Wreck and won't align

Alignment results. I feel caster is still not correct. Per Camburg you must put max caster while keeping camber. I feel the 33's will rub unless caster is higher. But that is the least of my worries at the moment.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlpsbW0rTIVRjrkKjoqdeUu01SBIPQ

 

In the 1st post, you mentioned that the knuckles were replaced. So, the knuckle you put on was bent? Kind of a piss poor alignment shop if they didn't compare the tire to knuckle clearance when they 1st discovered problems with aligning.

As for the difference in steering turns, check to see if both knuckles are hitting the steering stops, at full lock, or if the rack is running out of travel. Make sure there is equal length of threads showing on the tie rods.

 

Sooooo they lowered the caster and now you have negative caster on one side.

Take it to a different shop. What they did doesn't make sense. They aligned it even worse this time around?

 

What is worse the caster? From what I understand caster has no play tire wear. I am looking for information/understanding for myself. Thanks.

 

The wreck is a long story and yes I would say that a wise tech might have caught this, but they were simply trying to align and didn't know the full extent. What I am looking for is understanding from the numbers on the sheet. The truck does drive great and doesn't pull at all.

As for the steering, the tie rods vary length based on alignment. Yes they both hit the knuckle at full lock. I will do some measuring later.

 

Yes the caster is MUCH worse and well below spec. It was higher on the "before" alignment which doesn't make sense to me and also tells me the alignment CAN be adjusted to a normal setting. Why would they have lowered it?

I'd like to see pics of your lower control arm essentrics if you can take some. That will explain a lot.

 

Do you want me to just take pictures of the lower control arms?

 

Yes from the rear of them where they attach to the frame. You'll see a dial looking circle with lines.

 

Like this:

 

Your steering rack is was not centered up correctly, this is a really common mistake on tacos because shops think the tie rods should be equal on both sides but if you look at any truck on the dealer lot there is a 1/4" difference from drivers to passenger side. Toe does play into alignment so I would start with getting the rack centered correctly first then try to align it. Any shop that saw your steering wheel was doing that and did not pick up on it...you should go somewhere else.

 

Nope, the rack OE is not centered you should not see equal threads on both sides.

 

I put the pictures here: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlpsbW0rTIVRjrkKjoqdeUu01SBIPQ

 

So you are saying that there shouldn't be equal turning left to right to get to full lock?

 

Ok, Even though the steering rack was not replaced? Can you give a little more detail so I can follow you better. Makes sense but each shop I have messed with they tend to be a-holes.

 

It doesn't have anything to do with the physical rack itself just that the rack is not mounted evenly left to right in the frame from the factory and the fact that you have equal threads but unequal lock to lock tells the whole story. When the toe is not set with the rack centered properly it constrains alignment adjustment. They need to disconnect the tie rods, top dead center the steering wheel and start over reconnecting it and setting the toe. When they do this you will see that the drivers sides will be 1/4" different than the passenger side in regard to the amount of threads showing.

 

What is happening here?

 

I could not tell you..

 

Okay that was a problem with the ocr, when I converted from pdf to doc. So that is not on the original paper.

 

The outer tie rods or outer/inner?

 

Outer you don't adjust the inner