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

Good morning guys and gals. I will be installing my new LR UCAs and 5100 / 885 springs this weekend, want to get the settings right on the UCAs at install.

I called 2 local firestones to set up alignment appt, first one said NO, second one said bring it in we will get you taken care of. I guess it all depends on who you talk to and the shops attitude on all this.

I am a '15 access cab 4x4 if that matters. From what I have read in this thread,

1 - I will set my UCA at the D setting which results in 2* caster
2 - I will instruct alignment guy to set camber on LCA to zero, and also make toe to zero
3 - Then work on the caster on the UCA, ideal numbers 2.5*-3*

I want to be as clear and simple as I can to the alignment guy, let me know if I am missing anything

Thanks !

Currently setting like this

 

You're going to want to flip those around so the "SPC" logo is facing out.

 

Thank You, something as simple as that would have ruined my day Love this Forum

 

Also, they need to adjust camber at the UCA. If they attempt to do it at the LCA they will probably fudge the caster.

 

I got my lift done over the past 2 days. Glad i did it myself, gained a lot of good experience. No help, all solo.

Did the rears first. New 5100 shocks and deaver single aal. The first side took me 3 hours. Most of that time struggling with top nut removal on shock. Finally cut the bitch off. Yesterday morning got the second rear side done in an hour. My truck has tapered shims below the leafs stock, not sure if all tacos have these.

Got both fronts done yesterday as well. New 5100s, 885 springs and LR UCAs. Got both sides done in about 6 hours. Long uca bolt a bit of a PITA but a little bending in the fender gained clearance to get it out. Bottom shock bolt was a bitch to get back through hole, wasted an hour on that, finally persuaded it through.

All in all very pleased, prelim measurements give me 1/2" rake or so.

At firestone getting alignment. They got near zero toe and camber. Caster 2.6 or so. Will post alignment specs and pics later. Back to firestone to get steering wheel aligned, off about 10 degrees right, hopefully a quick fix. Initial highway drive no vibes noticed.

 

New alignment numbers

 

These are where they ended up.
driver side
passenger side

 

Installed my LR's with 887s yesterday. Driving to Pep Boys for the alignment was INSANE. Anything over 20 MPH and my tires were screeching like all hell, thank god these tires are on their last leg. Check out those initial toe numbers! The first one is his initial attempt and 2nd is the best he could do to zero out camber and toe. He couldnt get the right caster closer to 3 degrees like the left, so I'm thinking I need to move the setting to the E position for an additional degree at our disposal. What do you guys think?

 

Wtf?? I'm so sick of incompetent alignment techs. There is no excuse for that if you have fully adjustable UCA's.

Was he not willing to use the UCA adjustments???

 

He used the slide for camber, but he didnt adjust the caster plate to E.

 

Unless something is bent he should have been able to adjust both sides to about the same. But then again there seem to be a lot of incompetent/lazy/money hungry techs out there. I know we are being picky and it takes time to do the job right so that just proves where the good techs are. Techs get paid by the book hour, so every job is rushed out the door. Good techs can make 100+ book hours per week.

 

They definitely should have mentioned that if that's the case. Seems like a possibility.

 

Cams are not seized. I've heard of people needing different settings on either side, I'm sure I just need to do that. I need to jack it up to do that right?

 

Seeing how neither the caster OR camber changed on that side leads one to speculate that they didn't adjust anything except toe on that side. The caster difference from side to side is much larger than any normal alignment.

 

Just did the latest washer/sleeve update. I've read that the final torque of the long UCA bolt should be done with the tires on the ground, even though the SPC instructions don't say that. I decided to do it that way and am concerned the akward angle maybe doesn't give a proper torque because of the short amount of space between the tire and fender flare. It felt too tight. Like way more than 85 ft lbs tight when my wrench finally clicked. Anybody else experience this? I know my torque wrench is accurate and im good working order.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I'm assuming the "first attempt" is the bottom pic.

 

I installed the following over the weekend and had the alignment done today:
- toytech's 5100 based 3" complete kit with aal option
- scs sr8's with BFG KO2's in 275/70/R17
- LR UCA with initial setting at "C"

found a local shop with a superb lead tech : he had no problems at all understanding the additional adjustment capability provided by the LR UCA and was totally on board with using both OEM and LR UCA adjustment points in tandem to get close to desired numbers while making sure the tire was centered up in the wheel well

he got it all set up to get the before numbers and then had me get down in the pit with him and look / talk things over - really great service

BEFORE alignment numbers: AFTER alignment numbers
LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT
Caster : 3.7 3.5 3.0 3.5
Camber: 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.0
Toe: -0.94 -0.82 0.0 0.0

We ended up keeping the the LR UCA at the C position on the right passenger side, but in order to get better wheel centering on the left driver's side he had to drop it down to neutral position D and dial it in with the OEM LCA cams.

He really wanted to keep a 0.5 bias on right side caster, so I stuck with his advice. Steering dynamics are superb and it tracks true so no complaints.

Really pleased with the truck's transformation !!

up on the rack



and back out in the open

 

My first alignment guy wasn't familiar with adjusting LR UCAs and he initially had it at B setting, and there was tons of rubbing. I took it to a specialty alignment shop who set it to the D position and I couldn't be happier with the ride quality, overall look, and rubbing issue solved. I did have a question though, why does the top rubber piece not sit flush against my coils? I'm looking at other set-ups and that rubber piece sits flush in theirs.

 

I thought I was the only one!!! You can see the small lip on top of my coils that should be on the inside. I dont like it, and I'm parking it until I can at least get OME 90000's in there. That won't solve the tophat issue though. Does OME make rubber tophats specific to their coils? I couldnt find anything.

 

Their literature says you can re-use the stock top hat assembly