Alignment Woes

I installed my lift myself and was very anal about everything so I checked all the ball joints and suspension bushings, etc. I went as far as adjusting the tires to the same psi just before they pulled it up onto the lift. If I had all the right tools, I could do everything myself. And also if they say it's my tires, well fuck, they're the ones who balanced them a few weeks earlier. Lol.

 

Looking at your numbers, I think what you were feeling was more in your head than from actual alignment angles. The first alignment was nothing more than a toe set and would not cause the conditions you experienced.

Alignment 2 has me scratching my head. They lowered caster on one side and left you with a 1 degree difference left to right which would cause a pull to the lower side which in this case is the right. You either pissed them off or whoever did the alignment didn't care.

Alignment 3 looks better. They corrected caster, but one thing that has been bad all along is that you still have negative toe. It should be slightly positive. Not sure why they wouldn't fix that, but your steering wheel being off could indicate that they maxed out an adjuster on one side and it is as close as they can get.

Personally I think you are fine with the 3 degrees of caster from a driving perspective. Higher caster gives you better tracking. The trade off is heavier steering and increased rubbing potential from the extra lean you get during turning. Lower caster cause bump steer and wandering. It does make your steering lighter.

I agree with the bear that it could be the tires. You can easily eliminate that as the cause of your pull by cross rotating the tires. If the pull goes the other way, it is the tires.

 

What kind of tires do you have and are they new since the lift? My coopers pull right no matter what. It’s just what they do. Cross rotation doesn’t change it. Added about 2 degrees of cross caster to help but they still follow road grooves and track right with the smallest amount of crown. If they weren’t so good off road I would be done with them.

 

I swapped to stock both times and put 32" Falken MT01 on a different set of rims shortly after to see the difference. Stocks have 5000 miles and 32s have 300 tops. Each time the steering followed (felt the same) from the different wheel changes. I ain't crazy?

 

I’d try having them give you 1 degree of cross caster with more positive on the passenger side. That’s a pretty common remedy for dealing with road crowns.

 

You are probably not crazy, but you might be hypersensitive to the change. It happens to everyone. A slight right pull is perfectly normal because most roads are crowned to the right. If you get on a 4 lane highway and get in the left lane and still pull right, you undoubtedly have an issue.

 

I'll keep that in mind. Got an appointment tomorrow to try again. Lol .

 

Spent over 12 hours in 3 visits less than a week. Firestone techs are idiots. Smh. They still couldn't get it right. Got a refund.

 

Go to les schwab they do a better job in my opinion

 

I got home and checked their work. Cam bolts were way off on one side and all not torqued. Wtf?!

Anyhoo, the truck still drove like shit steering so I thankfully took pre any alignment pics of cam bolts and tie rod threads. Reset them and torqued them (first sheet specs). Low and behold the steering felt firm again but tracked a less than what they ever set it at. I adjusted tie rods little by little till it tracked straight (steering wheel straight too!). So I'll leave these settings till I can get some free time next week and find a legit alignment shop.

 

4.3 and 1.7 caster, ha! That's amazing, yeah find a new shop

 

They allowed me to watch them this time and I saw how they were adjusting everything. That's when I knew they were guessing. They would loosen the aft cam, adjust, retighten without doing the forward cam bolt too and would chase their tails like this for hours. I suggested from the beginning of this shit show they do the forward bolts as well and start from nuetral/null settings (pretty much near stock) but no one listened. They finally did on the driver side but refused to do it on the passenger side (as seen on last sheet). That's when I called it quits. I just wish I had their alignment tools.

 

And for the record, every print out is a sham. They would pretty much print when "everything is in specs" with vehicle front lifted. Kinda shady cause I saw them do this and they pencil whipped the "free" inspection too. Lol.

 

Wow, I bet you had it cranked to the left to go straight. Amazing that they let you go like that.

 

It's amazing that these idiots were rocking ASE patches too and were confident that they could do it.

 

Ya Toyota jacked up my alignment as well so bad that even though everything was green on paper, one wheel was slightly forward of the other. So dumb.

I finally found a guy who will do it for me.

 

This is what I'm talking about. I went as far as measuring both sides myself and I think it's almost there. The last caster setting when they gave it back to me had a caster difference of 1", I have it within approx 1/8", measured center hub wheelbase front/rear and also cab mount to fwd hub distance. I'm not sure this is how to do this but the cam bolts on both sides are a tad off neutral and it just looks even. Camber looks identical on both sides too. Adjust tie rods a little more too and it's tracking straight, bump steer has drastically been reduced. I think I might buy that portable alignment kit for research purposes soon.

 

A decent set of tools to measure alignment angles will run you $500 and it is a lot of work.

 

You ever get it right?

 

These are my alignment specs on 265/70/17s and my truck pulls right. Haven't had time to take it back to the shop, but I don't have any noticeable bump steer. I'm hoping less caster on the right fixes the pull to the right, but someone also mentioned my rear thrust angle was too off too?