Pulling to Right AFTER alignment?

I actually had a bad tire from the factory that caused this very problem on my car. It was almost invisible, but I caught it when the wheels were in the air on the rack. I told the guy to have a look at the slope of the tread. He swapped sides, and sure enough it started pulling left. I took it back to the tire shop and made them replace the tire after they inspected it, and sure enough no pull.

 

Looking at the readings it look like your alignment is a little off for a pull. On a RWD chassis (4wd trucks included) a vehicle will pull to the side with the most positive camber and most negative caster. If you look at you readings you have the most positive camber on the left, for a left pull. The most negative caster is is to the right, causing a right pull. Also, the negative caster is over the specified cross caster of .5°.

I like to set camber about .2°, equal side to side. Camber is a wearing angle so I do not like to use it for pull correction. I like to set my caster around -2°. Now, in order for a vehicle to not pull due to road crown forces I like to give a caster lead of about .2°to.3°. Measurements actually around 1.8° left and 2.0° right. I like around 2mm of total toe.

 

I have worked in street design and understand crown in the road and its effect on the vehicle pulling 'slightly' to the R. My situation is MUCH greater than the crown will produce.

I spoke with the alignment shop and they recommended swapping tires too. So, I swapped the front tires last night. Drove it to work and it still pulls a lot to the right.

I will be revisiting them to have it re-aligned with a test drive.

thefatkid - do you work at alignment? can I take this in to them?

thanks for all the suggestions!

 

I'm a Toyota MDT out in Denver, if you want to bring it out here, sure! As with every place you go, YMMV. You need to find someone who understands what the numbers mean, not just a "green and go" monkey.

 

thefatkid-
Thanks for the offer but 12hrs each way doesn't fit my schedule.
In case no one noticed, my truck has the OME lift of 2.5" in front and 3" in back.
I'll also check the rear leaf spring packs & make sure something isn't going on back there.

 

I run about the same lift, so you should be able to get those numbers. If not, you might need upper control arms. What tires do you run? I really like 255s for driveability reasons

 

I havent read the whole thread, but looking at those alignment numbers, it looks like your rear toe could be causing a slight right pull. If you notice, your left rear is negative (toed out) and your right rear is positive (toed in) causing a negative thrust angle, which could push your rear end left causing the truck to go right. As we all know the rear end is not adjustable so it may just be something you have to live with.

 

I've had the OME lift on for 5+ yrs now
Currently I have Cooper Discoverer ST Maxx 235/80/R17s with about 10K miles on them.
The tech is reportedly good and had me replace the steering rack bushings that were shot before he did the alignment and his boss said he's picky about checking all the other bushings and their condition before doing the adjustments.
How would I check the control arm bushings condition?

 

Thrust angle (rear total toe) should be accounted for when doing the alignment. The machine does it. While it looks bad on paper it is not worth changing.

 

Other then looking for play and severe dry cracking, not much you can do.

 

ok - I'll look for those indicators.

 

I might take you up on this... I've had my truck aligned 4 times by 2 different shops since my LR UCAs were installed (to go with my previously installed ~2.5" lift in the front and ~2" lift in the rear). No one can get the steering wheel straight - it's always canted slightly left when driving straight, which I suppose could be labeled a slight pull to the right. I know enough to be dangerous in trying to interpret them, but printouts from my last 2 alignments are attached.

Where do you work?

 

A pull and steering wheel off center are 2 different things. One is a simple toe shift while the other is a sign of an angle issue. If there is no pull I would just shift the toe slightly. The readings shown are really good and shouldn't be the source of a pull while toe is entirely dependent on where the tech set the steering wheel while performing the alignment and your perception of where steering wheel center is.

Did they say anything about loose rack bushings or tie rod ends?

PM on details on where I work.

 

So it shouldn't matter if I have the OME lift on my truck?

 

As far as causing a pull, no. If it is lifted beyond a point that you can adjust it, yes. I will say, Light Racing/SPC upper control arms make getting the alignment right where you want it possible/easier.

 

My lift is std OME: 2.5" front 3" in rear

 

Thanks! Neither shop identified either issue, though neither should be a problem... Steering rack bushings were replaced ~4yrs and ~40K miles ago, in conjunction with lift install. Tie rods were replaced ~3mos and ~2K miles ago, in conjunction with LR UCA install. I'll drop you a PM for shop details.

 

Got another shop recommendation and they fixed my alignment, in that it now doesn't pull to the right!

 

glad you got it sorted and now know where top go for alignments from now on.

too many places haves guys that don't know what they are doing or the numbers they are looking at doing the alignments

 

This. Most roads are angled. Only way to really tell if your alignment is correct is to get on the freeway and get in the middle lane. Even then, it's probably still angled. My truck does the same thing. Unless I'm on a road that I know is perfectly flat.