Alignment - Caster adjustment

Alright final numbers, guy said my camber and caster were actually good once he corrected the terrible job the first tech did on the toe.

Caster: 3.3 left, 3.2 right
Camber: -0.5 left, -0.3 right
Toe: 0.05 both sides

 

Have you taken it for a drive? I bet it runs nice

 

Yep! Drove it home after and no more float and the steering wheel is dead straight. Also no issues with rubbing, glad to be past that hurdle.

 

If you crank your front cams to bring the bushing in towards the center of the truck and the one on the back side of the lca the opposite way . That will max out your caster. After doing that get your wheel standing up plump that will be 0 camber, then do the toe. This way when you get an alignment they don't need to monkey with the uppers and they can align it using just the lowers. Thats all done after you set the Uppers to " D". Caster should be slightly higher on the passenger side not drivers side all said and done

The other fellow who mentioned his cams were stuck , well if you know it fix it. I know its a pain but its the only way to have it aligned correctly .

 

FWIW, mine were stuck too when I went to pull my LCAs, had to cut them out but a press or bottle jack might work as well. Replaced with SPC cam bolts, so far so good.

 

I'm not worried about the lca's at this point, the truck drives pretty good but I have to do the ECGS bushing and replace that axle first. Nobody will guarantee an alignment on a lifted vehicle so I'll keep an eye on the tire wear to see how my alignment is.

 

Wont guarantee it ? Hell I do mine in my garage myself . I may never take it in for an alignment and I can guarantee mine is fine and if it wasn't I'd know it like anyone else somewhat mechanically inclined would.. I guess they have a rack but no self confidence.

 

My lca cam bolts are frozen too and a shop estimates 3 hours to replace them and the bushes. My LCA’s are completely pushed to the rear but I don’t know if a little more tire clearance is worth $400.

 

You can achieve those exact measurements with SPC UCAs. You shouldn’t have to get new lowers. I had that same caster reading with Stock UCAs a 3” spacer lift with a 2” AAL. I’m trying to achieve those exact measurements again I think position b will do it. Or setting it to A and dial in the camber then have the alignment shop fine tune with the lowers after that

 

In my case, 3 of the 4 lower cams were seized so I definitely needed to replace the cams at minimum. I didn’t want to deal with burning and pressing them out so I found factory LCA replacements.

I’ve had SPC UCA’s for a while. If you increase caster on the UCA, you move the tire toward the cab, which in turn means less tire clearance on the firewall and cab mount. I wanted to fit 315/75R16 tires so that was not an option.

 

O gotcha I thought I was replying to a different thread. So I’m reading 2.1 right now at position D. So wouldn’t adding caster be moving the tire forward?

 

Only if you increase caster at the LCA will the tire move forward. In simplest terms caster is the angle of the Spindle/Knuckle (the piece that connects the upper and lower control arms with ball joints).

If you increase the caster at the UCA you are essentially moving the top of the tire towards the firewall since you are trying to gain a positive increase in caster. The SPC UCA sheet depicts this well.

The change in distance is very minimal and is not much concern when running stock size tires but becomes very apparent when running oversized tires. A higher caster number also drives better, specifically with Tacoma’s that have larger tires (probably applies to many other vehicles but I only know Tacoma alignments).

 

So I basically wanted to know which way to adjust the ball joint to achieve getting the tire away from the firewall. As well as what caster reading I want the alignment chart to say. If I’m getting a 2.0-2.1 reading, what do I need to be reading with the tire moved forward? Should I leave it in setting D and deal with rubbing until I get a CM relocation or should I adjust it? What do I want the caster to be reading?

 

What size tires are you going with?
If bigger than stock my recommendation would be 3° caster or higher.

Looks like you have a 3rd gen, I’ve heard rumor that there is a tiny bit more clearance than 2nd gens.

I personally just left the SPC UCA at D, only change I made was setting the camber roughly in the middle. To answer the question, “which way to adjust the ball joint to achieve getting the tire away from the firewall,” setting G would do the most but would also set you back -2° caster. Since SPC’s come with default setting D at +2°, you would be at the same settings as the stock UCA.

I have a pretty heavy CMC (Cab Mount Chop), flattened pinch weld, and instead of trimmed fenders went with fiberglass. With the alignment you have seen I am on 315/76R16 with -11 backspaced wheels as well as 1.25” spacers and I have minimal rubbing.

If you are wanting 35’s you could probably get away without the relocation and just a chop. Once you go 37’s and beyond you end up needing to tub so the cab mount is the least of your worries.

 

Yea I currently have 285/70/17s with 17x8.5 -6mm offset. I spoke to the SPC tech and he told me settings A,B and C will bring my tire more forward giving me a 3-4* caster. I’m trying to achieve around a 3.5 since that’s what I had with the stock UCAs and lift. All I changed was the UCAs I will change to coil overs later down the road. Also I’m gonna have my mechanic do the CMC/pinch weld etc for me

 

Yeah you will have no problems with clearance going that route.

As for the SPC tech telling you A, B, and C will move the tire forward, it sounds like he needs to look it over again because that’s not how SPC designed it. Those settings will increase your caster but will also rotate the top of the tire back towards the firewall.



Here’s a rough show and tell. Red indicates where the ball joint is, which also tells you which direction the top of tire is moving. Blue is simply the center of the bolt.

 

I see what you saying but the closer to 4* caster you are the further forward you are. That’s why guys try to achieve this because it moves them away from the rear

 

You have to remember that caster is also affected by the lower. In the stock configuration you cannot change the upper.

Alignments are a balance between camber and caster by adjusting 2 separate cams. If you move the caster, you affect the camber. Then you finish with toe.

If you increase caster at the LCA, you move the tire forward.

If you increase caster at the UCA, you move the tire backward.

The caster degree you see is only the angle of the spindle and does not care where it is in the wheel well.

 

Then setting to AB or C must allow for further adjustment on the lower cams. Cuz at setting D the cams are maxed an i can only get a little above a 2* caster

 

Who did your alignment?