Pulling to Right AFTER alignment?

My truck pulled to the R some. It has 230K and no accidents. I'm the original owner.
I just replaced the steering rack bushings before the alignment. (it pulled R then)
The reputable alignment shop said my truck is at maximum adjustment. (see attached)
However, it still pulls to the right and if I didn't counter-steer in 300yds+/- I'd be off the road!
Is there anything else I may need to replace to correct the alignment? It has OME suspension.
I've never replaced any tie-rods or control arm bushings. LBJ are OEM replaced last summer.
I wheel 1-2x/yr and nothing extreme at that.
Any help is appreciated!

 

this is why I stopped getting alignments, because 9 out of 10 times, no matter who you use, they often create or cause alignment issues after messing with it because they are idiots who don't know what they are doing or how to use the machines.

if I don't have uneven tire wear or if there is no noticeable pull in the steering I don't pay someone to put my truck out of alignment which is what they end up doing to you most of the time.

you have 3 choices here:

1 go back and keep going back until they do it right

2 learn to align the front end yourself (not hard to do but there is lots of math required)

3 just bite the bullet and go to a shop that knows what they are doing and will do the job correctly

 

I'm in a small town without the 'chain' alignment shops. I stay away of those and the apparent flunky mechanics.
This shop was referred to me by a body shop (highly recommended & I know the owner) for the alignment.
Going back is my next plan of action, plan B.
Plan C is that I align it but I am having a hard time finding time!

 

I used to know a guy that did alignments for a living, recanting his story not personal experience. He had 1 customer that came back over and over and over again complaining his car pulled to the right after the alignment even though everything, everytime, was in spec. After a half dozen checks, test drives that went fine, the alignment guy found out the customers wife weighed close to 400 pounds. He changed the alignment to pull left, with the wife in the passenger seat as normal it tracked straight.

 

/\ Funny!
I weigh #150 as the driver w/o any load in truck it pulls - I barely add to the 'Taco' lean when I get in.

 

I currently have the same problem. Every time I take it in they supposedly get it right on. But I leave and she still pulls right. Take it back and explain, adjust it again, and it's pretty much fine the second time. I think what they're doing is adjusting it to pull back a hair so it doesn't pull. I'm wondering if my shocks are causing this. Only thing I can think of because the right rear is completely shot. My fronts aren't the greatest either.

 

Swap the front tires side to side and see if it changes the equation.

 

I've been having alignment problems as well. Apparently my trust angle of 0.3° is making the truck pull to the right, and to drive straight by holding the wheel to the left ever so slightly. Not sure if the shop is just shitty.

 

I think another problem with the chain stores, is they just set it and forget it and send you on your way. And let you figure it out on your own. My assumption, is that if they can't even get my tire pressure right, they aren't doing a good enough job on the alignment either. Sometimes they don't even test drive it. If they do it's in the city and don't reach highway speeds. Which is when my pull occurs. It's fine below ~45. Soon as I pass that it's starts pulling. They don't offer me any tips or ideas they just say that according to the printout it's in spec so there must be some other cause. Or its the tires... Gee thanks guys. Guess I'll be back in a week or two when I can find time again as I already waited freakin 4 hrs just for an alignment, and know it's gonna pull again anyways.. So yeah I'm on the search for a more reputable alignment shop. Even if I have to drive an hour to get there.

 

The best alignment shops are those that do not also sell tires IMHO.

 

hmm. 300 yards? bout 1/8th of a mile? that's not bad. most vehicles are supposed to veer off a little to the right mainly because streets are convexed to allow water to wash from the center to the gutters. that same convex will cause your vehicle to veer ever so slightly. you sure that's not the case?

 

X2. I thought about this afterwards too. Might be in op's case. But in mine it is not. Yeah it's affected even more so with bigger tires like my 33x12.5's. But I've tested it on multiple streets.

