Wyoming B.S. Thread

Once you have the new axle housing in you'll have a good tool to do rear wheel bearings with if you don't have one already.

 

He bought the factory tool haha

 

I mean, if other people were on the trip as well, I'd agree - could be fun to have a little drama. But noooooo, they have all year to fix one of their trucks, and three days before the trip, they "discover" an motor mount sheared off the frame.

As a single truck, and with a requirement to get back to pick a kiddo up from school... I need to stack the cards in my favor for those trips.

Edit: I must say, I have really enjoyed the various "broken truck" incidents we've had. Our ability to overcome obstacles, and then be able to relive the stories into the future is super fun. So I agree with you there.

It's aftermarket as opposed to the factory tool, but it's freaking great. Dude who made it was awesome, and was so happy with my write-up (he can apparently track sales from it) that he refunded the tool price for me. Even at $100, would have been worth every penny to not have to wrestle with all those retainers in the press.

 

@m3bassman

 

And the 5vz is only 3.378 close enuff

 

I thought Germans were supposed to anal about the maths..lol

 

Snowing hard here now too. Need to get my heated wipers ordered and installed.

 

I had to change my depends after the ride tho.

 

Not really in Wyoming but close for some.

 

Question for you guys who have done a wheel alignment at home in your garage. What is the correct way to set the steering wheel orientation so the wheel is centered when you are going straight on the highway?

 

Guess and check. That's honestly the hardest part of the at home alignments to do. You basically have to get your toe right, drive it, see how far off the wheel is, and then adjust both tie rods equally. Keep checking until you're satisfied.

Or just put up with an off centered wheel knowing your toe is still right, which is what I do most of the time.

 

So the next question then would be, how is the toe set? I was under the impression that was done by adjusting one or both outer tie rod end nuts. But it doesn't sound like it.

 

no that's it. Just the tie rods. Camber and caster can affect it a bit, which is why shops do it last generally. But you just use the tie rods to set Toe.

 

After wheeling this past weekend, when I got back on the highway to head home, my steering wheel was cocked slight left. No pull. It seems to drive straight and true like before.

Today I pulled the skids to do an inspection. I can see that the LCA cam tabs (which I had marked previously) are unchanged from before. Thanks again Zane @Speedytech7 , the TC tab gussets are great. I did not have the nuts on the OTREs marked so I can't be certain if they have moved, but it seems unlikely and the lock nuts are tight.

So that's where I started with this. What else can change to change the steering wheel alignment?

 

I'm happy they're still working out for you!

 

Brett and I have talked about this and all we can think is the rack has moved a bit. Wouldn't take much to make the wheel not straight. I've had that happen before. So has he. Can't really think of another reason why it would happen.

 

I've had this happen before (happened on my last trip actually when I swerved to avoid an oncoming car that turned left in front of me on a 2 lane highway). I don't know that all of these could be an issue for you, but they are the things I considered as "possible" for me:

• something could have gotten bent (tie rods, rack, control arms, etc)
• UCA could have changed slightly (mine are adjustable)
• bushings on LCA could have gotten tweaked
• rack could have shifted a bit
• the joints on the OTREs and ITREs could be tweaked

But, I agree with you that the number of threads showing on each OTRE is probably the least likely thing to change. Those can't rotate if the nuts are locked and they are connected to the LBJ .

 

You don't have to rotate the otre to change the toe you know. It just needs to be ever so lightly loose at the nut and the itre can rotate to change toe at any time. That's unlikely to happen while driving, but I thought you ought to know that in case you do your own alignment so you're not taking the whole thing apart to do it

 

Yeah, that's why I mentioned the nuts being tight. I was focusing on the OTREs b/c that's what Mike mentioned originally:

 

Honestly the lca mounts could have bent. They are like metal paper especially the rear ones.