Chad
Please check if the arms move as Greg (onasled) has stated. There was a problem on one of the first first designs that Greg made. I don't believe his first design had the inner roller joint like the second design did.

 

It's got to be way more then free spinning. The 'pivot' point on the rear arm is just that, a point. The only thing that will work here as far as a 'solid' bushing goes is a mono ball. I'm assuming that the Alta is a type of mono ball pivot.
Really though, this is a VERY delicat area. I'm even wondering just what effect these poly inserts some are using are having on the 'free' motion of the controle arm.

 

Thanks for your input Greg. Glad we have someone thats working on something similar and noticing the problems that may exist.

 

The bushings deffinately stiffen the steering when you set the caster angle to the maximum. Which is nice since the stock power steering is a little sloppy. Also noticeable is the anti lift that comes from these. I used to have problems putting down power to the ground in third gear but now its not an issue.

As far as through the twisties I have not got a chance to really push the car.

 

How much caster can you add and is there more road noise and road feel back to the steering wheel?

 

I believe the alignment rack was showing 4 degrees of caster. Alta's website says you can adjust from 0 to 1.5 compared to stock. Mine is set with as much caster as possible.

There is deffinately a better road feel. The car doesn't wander but it gives you better feedback.

And as far as road noise goes I have no idea. I have a three inch straight through exhaust combined with solid motor mounts makes for a very loud ride. I have not noticed a difference in the audible department.

 

Greg, I'll be checking my Power flex bushings shortly.

As far as adding lots of caster; A good idea to add a little, 1-2 degrees with neg camber values over 2 degrees. This will help add in a little feel and self centering. This helps offset camber thrust. Lots of caster will make the steering very heavy and slow turn-in, at high values substantially. Lots of caster will also wash out the affects of SAI/King pin; SAI is responsible for raising the body over both front wheels as they are turned. Caster raises the body over the outside wheel and lowers the body over the inside, obviously while turning. so the self centering action you might expect from caster can at some point dilute returnability. Caster has also been used as a camber gain geometry at intial turn-in...but I think getting other things correct is more important. Finally, lots of caster will transfer weight to the inside rear wheel - cross weight - during a turn because it raises the body over the front outside wheel. Some folks like this, but if you get into an opposite lock condition, the weight transfer is to the wrong wheel.

An engineer I spoke with some time ago referred to caster as a "convenient conceit" Basically make-up for bad suspension complexion. Iexperiemnted with less than stock and more than stock caster values on my 99 Si. Stock was best on that car, but it also possed a double wishbone and static camber values were small, 1.5 degrees - camber thrust was not a problem.

In the end, a little more caster - 1-2 degrees over stock - probably isn't a bad thing...in fact desirable. Just doen't go nuts.