing (to reduce caster).

PS 'castor' is from 'castor bean plant' or 'castor tree', the source of castor bean oil, still used as a 2/ racing oil and back some years used as an effective 4/ racing oil (basis of the original 'Castrol R' racing oil).

Caster (with an E) is the rearward lean of the steering axis.

 

comedy.

 

Jordan:
Honestly, I think your best option is to get the car to a body / frame shop capable of measuring the body / suspension. They do this every day of the week; and you could avoid a lot of teeth knashing and worn tires in the future.

P

 

hondas don't really have caster adjustment. very very little. a cheap way is to jack your car up, inspect all bent pieces and go the junk yard. however this will not fix your problem 100%. it will help though. like P adam said, your best off taking it to a frame shop. I was in your shoes about 2 years ago. replaced what i could. i even had to replace the rear subframe. Not a fun job but alot cheaper than a shop doing it. my car's caster is still off. i let ntb align it and my caster was way off, but by the naked eye it was straight as I maxed out the radius arm until i couldn't get anymore adjustment out of it.

 

took it to a body shop, they said its just the ball joint, is that possible?

(signature is there, btw : ) )

 

A Ball Joint wouldn't account for the rearward movement. They are nothing more than articulated pivots.
My money is still on either a bent Lower Control Arm: (#11)

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/auto/jsp/mws/prddisplay.jsp?inputstate=5&catcgry1=ACCORD&catcgr y2=1997&catcgry3=4DR+DX&catcgry4=KA5MT&catcgry5=FR ONT+LOWER+ARM

or the front crosssbeam: (#5)

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/auto/jsp/mws/prddisplay.jsp?inputstate=5&catcgry1=ACCORD&catcgr y2=1997&catcgry3=4DR+DX&catcgry4=KA5MT&catcgry5=RE AR+BEAM-CROSS+BEAM

P