Planning ahead for alignment and control arms on high mileage truck in the rust belt

Hello all.

I just purchased a new set of tires for my 08 with 320k miles. I will be getting them installed in a few days. My current set of tires appear to be wearing evenly (all of them have around 4/32 remaining) but I'm sure my truck could use an alignment especially after replacing my shocks about a month ago. The shocks that I removed appear to have been originals from what I could tell.

I will be taking a road trip in one week so my experience tells me not to mess with attempting to get an alignment until I get back. I hear stories about cam bolts and control arm bushings being seized when attempting to do an alignment. If that is the case, it sounds like I could be opening a can of worms.

1. Assuming I wait till I get back, what parts would I need to order in anticipation of the lower control arms having rust issues? Upper and lower control arms?
2. What additional hardware or bolts would I need?
3. Is there a way to know whether or not I would have issues with an alignment prior to ordering all of these parts?

Ideally, if there is no play or movement in the control arms I would like to get an alignment as is and skip replacing anything if not needed.

Appreciate the help. Thanks!

 

Not really a direct answer to your questions, but you could at least call around and see if any shops will check the alignment for you. Not actually tweak anything, just put it up and take a reading so you have the print out.

 

Actually that is a good idea. Going to call around and see if that is possible as well. I would suspect that the alignment would be off a bit after a ton of miles.

 

I'd recommend buying new cam bolts and lower bushings for sure. Because yes, they often get so seized up they have to be cut out and replaced. I used a long breaker bar with cheater pipe trying to break mine free, and all I managed to do was snap the bolt. Cover the shafts of the new ones with antiseize upon install. If your ball joints are questionable at all, just go ahead and get new lower arms with new bushings already installed. Same with anything that's bad or borderline, just change out for new before they develop new issues after getting it aligned. No sense holding off to save a few bucks now just to destroy a new set of tires with bad alignment.

Any decent shop will also toss it on the alignment rack just to check where it's at now. Probably for a small fee, but less than actually having it aligned. May even be included with the new tire install.

 

Yup, agree with the above. When you get back from your trip you should be able to jack the truck up loosen all the cam bolts and give them a spin. (mark them before you do so you can get it close to the way it was)

If they all spin freely you should be good. But an older truck from the salt belt, probably not the case. Personally I bought a set of low mile take-off LCAs and all new OEM cam bolt hardware when I did mine a few years back. If they're frozen you got to cut them out.

Check the uppers for play in the BJ. Honestly uppers are easy to find as take-offs so you may want to do those while you're there. Just got to deal with the big PIA bolt.

 

Also wanted to add, make sure to check the tie rod ends too. At 320k, if those haven't been changed, they're probably on borrowed time anyway. New ones will make the alignment more effective and keep your steering nice and tight for many more years to come.