What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

1/8 inch at the rotor seems like a bit much to me. I used to shoot for that at the tire tread which would be much greater if I'd measured from the rotor.

 

1/16-1/8 is what most alignment shops will do. Or at least every time I’ve had mine done Professionally that’s what the machine set it at

 

I think it is, now that you mention it. When I finished the work and was letting the truck back down I let the driver's side down first then the passengers side. Could this have caused my problem?

 

My wheels looked like that after a suspension swap they went back to normal after driving it but I still needed an alignment.

 

No.
Did you try bouncing the front-end? Or drive over a couple of speed bumps.
This is what I do after I mess around with the front and it looks like yours.
The only other reason that I could think of is, your cam adjusters were loose and when you lifted the truck it allowed the control arms to move.

 

So I pulled the new outer tie rods this AM and this is what I found...


The old passengers side tie rod clearly has more threads than the new passengers side tie rod. I think this explains why there were 6 threads exposed on the driver's side and 13 on the passengers side before I replaced them. If you look at the threads on the new Proforged tie rods they are not perfectly equal either.



The originals are the closest in thread length but still showed different exposed thread which I understand would be normal to achieve correct alignment.



I checked my cam adjuster marks and they have not changed so this has to be the problem. The question is how do I figure out where to set the tie rods to get adequate alignment so I can drive to an alignment shop? I would think still 6 threads exposed on the driver's side since they appear approximately equal in thread length. But do I need more or fewer threads exposed on the passengers side to compensate for the shorter thread length of the new tie rod?

 

I had the same thing when I replaced my inners/outers. The OEM outers I got had less threads on them than the ones I took off. I honestly can't recall if I accounted for that when installing the new ones or not, but I definitely didn't wind up with the positive camber issue you had. But I had the same thing happen with the new tie rods (less threads than the old ones).

I'd just put them back on and get it over to an alignment shop (hopefully not too far away) and let them get it dialed in.

 

And another consideration, the new jam nuts are far wider than the old ones. This would throw my exposed thread count off also, right?

 

yes

 

This is the passengers side with no tie rod attached at all. Still clearly canted out at the top.



Drivers side slightly better with no tie rod.



I lifted it up on the jack and dropped it a couple times to try and get the suspension to settle. And it's raining it's ass off here.

 

Nope not at all. I think it's just that your suspension hasn't settled. You can do a quick toe alignment with a tape measure just measuring the distance between the front of the tires and the rear of the tires. How far is your alignment shop?

 

Probably only 6 miles away. It's definitely better than yesterday after doing what @m3bassman said to do. Still pretty crappy steering though. About to go try and get it aligned. Wish me luck!

 

I replaced my tie rods last year, counted threads and like everyone else. My truck felt like a conestoga wagon driving down to the alignment shop. So glad is wasn't very far. Good luck, I'm sure you'll notice a huge improvement after the alignment is finished.

 

I sure hope so. We leave for New Mexico and Colorado a week from tomorrow!

 

I'm at the alignment shop now. Steering on the way over was pretty iffy, but I made it. I'm going from a 265/70r16 tire to a 255/75r17 tire this weekend. With the change in tire and wheel size, would there be need for another alignment assuming they get it dialed in right today with the current tires?

 

Threw in a dakar AAL courtesy of @austinmtb

Truck sits level again with the camper shell on and rides way better. Stiffing up the rear really helped how the truck handled over bumps and turns. Only concern is under heavy braking it feels like theres no brake pressure going to the rear so I need to adjust my proportioning valve again I think

 

Awesome, I'm glad the AAL was able to find a new home.

 

well I hand washed my 03 DC for the first time in quite some time. I have to say that the Meguiars Gold Class car wash is pretty dam good. Really impressed with how much crud it removed. Now my truck needs a good buffing and waxing. Not too worried about waxing, but the buffing part has me just a bit paranoid. Anyone have a good video to watch on what products to use, and how to buff out old and somewhat faded paint. My only other choice is a professional detailer.

forgot to add, for all you OCD guys, that I removed all the rubber weather stripping on all 4 doors, man was there some crud buildup behind those. I discovered many overlooked places that need cleaning. Will hit those later this week with wash #2.

 

Here's my results.

 

Lithium grease for poly or?

something I can get at autozone or sumthin