Edit: and what about shocks? Like I said my right rear is completely shot. Could this cause it to pull? Or even if the front strut or coil is a little worn/saggy. Could that cause a slight pull too? Even if it's a little bit, I'd assume especially with bigger tires that it'd be more affected as well.. And I'm not sure if my truck even sits level. I'll have to take some measurements. maybe a lean would cause it too. More weight distributed slightly to one side than the other?

 

Look at the alignment report, the idiots at the shop gave him a alignment job. Take it back, tell them to fix the camber so that it is -0.4* on each side, put it back to the original settings, or give you a refund. Also your rear toe is off by a bit, but not that much. Have you done anything with the rear leafs? Loosening the shackles and hammering on the axle to get it to shift on the springs may help it a tad.

 

ultimately by design your shocks are only there to keep your tires in contact with the road. so the only way shocks could affect your steering (aside from struts being longer or shorter since they set ride height) is if you ride very bumpy, not smooth at all roads.

but as far as the printout says, everything is within specs. the tech even has a .14° (1/8th of a degree total ) inward toe to compensate for forward movement drag. everything should be just fine.

only pull that I can think of is either from the convexed road, or the truck needs it's tires rotated.

 

Sorry to thread jack a little but, finally found my printout from last time:

 

So youre saying that one wheel having positive camber and the other having negative camber will have no effect on steering drift?

 

to answer these questions. you cant really tell if coils are "Saggy". mainly because the entire truck is technically imbalanced. fuel tank for instance, on the passenger side. is the fuel tank full or empty? is there a driver countering that weight? is it a 4wd with the weight of the x-fer case on the passenger side? there are several other factors that can cause imbalance to a truck even out of the factory that can almost never be corrected.

but could the factors you mentioned cause a slight pull? yes. absolutely.

back in january (2015) i went off roading and at the end i found that one of my leafs broke off.



after that, my truck was pulling too the right (if i recall correctly), so i took it to my toyota tech buddy and he aligned it. then i replaced it with a dorman leaf couple of months later. haven't aligned it since, but now my truck pulls to the left. so yes, suspension can affect your alignment. even a full to empty tank can cause issues (which is common), which is why you align the truck at half tank.

 

not so long as they're equal. but now that I think about it, if 1 control arm bushing is weaker than the other sides, that forward movement drag will cause 1 side to drag back further than the other side. thanx for bringing that up!!

OP, did the tech inspect your bushings and such? did he mention that any of them needed to be replaced sooner than later? this might be another issue.

 

Hm yeah I figured as much. So basically we may very well be screwed, that is with the chain stores, especially the tire shops that do alignments as well. My original suspicion being that its the shop that needs to specialize in alignments and take proper care to set it as well as TEST it on the road, is pretty much spot on. Otherwise they are just going to set it to factory specs when in fact special care, for aftermarket parts/lifts/other factors, need to be taken into consideration so that a PROPER alignment can be done. Am I on the right mind set here?

 

yeah I shouldn't say this but... lol... I don't trust those chain mechanic shops. midas, firestone, goodyear, etc etc. You should really find an independent shop that does alignments. Thinking about it, in my opinion, find a good body shop with an A.S.E. (or otherwise well experienced) alignment technician. not only do they do regular alignments, but they also have to align vehicles that have been in some serious wrecks! and i mean the kind of wreck where they have to cut out and replace an entire quarter of a vehicle.



this vehicle was in an accident resulting in the entire rear driver side quarter (of the entire vehicle) being totaled. what they do is order literally the rear half of the same vehicle from the junk yard and cut it down so that it will fit the car being repaired. they weld it together, paint it, order and install any necessary parts, align it, put the finishing touches, and it's ready to give back to the customer as a "salvaged" vehicle.

my buddy, who is an alignment tech and this kind of facility, has seen some vehicles like this come through. I've personally seen a challenger with a horrible front end collision and a hyundai genesis needing it's rear passenger side entirely replaced come through his shop. the body tech has to cut out the bad parts of the body, weld on the new parts, and pull the frame back into shape with a fame puller (like the car in the pic). then once it's done, painted and ready to be given to the customer, my buddy does a final alignment and the vehicle is back on the road.

really amazing stuff when you see it.