Steering Wheel Off after rack/alignment

Had a new rack put on a few weeks ago at a shop and les schwabb "aligned it". The wheel was straight but the tie rods were way uneven. One was showing one or two threads and the other had like 2" of threads at least. The truck wouldn't turn all the way to the right, would only turn a turn and a 1/4 or so.
So what this is means is that the shop didnt "center" the rack before connecting the steering coloumn, correct?
I had an alignment done this morning hoping they could fix it. The truck drives good and the tie rods are equally adjusted now, and i can equally steer right and left. But now my steering wheel is cocked sideways going down the road.
What do i need to do now to correct this? Can i just unbolt it from the rack and turn the wheel straight and bolt it back up?

 

Well first you need to find a new alignment shop. Lol.

And I believe you should be able to do it yourself. Via the rag joint. Probably a helping hand. Unbolt the rag joint (the slip bolt or whatever it's called, that locks it in place, not the whole rag joint itself)and slip the column up, Have your helper straighten the wheel, then slip the column back in the rag joint and tighten. Might take a second time to get it perfect, if it's still off a hair after You test drive it. You should be able to do it yourself too but a helper would be easiest. You could just unbolt and straighten yourself, then get back under and be careful not to turn it while slipping it back in. But again might take a second time to fine tune it.

 

Off center steering wheel is a sign of unbalanced caster, assuming the rack and hardware were all assembled correctly. Which obviously they weren't the first time.

Find a real alignment shop this time. 'Cause shop #2 should have corrected the steering shaft, as they did the tie rods, before giving you to the truck back.

One way is to find where the sports car guys, like ones who run autox, take their cars. Not the gray headed gold chained 'vette owners, but actual car guys.

That shop will have techs that know how to do an actual alignment, not just make all the lights on the machine turn green and call it good.

 

Not sure if this would mess things up, but if everything else is good, I would remove the steering wheel (might need a puller), and re-set it on the splines so that the wheel is centered.

 

Caster is even at 2.4 on each side.

Alignment isnt the problem, the rack being installed off center is what caused the crooked steering wheel.

 

What did they charge for the rack? Debating if I should do mine or take it somewhere?

 

Well mine was covered by insurance, due to a ball joint failure.
If i could go back in time I would have just did it all myself. I've had to re do basically everything to correct all the shops errors.

 

Quoting myself here, because this is very simple guys. And I'm trying to remember the steps it took me to do it. Also remembered that I think I had to loosen the top part of the intermediate shaft as well that connects to the steering wheel column itself(accesible under the dash). So.. There's the bolt above the rag joint, that locks down the intermediate shaft to the rack, and the top bolt that locks the steering wheel in place. Both have shafts with splines and they will both need to be loosened, so the shaft can be pulled up out of the rag joint, so you can turn the wheel freely and straighten. Then slip the intermediate shaft back into the rag joint and tighten up both those bolts. Very easy. Shouldn't need to remove anything. Both those bolts are easy to access iirc.

 

This bolt? Or the joint where it connects under the black plastic cover?

 

The correct way to center the wheel after the rack and spiral cable are centered and in sync (at rack spline joint), tie rods are equal and alignment is correct, is by turning the inner tie rods in the same direction equally, one way or the other.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-do-an-alignment-at-home.252256/page-3#post-7067262

 

That bolt. But looks like it's as far back as it'll go already. Hmm. I'd still loosen it so it slides and has some play. Should be able to lift that shaft out from the rag joint.

 

In my case the rack is not centered with the steering shaft. So adjusting toe rods rn isn't really applicable.

 

Copy, I'll give it a shot wish me luck. Thanks

 

This^^^ is why you don't wanna do that if it's off by a lot. A little wouldn't be an issue, but it was off by a lot he said, causing full lock turn rate to be off.

Edit: ideally you want the wheel to be centered with the rack. Which by the sound of it, they did not do when they installed the new rack via the rag joint/intermediate shaft.

 

Not seeing where he says how bad it's off.
Anyway this whole deal is a process, starting with centering the rack and spiral cable then the tie rods. Each possible position of the spline joint is around 10+ degrees on the steering wheel so it is next to impossible to get it perfect with the spline joint alone.

 

Shaft isn't moving at all. I think I'm either gonna have to take the upper steering column out and unbolt it at the firewall to pull the shaft from the rack, or take the whole damn rack off again to separate that lower shaft from the rack. I'm so annoyed right now. Never letting a shop touch my truck again.

 

So from what you're saying I have step 2 done and it drives straight. So I have to redo the shitty shops work and re do step 1 and probably get another $70 alignment. Fuuuug

 

That will put your turn signal cancelling out of sync with the wheel.

 

And the upper splines only align one way to get it to seat all the way.

 

Hm. Maybe I'm missing a step. I did this a while back. And didn't have any issues. And was able to lift the shaft out and straighten it. Because yeah the shop didn't check the steering wheel. So I did it myself. Truck drive straight but my wheel was a bit crooked..

And yes it can be a process. And it may need to be fine tuned via tie rods, but I got mine pretty damned close the first time. Was off a hair, so I loosened one more time, and ajusted it by one spline, and it was perfect. I did make sure Not to turn the steering wheel because yes the spiral cable is an issue of you get it wrong. And more of an issue especially if you replace the rack.

The more I think about it, the more I think you really should just take it in. Because dirty pool has the right of way here in the sense that it should all be looked at and corrected properly to ensure that there isn't any other issues. Because for me, I didn't have my rack replaced. For all I know, your steering wheel could be way off. I would just like to assume that it's not and it turned slightly while they were installing and forgot to straighten. Or your rack could be off center too. But I kinda doubted that because of the way your tie rods were.

I'd take it back and give them hell!!!!!! Make them do it correct. Ask for the supervisor and tell them exactly what needs to be done.
Which would be a recentering of the rack itself, the steering wheel, and the alignment after.