Decent Alignment?

Looking for opinions on these specs before and after. Was originally pulling to the right, especially at high speeds. In order for the truck to drive straight, had to have the steering wheel at nearly an 11 o’clock position.

Completely stock suspension, but running 275/70/17 Cooper St Maxx’s. Now after alignment, steering wheel is still not centered when driving straight and it still wanders to the right ever so slightly if I let the wheel go on the road. However, now the wheel is at maybe a “12:30” position when driving straight, which bugs me.

Is it unreasonable for me to expect the wheel to be at a perfect 12 o’clock position when the truck drives straight? Is there some sort of steering wheel adjustment that I can make?

Pic below shows how the wheel sits when driving perfectly straight forward.

 

This shop did a terrible job. Take it back and make them fix it. Or better yet, kiss your $70 good bye and take it to a reputable shop that knows what they’re doing.

 

So all they did was set your toe?

 

What would you like to see improved? Keep in mind the before is the top half of the first pic and the finished product is the bottom half of the “after” sheet.

They adjusted toe, caster, and camber changed a bit too.

 

Your final camber is out of spec. 0.5 degree cross camber will cause a noticable pull . You are at 0.7 degrees. The final is out of spec and they should fix.

I agree with the previous poster that said take to a different shop. There are things with this alignment that don't seem right to me.

 

If your suspension is 100% stock, there is no reason that every angle should not be perfectly in the green. And also, i’d trust a single printout with the correct before/after readings more than 2 separate ones. Just seems fishy... and to answer your question about the steering wheel, there is no adjustment that you can make, it has to be done while setting the toe. Ultimately the alignment needs to be re-done.

 

Are you talking about camber? Front caster is at 2.2 and 2.3...

Now there IS a 0.7 degree difference in CAMBER. To my knowledge that should not affect pull, is that right?

I should also mention they cross-rotated my front tires for some reason. Which pissed me off because I have been rotating these new tires religiously and now they threw my rotation out of whack.

 

Also, I did a ton of asking around for a “reputable shop”. Finally was led by these guys that do custom fabrication and lifted trucks and they recommended this Ford fleet service center in the industrial park that they said is “hands down the best alignment shop in town” and that’s where I took it. I spent $107 out the door. I’m not about to give that up and go somewhere else just to have the same experience. I will go back and have them fix it but I need to know what I’m asking them to fix before I make a fool of myself.

 

Aside from front camber, they look fine in the after picture

 

Simply inform them that your steering wheel is still misaligned while driving on the highway. And if you wanna be nit-picky, tell them you want everything to be in the green, including camber. That’s not unreasonable...

 

Yes I typoed. Camber is what I meant and camber will definitely cause a pull. you need one degree of castor the cause a pull or a half a degree of camber to cause a pull.

 

You took your factory suspension to so called experts. You shouldn’t have to tell them how to do their job with such a basic setup. This place couldn’t even get your steering wheel straight. Write them a bad review on yelp and take it someplace else.

 

When I worked under an old suspension tech, he'd purposefully set them up with half a degree more caster on (I want to say the left) side, specifically to counteract Alaska's crowned roads
In fact, my 19 has had a pull since day one, I took it in at 200 miles for it - they aligned it, everythings "in the green" and yet the damn thing still pulls to the right

They probably rotated your tires to see if they were causing the pull - it /does/ happen

 

Did they lock your steering wheel in place prior to adjusting your settings? That's why mine was pulling after two firestone alignments, took it to an amaaco and he locked the wheel in place and adjusted the toe to 0.05 on both sides and now it drives perfectly straight.

 

Alright guys just picked it back up from the corrections. The guys were very professional and cooperative. Manager told me that the final results they printed the other day was before they did a “cross caster sweep” or something like that and that it was definitely their mistake. Therefore the specs above were not the real final results. He did take it for a long test drive and definitely noticed the wheel was off center ever so slightly.

He also mentioned just about every adjustment is maxed out at this point and everything looks great except for the “SII angle” which usually indicates to a lifted truck or being in an accident, both of which not the case, but my front driver’s side wheel bearing is starting to give out so that may be connected?

What do you folks think of these new numbers?

 

How does it drive now? And did they lock the wheel in place while adjusting your toe? If the wheel isn't straightened properly it won't matter what their numbers are. I just went through this with a Firestone shop (twice) before getting pissed and taking it elsewhere, and now it drives great.

 

I didn’t ask them if they locked the wheel in place. The steering wheel is perfectly centered now when driving in a straight line at high speed which was killing my OCD. I’m satisfied with it now.

 

Sounds like they got it right, I was confused with caster numbers because I've heard conflicting stories about setting a cross caster to accommodate for road crown, but I was in a similar situation and just wanted my truck to drive in a straight line when the steering wheel is dead center.

 

Wheel bearings matter. The top of the strut supports matter and can be adjusted somewhat for caster. Camber is adjust at the two bolts at the top steering knuckle spindle, Toe IN is adjusted at the relay rod, tie rods and Pittman arm if they have adjusters and or bushings. The lower ball joints must be dead nuts right. The steering box should be locked with the steering wheel straight. (a little difficult to get trust straight on the alignment rack) All bushings need to be right and sound anywhere they are found in the ft suspension. The frame needs to be straight and sound.

If any of these are not straight or in good shape it will cause the ft end to be impossible to align . Tire psi matters a lot. A low tire psi will cause a pull to which ever side is low. If one tire is correct and the other too high that creates a hi low. and the low will pull . Rear tires matter here. With a straight frame and a perfect ft end alignment on a vehicle, if a rear tire is low the vehicle will pull from the rear, and you will have to counter steer for it.

the 2 different printouts are confusing to me

 

It looks like a Hunter (alignment machine brand) printout. Hunter machines have an adjustment method called WinToe that does not require the steering wheel to be locked while adjusting toe. I’ve been doing alignments for years on Hunter machines and never lock the steering wheel.
Edit: and that new alignment looks good. If it’s driving straight i’d say it’s just about perfect