3rd gen tacoma steering wander/ bumpsteer

Whats your toe setting. Also keep in mind some tires have a tendancy to resist alignments. In my experience Cooper stt Maxx i've found will always pull the truck right. As long as you're toe'd in/ positive toe I would try a tire rotation. Again ensure your rack is centred and tie rod lengths similar. I would of set camber closer to 1* but otherwise your alignment looks good. If theres been a side impact to your rack it's possible that the torsion bar in it broke or that it lost it's over centre adjustment

 

The truck has been crashed on the drivers side by the previous owner. When going over washboard roads you can feel and hear the clunk in the steering. The the steering wheel will also jump center. I am fairly certain its the rack. Im having the techs at roko vehicles look at a video I sent them still waiting on a response. Was thinking of posting it on youtube and sharing the link on here.

 

Here is the link if anyone is interested
https://youtu.be/exYG0qhiTcg

 

Little update here on the progress that has been made. The steering rack has been changed which fixed most tracking issues and steering center frequently shifting. However there is still a slight clunk when jerking the steering left/right.I am going to take apart the steering column in the near future and re torque all nuts and bolts. I know some people experienced a loose steering or jerkey steering from a rubber dampening bushing in the steering intermediate shaft breaking down but I think toyota fixed this ok the 3rd gens. I am going to inspect all the steering nuckles once again to insure i havent missed anything. Will update after this is completed.

 

So it was the steering rack causing these issues the whole time essentially?

Might be good to update the first post for future readers

 

sort of. It fixed my issue with the wandering and the steering center shifting around so much. I still have a rattle when going over bumps and also quite a bit of bump steer.

 

Interesting thread, lots of good info in here for me to see that I'm not the only one with the exact same issues. What I see though is that all this is expected from a lifted tacoma, sadly. Within a span of two weeks I had the same thing with my SPC UCA's and got a warranty replacement set and the new version of their sealed ball joints. My old one still did that clunking noise at the "through frame bolt" in the shock tower mount, even when under full weight you could still get it to move and clunk slightly. After installing the new ones they still had the clunk, so with the bolt slightly loose it seemed like the holes for that bolt were just slightly too big or had been worn and bored out. So I found out that that clunking is indeed that through frame bolt and the holes it goes through when the UCA isn't torqued down enough (obviously you can't tighten it too much). But that clunking did go away after I torqued it to spec while under full load. Fast forward a week, had a shop install the KP offroad cam alignment tab kit, then got an alignment day after (attached pics are the before and after). I can tell ya though that even after all this my truck still has decently harsh bump steer (all this work did help that a little) and wandering. Side note, I'm still running oem shocks with my crappy 3" spacer/lift kit the dealer installed when I bought it, so I know that geometry mess is causing alot there. The wandering itself is not so bad anymore, but I just ordered the JD fab Howe steering pump kit and can update after that's installed.

 

Please do keep me updated. The problem has come back but i am not just living with it. Realized it I just stop caring it doesn’t bother me too much hahaha.

 

This video is painful to watch!

@Bertw192 Do you have any idea what might be causing this???

 

what did u used to record it?

 

In my 2021 I got my tramlining and bumpsteer fixed by taking it to off-road warehouse and having them do the alignment and check all bushings, rack, tie-rods, etc. turns out my toe was bad, like 1.5 degrees driver, 2.0 degrees passenger bad. They fixed it and I’m good to go. I feel bad for the guy who has spent all of this time and money to find out why. Hope he got his answer.

 

It'd be curious to know what, if any at all, modifications this guy has done to his rig. But from all the things I've seen so far, the most common issues usually start off as a bad alignment. Whether it's from a dealer who did it to oem specs on a lifted truck, or it was just a terrible tech who didn't do it right. If that's not it, then there could be some bushings or a tie rod that needs replaced, or something like that (or a bent spindle). And if all that is fixed (or like in my case, I've always had terrible bumpsteer from the day it got lifted and aligned at my local dealership) then it falls back to the tacom's undersized power steering pump. But that only applies if someone is running tires around 33" or bigger. I can tell ya from what I have done so far is that my main issue was a bad alignment and now the steering pump. If you've got a 3" lift with tires near 33" or bigger, then you don't want oem alignment specs. Plus, I have found that a ton of my bumpsteer, like in that video, has gone away since I adjusted my spc UCA's to give me at least +3° of caster. All I really need now is to spend time with a tech and explain how my cam tab kits work, and that I don't want oem spec alignment numbers. Once that's done, and I install the bigger steering pump, I'm assuming I will have very little to no bumpsteer. This all has just taken tons of reading, questions, and trial and error on my own rig for my situation. I just spent around 6 hours the other day painstakingly adjusting my new kpoffroad cam tabs to give me as best clearance within the wheel well, while allowing me to get as close to neutral camber as I could, while still making sure I got at least 3° of positive caster and that the upper ball joint didn't hit the shock spring at full droop. The picture below is what I used for my plates for now, and that may change. Each plate I put the respective hole facing away from the engine, or to the outside. This has consequently reduced my wheel well clearance at the cab mount about an inch or less, but so far I have yet to try and see if it'll rub (I've done a cab mount chop too, not a full relocate).

 

@Bishop84 can you take a guess as to what is causing the horrific rattle? It sounds like a shot ball joint or a loose coilover

 

The video has me thinking rack and pinion is completely shot. Need to watch it on the ground while someone rocks the steering back and forth.

Ball joint is another possibility. Both should be easy to catch honestly. Its so bad it should be obvious.

 

I took mine to a shop that specializes in lifts and off-road setups and discussed my needs with them and what I got back was perfec alignment with zero issues. Worth the money because it saved me time and money overall trying to hunt down the problem so I started with the first obvious issue whenever a lift is done, which is alignment/suspension geometries and take it from there because they’ll see things I don’t/cant’t.

 

So just seeing these comments now. I still have this issue but have kind of learnt to just deal with it. I have 3 inch lift,33inch tires, sliders, skids, bumpers, bed cap, roof rack. I have kept my rig as light as possible while also having sufficient armor. I only have bumpers because I got one used and won front in a giveaway. Anyway I have 3 degrees and castor 0 camber and factory toe. All done at a local offroad shop that specializes in spc alignments. Ive never thought about a bent spindle and I will take a look at it. I think Part of my issue might be that I have factory weight springs in the front still. Not really sure to be honest. Still absolutely love this truck, just wish it didn’t have steering issues lol.

 

From the research ive done, it really seems like the PSP is too weak for anything much bigger than stock. There just isn't enough pressure the counteract the leverage of larger tires at a wider offset than stock.

Apparently you can fix this by replacing the pump with a different one, or even potentially "drilling" out an orfice in the stock psp in order to boost pressure.

No clue how the rack would like that tho.


Just goes to show how much a PITA it is to go beyond stock sometimes.