Steering wheel off center after new leaf packs

Had some Dakars with long overload removed and center pin extension put on. I didn't do CB drop yet, but will. When I got it back, the steering wheel is about an 8th of a turn to the right when going straight.

Would this most likely be caused by a change in thrust angle? Looking at the U-bolts, the drivers side can be moved back maybe a little less than 8th", and the passenger side can be moved forward less than that.

Is this normal when lifting? And will an alignment fix it or does the thrust angle or something else need to be adjusted? My shop said they can't do theust angle....I didnt ask the dealer yet.

 

Nobody ever heard of this? if not it makes me think they screwed up something else...I'm taking it back on Fri and I would like to know what to tell them. I'm pretty sure they are going to try to deny responsibilty or downplay it and blame it on something else so I would like to figure out whats wrong first

 

Your steering wheel beging off cetner has noting to do with your leaf packs.. unless then bent your tie rod or ball joint when installing it...

 

Your rears are NON adjustable(according to most), but you can loosen the U bolts and shift the axle a little.

 

Changing anything in your suspension can affect alignment. Just because you only did the rear doesn't mean it will not affect the front end. That's why even though we have solid rear axles and can't do adjustments, when they do alignment they still use the rears as a reference. When I got the TSB leaf spring done on my 2011, the steering wheel was off after the leaf pack install and they had to do an alignment. That's why alignments are included with this TSB.

 

Get the rear squared up first.

Then get an alignment.

I will say that the amount of castor you are out (by your description) does seem pretty unusual for work done on the rear. 1/8th of a turn is like 2:00 position. Is that correct?

And a silly question. Any chance the RF tire is about 10# low on air, compared to the LF?

 

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. Absolutely, changing something in the rear will potentially cause the steering wheel to be off center. That angle is called set back. What happened is when you worked on your springs the axle was not put back in the same relationship (forward or backwards) as it was before. Did you F things up? More than likely not. Are you going to to cause front tire wear? Nope! Just your steering wheel is off center. If it was me, I would put a 2x4 or something long and flat on the horizontal center line of your rear tires. You can just hold it there to look from the back towards the front to see where where the tire is pointing. Do this on each side. More than likely they are pointing more to the right or left. In a perfect world they should be pointing straight. If you find that they are pointing to one side you can Jack up your truck with no load on the axle and loosen the U-bolts to get the axle pointed straight again. A thrust angle alignment does not read what the rear is doing and assumes it's perfectly straight. Your steering wheel will likely be off if you did this. If the rear is pointing to the right, you have to compensate (off center steering wheel to the right) with the fronts to get the truck to go straight. This will not cause tire wear.
To sum it all up. If your axle is not pointing straight ahead then I recommend moving the axle to fix it. If it looks straight, you have two options. Live with it or go get an alignment. Total toe is the tire wearing angle in the front (besides excessive camer) and this doesn't change with anything you do in the rear. If you have anymore questions I'm happy to help .

 

Wow, I didn't realize it was that long.

 

Yes the steering wheel is about 1:30 position to go straight. I will first get them to loosen u bolts and move passenger forward and driver rearward as much as possible. Hopefully that will take care of it.

If I just got an alignment, would that center the wheel up or would it still be off?

 

The alignment would center your wheel. You just want to make sure you're not dogtailing too much in the rear.

 

Most alignment shop offer free alignment check. That way you can just see if you need to move adjust your rears.

 

I'm having this same issue with a new three leaf aal install. Did you get this sorted out OP?

 

no not yet. dealer has had my truck for two weeks replacing the cluster which ontains the ecu for the trailer lights. let me know what you findand I will do the same

 

I just did 5100s and aal on my truck. After alignment, had to go back twice before the steering wheel was straight.

 

Did they tell you what the fix was to get it correct?

 

I think it was more of a case of the tech not being as picky as I was. He made the adjustments without too much grief tho.