Alignment, Caster, Clearance, and Driving Report with Light Racing UCAs

I mistakenly torqued the bushing frame bolts before the truck was sitting on it's own weight. I can recheck them right now or do you recommend lifting off the ground, loosening, dropping, then torqueing? Will this affect the alignment I just had done?

 

did they move the star plate at all?? What position is it on?

 

they didn't have to. I set it beforehand at the neutral setting per the spc instructions. I believe it was the +2

 

correct so you pre set it and they can now reach 2.9
so if you want more than the caster they are giving you now, that plate should be adjusted again

 

ok. I haven't driven it yet. You think it will be good at 2.9?

 

Dang, mine are at neutral and all the guy got for me was like 2 degrees of caster...I'll go to the professional/4x4 shop next time around. Probably after 285s, gonna need as much alignment clearance as possible

 

Just imagine it like an 'indian burn' you're loading up that bushing and now at ride height its all twisted up all the time. You want it in a neutral position.

How much will it really matter? Ehh probably not a ton but you'd have to ask SPC for sure. Its not too hard to loosen the bolts a little, and retorque at ride height. Probably don't even need to jack it up. It will not change your alignment, no.

 

Installed an OME lift kit with 885 springs, full Dakar leafs, and LR UCA's two days ago. I just had an alignment and the technician was able to get 2.7* caster, 0.4* camber, and 0.0* toe.
I gained 2 1/4" lift in the front and 3 3/4" lift in the rear. Truck drives well, stiffer, but that's OK.

 

SPC stated they do not need to be torqued under truck weight with the new bushings.

 

Can somebody confirm which way to move the top balljoint nut to add negative camber? Am I correct based on below?

Top balljoint nut towards engine = negative camber
Top balljoint nut towards tire = postive camber

I've been getting outside edge tire wear with my camber set to 0, so I'm wanting to add some negative and see if it improves.

 

Correct. SPC logo on the balljoint faces toward the tire too!

 

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Reading thru these pages I'm seeing tons of 2nd and 3rd gens. For us 1st gen owners, are the optimal alignment numbers still 0/0/3 (camber,toe/caster)? Thanks guys.

 

I just recently installed Bilstein 6112's at the 4th notch(about 2.5"), LR UCA's along with new oem LCA's. Without having the alignment sheet in front of me I can tell you my camber and toe specs were close to 0* and my caster was 2.5, and it's got pretty annoying bump steer and is a little sketchy on the highway. I read somewhere on here that too much caster can actually cause bump steer but a lot of people recommend 2.5+ of caster. So should I try 3* or try going down a bit?

P.S. Tires are 265/75/16 Falken Wildpeak at3w on SCS f5

 

Does anyone else have this going on? Pictures below are of both drivers side and passenger side.

as you can see in the pics, the driver side is sitting in the middle/inside and the passenger side seems to be sitting fully out....

clearly I have more room on the passenger side than the driver side....

will this be an issue when I air down from daily psi of 35-40lbs down into the 10-20psi range??? Will there be contact? (yea I know I will also just go outside and test it myself)

I feel like both side should be equal and both side should be pulled out as fas as possible like the passenger side pretty much already is.

 

This is why I'm afraid to use these UCA's. I feel like with a bad enough shock to the joint that those could go out of alignment "easily". Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's a stupid high amount of clamping force being applied, but still. The bottom part is nice how it has the separate piece to set on and rotate that keeps it in place, but something similar needs to be developed for the top. But hey, I'm no engineer.

 

@802coma The torque spec for the top 32mm nut is 150 ft/lbs, iirc the plate and star key sit into the groove on the bottom side, I do not believe the position of the top could possibly move unless the nut backed out a lot and the bottom plate dropped and now not seated in the groove properly.

I know we are all posting our alignment print out hers, I posted mine a few pages back, but can some other owners take a peak and or snap a pic of where the 32mm nut is sitting?

 

Wait, am I really being that dumb right now? So there's multiple grooves in the bottom? I thought it just slides in and out?