Bent inner tie rod per alignment shop after 5100 OME 888 lift in front??

So I recently had a 5100 Bilstein OME 888 spring front end and Deaver AAL with 5100 in rear. Took truck to alignment shop and although they say they were able to get it aligned within specs they also reported I had an inner tie rod on drivers side slightly bent. Truck only has 4,500 miles on it. Smdh. Damn

 

These are my specs and report... how bad is it off spec and how common is it for a tie rod to bend on a practically new truck after lifting it 2.5”-2.75”? Thanks for any help or recommendations on what to do about this! I’m too dumb to understand the specs sheet

 

If you beat on the tie rod with a ball peen hammer it’ll bend...probably the lift guys fault seems unlikely it was bent from the factory

 

I actually installed the lift myself and I honestly didn’t use a hammer on anything at all. Just ratchet wrenches jack stands jack c clamps and prying bar I did do the front old school way and used the weight of the truck and a jack to get the shocks inside the spring and boot but had no issues whatsoever and don’t feel like anything I did was overly stressful on the parts to make them bend. Guy that did alignment said I may have drove it too long after lift before getting alignment done. I drove about 3 days and 200 miles. Was fairly simple install for me and I’m not very used to doing mechanical type stuff although I’m fairly mechanically inclined and I can read directions

 

How about a pic of the actual tie rod?

 

I was just taking a guess brother based on the info provided...actually at the shop right now getting an alignment done after I made some changes to my lift they are setting the caster to 2.5 I had a vibration in the front they found one of the TPMS sensors broken off floating around inside the tire...funny the sensor still registered on the dash.

 

That sounds a bit weird.

The good news is he did get the toe back in essentially perfect so your won't have any drivability or tire wear issues. If the tie rod is bent though it should be replaced. Any curbs or potholes in the trucks history?

 

I mean I’ve hit a couple pot holes on the road

 

I can’t see anything bent so it’s gotta be very slight

 

Alignment guy did say that was hard to tell it’s bent unless you turn it

 

A likely contributor to a bent tie-rod end (minus a crash/collision or other obvious mechanical stress) is any suspension hit at full steering lock. Have the wheel cranked full left or right and held tight against the steering limit and hit a pothole or slightly bump a curb or other hard unyielding object and it is incredibly easy to bend a tie rod end.

 

Makes sense

 

Thanks fellas. So is my alignment perfect still? I don’t really know what the specs are or what they should be

 

Easiest way to tell is by looking at the charts. There are three bands the outer band (typically red) is the speed limit. If the black line is in the outer band the alignment is out. The middle band (typically yellow) is half spec, while acceptable it is not ideal and would be best to have an alignment performed. The middle band (typically green) is the sweet spot. You want all the black lines within the middle band.

One other thing to watch is the middle column on the report. This is the cross measurements. These tell you if both sides have the same measurements. If the cross measurements are out they will cause a pull (camber and Caster) or tire wear (toe).

In the case of your alignment the toe and camber are perfect. Caster is at the edge of the green but within spec. All of the cross neasmeasuremts look good so there should be no tire wear or pull.

Overall I think the tech did a very good alignment. Ideally the caster would be on the center line but this could be the best he could get due to the lift. Since it's caster and less than a degree off perfect it will drive indistinguishable from a perfect alignment.

 

Thanks for the info man!

 

Glad to help.