Alignment Woes

So I installed Baja Kits chase kit which yielded a little over 2" lift after driving around over a week. So before I got it aligned, the steering was good, tight,tracked straight, no noises on OEM setting before lift and after. Everything was good until I got the "recommended" post lift alignment.

Alignment 1Numbers looked good but steering felt really light and would track on little bumps in road and give intermittent feedback to steering wheel. Not satisfied.

Alignment 2

Different shop. Tried to pass me this bullshit. I told them no even though they tried to pass it to me as "good". Look at the fucken caster!

Alignment 3

Same shop as second. Numbers look good again so I accept. Steering feels tighter but my steering wheel is canted a few degrees to the right. It tracks straight but eventually moves to the right after a few hundred feet. It also gives a lot of feedback to the steering wheel when I hit little bumps. Bump steer? At this point I give up and will just take it till I can get some free time to fix it or find someone who can.

I'm located in Fairfield, CA and these jobs were done at 2 Firestones (lifetime alignment). I've already wasted 8 hours in the span of 2 days dealing with this. Anyone have a recommendation for knowledgeable alignment shops near me or what to do next other than part out? Lol. Everything is torqued to specs by yours truly and nothing is bent, worn out bushings etc. New rims and tires too all with the same psi and been a mall crawler up to this point.

 

Do you have after market UCAs, what size tires?

 

Yes Baja Kits, 265 75 16 tires. Truck is pretty much new with new shit installed, nothing really extreme.

 

That seems like a really high caster for that size tire. I only run 3.0 for 285/75/16. Maybe that is causing some bump steer. I think before my bigger tires, but while I had about a 2 inch lift, my caster was under 2.

 

If it helps any, it had 3.0+ degrees before any alignment as seen on first sheet and everything felt stock, no issues even after lift. Just got the alignment cause it is "recommended" and that's where all this steering stuff started happening. Tires are balanced too. All I could think of is uncalibrated alignment machine or techs?

 

I think I went through 8 alignments from firestone, and had to replace my cam tabs in the end because of them. Definitely find a real alignment shop, it's night and day difference. I have 3.7/3.7 caster and no real bump steer with 285/70/17s. You should be able to be in the 2's for caster with that size tire and still have clearance.

 

In that case the only other thing that changed much was the camber, but it wasn't much. Did they forget to tighten something? I don't know, maybe find a true alignment shop or mechanic that specializes in them.

 

No I checked. Im still kinda new to the area and everyone (including lifted truck owners) pretty much directed me to Firestone. Lol. Either they settled on half assed work or are clueless on how their truck feels (they run spacer lifts btw).

 

Maybe that's just how that suspension feels, a bit floaty? I'm not familiar with Baja kits

 

Sounds like you already did this but also double check your lower arm torque. Firestone left mine at like 50-70 ftlb and it would click when turning and made things feel off.

 

Triple checked my work and double checked theirs. My truck is definitely pulling to the right now with last above settings. One of my cam tabs is also flared (out of square now). Wtf?!

Highly doubt it. So sure it's alignment related.

 

One of the best peace of mind investments I made was the total chaos cam tab kit. Solid steel replacement gussets, you just need someone to chisel the old ones off and weld the new ones on. The ones from factory are like tinfoil, it's really very poor design if you plan on getting more than like one alignment in a lifetime...

 

I can drill and chisel those off myself but I don't trust my welding. Lol.

 

That's because you have more caster on the left than the right. Vehicle pulls toward the lower number. That's why you always have .3-.5 less on the left - to counteract road crown. I think every one of your printouts was the same. Find an alignment shop that knows what they're doing.

 

From the very first sheet before any alignment, it never pulled, accurate response, felt correct. I only got an alignment cause people said it was needed. I might just have them put it back to those specs till I can find a reputable shop.

 

Just a food for thought. Had a problem with wheel alignment after new tires installed. Pullsto the right. After several attempts by Goodyear servitek ( they even insinuated that my ballpoints are toast lol)steering wheel was off centered. I went to Toyota. There they made it right. They found out one of my tires has has conicity issues. When they placed it in the rear, drives straight. Now I just rotate my tires side to side ( non directional tires btw) until it wears off and supposedly corrects itself.

 

Good luck, if they are hitting the numbers you posted in your sheets, they are not the type of people who will be able to hit exact specs. And since it's Firestone, who knows how their machine is calibrated so the "same" numbers probably aren't the same.

Might be close though.

 

Could also be radial pull, if the radials in the tire are misaligned. That would require a new tire.

 

Yeah that’s the term Toyota told me. ( I forgot what it was lol ) . Was told defective tire. I just don’t want to deal with Goodyear servitek anymore for warranty so I just left it at the back.

 

Yeah tire companies really don't want to give out new tires...one of the reasons I buy mostly from discount tire and get the insurance.