NEW UPDATE!!! Steering and Alignment Woes. I'm at my wits end.

EDIT: Jump to post #39 for the current fix of steering column play.


I don't want to give up, but sheesh. I cannot figure out why my truck keeps pulling to the right.

So here's what I've done so far listed in order of install. ALL of this has been done since last October, and I've only driven it about 1000 miles since then because it's been at the mechanic or in my garage being repaired most of that time.

• Removed front sway bar and links
• New Whiteline lower control arm bushings
• New wheel bearings
• New OEM outer tie rods
• New Old Man Emu 2883 springs and Nitrocharger shocks
• New SPC upper control arms and upper ball joints
• New Alignment CAM bolt eliminator plates and bolts
• Remanufactured steering rack (I paid a shop to do this since I've done it 3 times in the past and I wanted a warranty on parts and labor this time)
• New Energy Suspension steering rack bushings
• New OEM lower ball joints
• Adjust rear brakes to ensure they are not dragging

At this time, we went on a road trip over new years. Mostly highway driving, with a little easy off road on the beach. On the way home, I was fighting for 400 miles tugging the wheel the entire time to keep it straight. Put some serious wear on the front passenger tire that previously only had about 2000 miles on it. (see picture below)

• New JBA upper control arms and upper ball joints to replace the SPC bushings and ball joint that failed and was refunded under warranty.
• New OEM alignment CAM bolts to replace the CAM eliminator plates because the JBA upper control arms are not adjustable.
  
• Another remanufactured steering rack with more Energy Suspension bushings replaced under warranty because the first rack had play in the worm gear and drivers side inner tie rod.

So I just picked it up from the shop yesterday. The steering feels nice and tight. It does not wander on the road. However, it still pulls to the right pretty bad and it feels kinda twitchy. I've checked tire air pressure and it's right on at 29 psi. I realize the worn front tire may be causing the truck to pull slightly, but I can't imagine it would affect it that much. Maybe not having the front sway bar has something to do with it?

I'm ready to give up. There isn't anything else I can replace at this point and it's really not that fun to drive like this.

I'm willing to do pretty much anything at this point. Sacrificing my first born and/or meeting the devil at the crossroads might be acceptable solutions.





Also, if anyone can recommend a good alignment shop in the Salt Lake City area, I'd love to get a second opinion.

 

I'd rotate the tires to cross the unevenly worn tires off as a suspect.

Have you inspected or replaced the calipers and pads?

What's the background on the truck? Any previous accidents that might have put the frame outta square?

 

You're running 29 psi with those BFG KO2s? Little low IMO. Might be another reason for the shoulder tire wear. Are all 4 like that (outer shoulder wear)? If not, swap the 2 in the rear and put them up front. Maybe adjust pressure to 32-35 psi.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot. Brand new Powerstop Tundra calipers, Bosch rotors, and OEM pads installed last August.
No previous accidents. I am the third owner.

I've run approximately 30 psi on multiple sets of these tires for years with no issues. The rear tires look as good as you'd expect for approximately 4000 miles. The front passenger is very worn on the outside edge, front driver is slightly worn on outside edge, both obviously from fighting this alignment for months.


I am planning on rotating the tires tonight. I'll see what that does.

 

I’ve got the same brake setup

 

So you stated you did the front brakes last August and started having alignment problems in October. Have you inspected the front brakes since October, amidst all this? Perhaps you got a defective part (slightly sticking caliper or something to that effect). Seems like a lot of people on here have bought parts from very reputable sources (OEM or high-end aftermarket stuff) and still reported quality issues with them, so you never know without inspecting thoroughly. Sorry you've had to deal with all this frustration and hope you find a solution soon. Best of luck.

 

I've checked the brakes. They are working well.

The alignment problem started after the shop put the rack in the first time in November. My mechanic and I have been chasing solutions since then.

