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

Hopefully. From what I've seen here on TW 2.5"+ lifts can get close with aftermarket UCA's

 

Ah ok I see. Yeah passenger side looks tits. Drivers side is poop. Easy fix though. Even with frozen LCA cams you can still get a decent alignment with this upper arms on there.

I hate most alignment techs, but you're kinda like the worst case scenario for an alignment tech lol. Frozen LCA cams and an adjustable upper arm that they likely don't see very often lol.

Last time I had my truck aligned I instructed them to fine tune the camber on the upper arm and the guy looked at me like I was retarded and said that's how they ALWAYS do it anyways which is obviously bullshit.

 

Lol exactly, I think I was worst case for him and he got tired and after doing the first side properly

 

Is anyone having the problem of the ball joint bolt and nut sliding towards the engine in the elongated hole? My driver side has done that multiple times. The nut is torqued to 200+ ft/lb.

 

Are you driving the Baja frequently? I torqued mine down with a breaker bar to about 75% of my physical ability(give or take) and it hasn't moved.

 

I don't do any crazy off-roading with my truck. I had my tech red Loctite the nuts so maybe that'll help.

 

Got an alignment after new suspension bits; Icon, LR UCA and cams (relevant to this thread) final numbers for me are:



I believe the UCA's are at =2 neutral (SPC logo is straight out)



255/85/16 ST Maxx

Non flexed rubbing is on the frame at lock due to offset of wheels, but there is good clearance in front and back (can post more pics of clearance spots if wanted)

 

Hey guys quick question. This is my current alignment spec on my truck. My control arms are currently on the D setting on my truck and under compression I'm getting some rubbing on the pinch welds in the rear of the wheel well. I'm planning on swapping out my bushings and ball joints this week and getting a proper alignment this time but I was wondering if I should move the ball joint to the E position to get a little more space in the rear of the wheel well?

Thank you

 

@bjmoose , I see your in San Jose, can you share the alignment shop you use that is experienced with the LR UCAs and Tacomas?

 

I wasn't happy with my alignment until I did it myself.

My description of following @jberry813's instructions

the bjmoose daily driver build (post #83)

 

Hadn't read all the way through your build thread. Thanks.

I just got my Light Racing arms on last night and had it aligned today. I set them at E and basically followed your instructions. Caster was at 4 degrees pre alignment, had my mechanic set them to 3 degrees. (Elias at E & S on Monterey; he's good and I trust him). I normally do all my own work but hadn't considered alignment, might have to rethink that.

 

Too much negative camber on the left and too much positive toe on both IMO.

 

Last weekend I installed a complete OME lift with 886 coils, dakar leaf pack and because I wanted to do it right, I got light racing UCA's for their alignment adjustability. After everything was installed you could tell the alignment was way off, visible negative camber and tire squealing in corners due to the toe being off.

After lift, before alignment



Made the appointment with the alignment shop and I'm a bit confused by the spec sheet they gave me.



They're saying the alignment cams on the LCA's are frozen, pretty common problem with these trucks but is that really the best they could do?? It seems like they didn't do anything but adjust the toe.

The weird thing is that after the alignment there is no more negative camber, it actually looks like it has a lot of positive camber especially on the passenger side. how is that possible if they're saying the before and after numbers for camber are the same?

after alignment



another thing is after the alignment the steering wheel seems about 20 - 30 degrees off center




Is this really the best they can do with frozen LCA alignment cams? Or is this just a lazy alignment tech that doesn't want to do it right? Something just doesn't seem right, what do you guys think??

 

This is pretty bogus. Frozen LCA cam bolts is a copout excuse for a piss poor job. Take it somewhere else. The shop you went to obviously does not care about you or your business or they would have done a better job.

 

Regardless of the cams being frozen, they should be able to center the steering wheel. You got the laziest tech in the building. I doubt he even took it for a drive afterwards to check. Guys like that give the good techs a bad name.

I'm also having a hard time believing your truck has negative camber like it says in the paper, but you can visually tell it has positive camber. Something isn't right with their equipment. Maybe it wasn't setup properly by the same lazy tech that didn't bother to center the wheel.

 

Thank you for the replies. The adjustments they made were definitely an improvement but it doesn't seem like it was done right. I'm going to try freeing up the cam bolts and take it back to them along with the instructions on how the LR UCA's work, I'm not sure if they knew how to make adjustments on them. I have 30 days in which I can bring it back if I'm not happy with it and they will redo the alignment for free. After that I probably won't go back to them for my next one. I hope I can get those cams loosened up, from what I've read replacing them can be a pain in the ass.

 

The process usually involves a sawzall Soak them in your favorite lube and wait.

 

Does anyone have issues with how far, or not far, out the front tires stick from the fenders? It seams my rear tires stick out further than my front tires?

It looks like the upper ball joints are moved towards the engine. I replaced the LCAs and new cam bolts as well.

The alignment place was able to get close to 3 degress on caster, 0 degree on camber, and 0 degree on toe.

I thought the front tires would stick out the same distance as my rears.

 

Lifting a trucks front suspension reduces track width. Depending on height and specs of truck the reduction can be from 1/2"-1" per side. I think this is true, perhaps someone else can chime in?