jberry's Retarded Desert Penguin

You'll like it man. Did u do the dual compound disc too?

 

Hey J, How do I zero out my toe and ensure that both wherls are dead straight ? I know how to measure for toe but IE: both wheels can be a bit to the left and still have even toe creating a pull correct ? how do I zero toe to 90 degrees so I can then set it correctly ...hope that makes sense ?

I've had 3 alignments since my LT kit install and everytime I get either a crooked wheel or a pull to the left. It is a shop that does it old school so I dont have any PC print outs. One thing I jave noticed is that OE 2nd gens always have 1/4" less tie rod threads showing on the drivers side because the rack is not centered but this guy keeps setting them even...

 

For a quick check you can pull a string from the back of your rear tire to the front of your front tire and see if it gaps at the back of your front tire or has to bend around it which will push it off the front of your rear tire. If that made any sense. That's just a quick check though

 

Yeah...my front track width is wider so that will not work

 

Ahh bummer, and I use the same toe plates Jason linked.

 

Wow, that's much less expensive than the kit that clamps onto your wheels. I'm doing the paint and nail scribe trick still.

My concern with finding a true zero toe point is that for example both tires could be equally pointed left and your front of tire and back of tire measurements could be equal but still both actually pointed left correct ?

Like this \-------\

How do I get one ( drivers ) zeroed to this |-------\

So I can end up like this |--------|

And then set the 1/8" toe to this /------\

Not sure if your remember this story but the day we finished building my links and new Solo kit someone ran a red light and hit me two blocks after the alignment shop ...I was on my way to DSM to get the nitro filled on all 4 corners FML grrrr. Pass side inner TR folded and steering rack blew out, ever since the inner and rack were replaced wheel has been off a bit to the right and truck fades left. Body shop checked frame and suspension and said everything was perfect...but the 3 alignment attempts ( paid for 1 and 2 warranty visits ) have been at this old school alignment shop called Trueline and they keep ignoring me when I tell them OE tacos do not have equal threads showing on the inner. He keeps painting my tires and scribing a line and measuring but leaves it with equal threads showing on both inners. OE there is a 1/4" difference from one side to the other. When I measured the toe when I got home it looks closer to 1/4" ( doing it alone is not super accurate ) of toe, equal threads on inner and wheel is still off to the right and truck fades to the left.

Since these trucks always have less threads showing on the drivers side I am assuming my drivers side needs to be pulled in...but how do I know when I've hit that zero point ? Go measure / count threads on an OE second gen and duplicate it to find that " zero point " then set pass side to zero toe using paint / scribe / measure method and then set the 1/8" toe from there ?

 

Good call on " cycling " the rack. I have removed the steering shaft from that gear a bunch of times and tried shifting a tooth left or right etc. I think I am going to pop it loose, remove both TRE's and check to make sure that the rack is in fact centered and then start the toe over.

...and in today's news I have discovered that my head gasket is toast so the truck is going into The Truck Shop Monday for that $1800 job FML. I had a small coolant overflow problem, no overheating just some pressurized overflow from the coolant resi. I did all the basic trouble shooting and today noticed a lot of air bubbles coming into the coolant resi = blown head gasket

 

Avoid the Truck Shop. They don't have the best history of engine work. Go to Service Pros in San Marcos.

 

I've always had good luck with James...Service Pro's this morning tried to talk me into a $4500 reman full motor replacement. They said the head would be too warped, valve seats toasted, pistons & rings would not hold up when the compression came back, it would eat oil etc etc ...he kept saying all of this even after I told him the truck had never actually overheated, never even run hot.

 

After blowing 3 sets of head gaskets (1 set every 15k miles), I paid Service Pros to motor swap. I trust his opinion.

Best of luck!

 

3 sets? Wtf ?

You should just replace the hg yourself. You could replace the motor for that much lol

 

I was like 13 at the time, wasn't my decision haha

 

Was that on an older 22r ? Did you have the head milled when you replaced the gasket ? If not that is a key part of the process, they need to check the head and level it back out or it will absolutely happen again. If the warp is really bad they actually put the head in a kiln first to get it back in shape " hot " which takes a few days and then they resurface it and do the valve seats too.

From what I understand the newer motors are much tighter and do not have the blow by probs or get ragged out as bad as the older motors. For some reason the 05-07 has this head gasket prob though ? There are a lot of guys that have just replaced the head gasket on the second gen's and had no other probs.

 

5VZFE. Replaced the heads and it still blew. Not saying it was quality work, but I did try many things before throwing the motor away

 

Sounds like the mechanic was putting the left gasket on the right side and the right on the left. Happens a lot sadly.

 

Could be. The day I got the title was the day it stopped going to that mechanic