 

I did the chalk test with my 265/75r16 KO2s on my '03, and found 29 & 27 PSI, for the front and rear tires respectively, to be the best level for ideal wear [based upon the chalk wearing off of my tires most evenly compared with higher or lower PSI]. So OP running his at 30 PSI checks out from my perspective. Did notice fuel mileage suffered a bit, but hey my previous 15 MPG wasn't stellar to begin with lol.

Disclaimer: I'm not recommending specific tire pressure levels for anyone else's truck. Doing the chalk test for one's own truck would be necessary to see what PSI is most appropriate, as the weight of everyone's truck will vary with differing modifications and your results will likely differ at least slightly from mine.

 

In that case, I'd suspect that remanned rack. You've already dumped thousands chasing this, may as well spring for a new OEM rack from McGeorge Toyota for $500 and see if that fixes it. Seems like it can't be anything but that given all the other components you've ruled out.

 

Could it by any chance be something to do with the steering column?

 

Have you put the front wheels in the air and inspected wheel bearings? Kind of a long shot, but I think it could perhaps cause a pull

 

That's what I suspected as well. But, that's what the shop replaced this time. This is the second rack since November.

Possible, but I doubt it. A couple years ago I did the tack weld/roll pin mod to the column and it's been super tight since then.

 

The 1 degree of cross castor is the likely culprit. Typically slightly more is added to the passenger side to help offset road crown. An easy way to visualize this is to imagine the castor angle increasing toward 90*. The weight of the truck now wants to rotate the wheel about this from its own weight.

Where are your cam tabs? perhaps the alignment shop prioritized one adjustment over the others.

Castor being slightly out normally wont cause tire wear. In your case (and a previous bad alignment of mine with too much castor on one side) it may be enough that your corrective inputs and the steering components getting pushed around in their bushings is enough to start shoulder wear.

 

Unevenly worn tires on the front can still cause some effect.

 

Yep. Tested pushing/pulling the wheels at 9 and 3, and also at 12 and 6. Got the big pry bar out and inspected upper and lower ball bjoints with weight on and off the wheels. Zero play.

I wonder if their alignment machine isn't calibrated correctly? Seems highly unlikely though.

 

Totally understandable that you're at your wits end after all this.

There's no chance you just happened to be driving on slanted roads, or with hellacious crosswinds in the limited driving you've done right? I know there's several stretches of highway near me like that that sometimes get me thinking my truck is out of allignment for a few minutes.

 

Just your caster alone is going to cause a pull to the right on a level, non crowned road which will be worse on a crowned road. Probably won't matter too much but it'd be nice to have the camber settings equal right and left and either neutral or very slightly negative. You kinda need to coach the alignment tech into doing it right - y'know - with things like "is there any way you could get the caster to be a little less on the left than the right" or " is there any way for you to get the camber settings the same on both sides?" You need to be an active participant or you're just going to get one of those "get it in the green and go" crappy alignments, which is what you got.

 

You know, I just went out to the snowy parking lot to check, and 2 of the cams are upside down. I just don't want to lay down in the slush to look closer right now. I've heard that technically it will work but they should be oriented with the cam on the top. See below pictures.

Not really any slanted roads or cross winds lately. There is a slight crown to the roads here, but nothing abnormal.

This shop specializes in older Toyotas and suspension work. I would expect them to know this already, but maybe I do need to babysit/coach them through it. They have told me over and over that they work with aftermarket parts like control arms from JBA and SPC all the time and get alignments working fine.

 

The upside down cams is not ideal as there is not good support by the tabs but the castor imbalance is likely still the culprit. The two bolts you show in the pics are not at the limits of their adjustment (full in or full out). If the rest are the same, your numbers are not wacky, a good alignment should be possible.

 

Well, I took my truck to a different shop. They looked at the printout of the previous alignment and immediately noticed that the caster settings were bad (but still within spec) like was mentioned above. They had it all wrapped up in just a few hours. Picked it up and wow! It drives perfect again!

Needless to say, I'm pretty pissed at the other toyota "specialist" who've been working for 4 months without figuring it out.