Truck can't get aligned, pulls right

Uhhh

 

Your Tundra doesn't count, you're considered a professional lol

I'm talking the average person that gets into a wreck and decides to fix their vehicle themselves to avoid an insurance/carfax hit

 

could it be that the axle has shifted to one side an inch and is now not running paralell, not sure how it would happen, maybe shackles or mount has bent or something else.

 

I did buy the truck knowing of a MINOR accident on the car fax. I did look at it closely and when I was buying the truck I spent a good few hours all over it. Nothing stood out to me other than the 12 year old truck stuff that I was willing to take on. Probably a mistake, but... hindsight... I guess putting newer suspention and wider wheels has shown what is truly wrong with it. All the body panels line up fine. The body measurements from the outer frame wall to the pinch weld are over 1cm difference just aft of the cab mount and just under 1cm in the rear of the cab. I tried to measure stronger points of the pinch weld itself, like where it seems to be riveted, because I know it's pretty susceptible to bending.

 

Need to weld some axle TRUSS LOL!

 

Maybe further confirmation of the body shifted? Looks like the right side allows for more movement than the left. Any ideas?

Front right mount

Front left

 

They never line up perfect.

 

Well crap....

 

One thing people need to understand is that NOTHING is perfect. Everything is built with tolerances, and when it comes to trucks things may be close, but definitely not perfect by any means. Body panels are shimmed and trimmed, things are mounted with rubber bushings/mounts and so on. Door hinges, strikers, and latches all have adjustments for just this reason. The same goes for your suspention, if everything was manufactured perfectly then there would be no need for alignments.

 

So what ever happened here?

 

@RUSSELLTACO

 

Loosened u-bolts and pulled the axle in either direction to even it out which helped center it, difference side to side is closer to a half inch now and much better than before. Last page I posted equal cross measurements from my frame and am confident it's not a frame issue

Next up is to replace my tired front end LCA bushings and re-align it, see if that solves the pull that is still present. The right side pull was not 100% exclusive to the rear like I assumed in the beginning.

Trading my Budbilt skid for a new set of LCAs with new bushings in them, waiting until that happens to get an alignment done. Place I go to does a great job but charges $130 so I don't want to have to do it twice in a short time span.

Once the front end stuff gets done I'll update on the pull

 

Update?? i have the same issue

 

My front end issue is still haunting me.

I've replaced the LCA bushings with Whitelines and my refreshed my upper control arms...the bushings in my UCAs were shot and allowing a lot of movement in the arm.

That helped solve some vibrations and wandering I was getting, but the pull is still there.

I am able to get my truck to track straight by having the alignment guys put two different settings on my SPCs, so for the time being I'm 'ok'...but it's not a long term fix.

Something in the front end is tweaked, narrowing it down when nothing really stands out as being bent is tricky.

Last time I had my truck there, they told me they suspect that my LCA is bent where the lower ball joint is attached. The part that's riveted into the arm. So I'm likely going to replace that LCA here pretty soon and hopefully that fixes it. I can kind of see what they mean, if it is bent it's very minor but that might be the culprit.


If you're dealing with a similar issue (front end pull), I wish you luck...this has been a pain in my ass for a long time now. I'm just grateful they were able to align it so it drives straight so I'm no longer wearing my tires down unevenly.

Between work and having a 1 year old at home I don't have a lot of time to diagnose, but the lower control arm is next on my list.

 

I also have a pretty similar issue but always thought it was just a front alignment problem

 

Yeah, it's a front end problem for me too. I edited the first post to tell anyone reading this now to just go to the end - the first few pages were about the rear end but that was a separate issue from the current one.

I'm trying to narrow it down by replacing things that I already know are due for replacement/refresh...bushings and ball joints namely. Since that hasn't fixed it, I'm pretty much left looking at the lowers themselves or possibly a spindle.

 

Any updates @eon_blue ?

 

Got some used lower control arms a couple weeks ago, going to install those and see if it fixes the alignment issue. Shop suspects the lower arm on the driver's side is slightly bent where the LBJ mounts to it (the part that's riveted into the arm itself).

 

Spindles bend way more often the the LCA. Not saying it can;t happen but I've beat the shit out of my stock LCA's and haven't done any damage. I have broken a few spindles though. lol

 

So, what ended up happening here? read through this whole thread & was left hanging at the end.