Alignment and steering wheel

To align it, you’d need someone to bend it back it seems...

 

Yes absolutely but I doubt your's are bent

 

If you go off-road hard enough, the tabs will get smashed/bent sooner or later anyway. There's a very robust solution but requires a bit of welding: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/marlin-crawlers-upcoming-hd-lca-frame-brace-kit.610921/

 

these are the best thing ever to beef up the LCA mounts unless you wanted to replace the whole front assembly with this: https://jdfabrication.com/collections/05-15-6-lug/products/tacoma-05-18-lower-arm-pivots

the Marlin braces are terrific for these trucks, so good. but still these are not a replacement for cam tabs. they can work together.

 

Just had two alignments today after my tires were changed.

Steering wheel is clocked right, pulls right. Everything is in “the green”.

We swapped front tires and it didn’t make a difference. Still pulls right.

I should have got a print out but I didn’t even think about it when I was there. I did get a credit and they’re nice folks but it’s frustrating.

The pull to the right is most noticeable on any dirt road but with the steering wheel straight on the highway you’re heading left in a big way.

I guess I’ll bring it to the dealer. I don’t know of any really good shops up here in Maine.

It was perfect before the new tires and alignment.

 

i don't know about dealers up there but when it comes to any kind of alignment issue the dealerships are the first places to avoid in my experience. and you need better than "in the green". that means very little and is usually very far from dialed in.

 

I’m searching the web now for any shop that specializes in trucks now. Specifically custom work with a good reputation. Tough to find up here. Limited options.

The new tires are great, road forced no problem. No shakes at all up to 80. The alignment issue has my OCD activated though.

 

I would get under it and see what notches each bolt head is pointing to. That way you could see if the right was pointing at 3 notches to the right and the left is pointing straight up or something like that. If the don’t mirror each other (somewhat) that may be an indicator that they need to straighten it out some more

 

Here is what I was talking about. I did my alignment myself and the bolts mirror themselves. Very straight and tracks like a scud missile. As far as the steering wheel, that’s as easy as using the seat belt to “lock” it straight, but good shops have special tools for that. Sounds like you need to talk with the boss at the shop.

 

Yeah, Ohio man. The rust just grows on everything! I go through WD-40 like crazy cause I spray the UCAs and leaf springs down twice a month. Still...rust SMH

I got 5100/887s and stock UCAs with a single AAL out back. Similar setup. I ended up with roughly 2” all around. I’ll take pictures of the front UCA alignment bolts and you can base yours off of that for comparison.

my alignment got me:
Caster: 2 ish (from my calculations)
Camber: -.5
Toe -.1

Angle finder picture shows the camber, couldn’t find my good digital one.

the other pics are of the front alignment bolts...sorry for the crappy quality. My skid plate is blocking the bolt and I had to shove my phone up under there to get the shot.

You can see what notches they are pointing to. The bolts are almost maxed but definitely resulted in a good alignment. Tire wear on my duratracs are awesome.

I’m curious how far off yours is from mine...

 

I’ll post up some pics once I take her in. Hehe I deleted the post here and just made a thread, figured it would’ve been better.

 

I took pics a bit ago. First is passenger side second is driver side.

Pulls towards passenger side and steering wheel is clocked toward passenger side.

 

I’ll definitely be getting one soon and I’ll be sure to get a printout.

I meant to quote @krootz where he mentioned his settings mirror each other or close to it.

Thank you for the input, I need to do some research on the alignment process and what each adjustment does.

 

The suspension thread has a sticky for DIY alignment. That’s where I learned to get mine done in my garage. So much better than paying some tech to get it “within spec”

Good luck with it, post results

 

Took it back and they fixed the wheel. And by fix I mean now it’s very close to straight but not perfect still. Whatever, I can live with it and next time I’m finding a shop that is good with these kind of alignments.

My final numbers are:
3.9 and 4 caster
0.4 camber
0.06 toe

I did notice after a long trip yesterday that my fronts have more wear on the outer edges than my rears. Brand new tires so I can see where everything wears first. I’m assuming this is normal Since your fronts are turning/moving under force more while the rears stay straight?

 

Your camber (old camber) was pretty positive, my tires wore the outer tread pretty quick on my stock tires because of that. Your toe on the sheet ws pointing left which would explain why your steering wheel would be off center to the right.

on the bright side, your caster angle looks good

 

What did they say about your damaged wheel?

 

They showed me the exact tool they used and it didn't touch the lip where the mark was so basically I had no proof they did it. Technically I don't know if it was them, but assuming.

 

Oh man, that sucks, those were just brand new too. At least they were able to straighten you out on the alignment. Maybe touch up with paint?