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

Hey guys!

been reading some of the post and figured I'd ask your guys opinion.

Got a 2016 tacoma with Falken Wildpeak AT3W 265/75r16, 5100's and OME 2887s (2 inch front) and Deaver AAL and 5160's in back (2 inch). Just installed SPC's today at the D position and got these numbers back from Firestone. What do you guys think? I don't rub or anything, Just looking to get the best handling and tire wear as possible.

 

Camber was better before Firestone touched it . They reduced the caster a degree more than needed, would of been out of spec but at 3.1 and 3.5 BUT... would of been better than OE spec for caster . This is what you get when some one only knows what the machine says and has no real world experience in front end alignment in my opinion

 

Well.. how does it drive? That’s the question.. the adjusted your toe within spec and lowered your caster.. camber was negligibly changed... with those specs it should drive nice.. and if you have no rub then no worries

 

So it seems there are two ways that you can adjust alignment with these things... the way OP described, maxing out caster with the cam bolts then finishing with the UCA or setting UCA then fine tuning with cam bolts. It even lists both options in the instructions that come with the UCAs...



Which method should I use? I'm running 285's with the stock front bumper. I DO have CMC

 

I went with what was posted a few pages back max caster D setting 0 camber and maybe 1/32 toe in and it drives normal. I don't have a cmc and I just barely touch the cm flexed some as it still has a sway bar and fully turned with 305-70-17s . Its no big deal to back off the turning a hair till I do ,if I do address the cmc.

Edit: If you read from this link and a few pages forward I think you will get a better idea. page-48

 

Thanks. I keep reading to "max caster at the lower cam bolts", but where do I actually set them to do this? Like which way to turn them and should front and rear cam bolts go the same direction on each side? I saw this diagram somewhere but i dont really know how to interpret it...

 

front get shorter rear get longer. Just think what you want to accomplish. You want the lower balljoint to move forward as far as possible. After you do that tighten the cams up and go to the Nut on the adjuster on the UCA. with a small bottle jack just below the outter edge of the lower control arm and jack it up a little to take as little weight off the tire so its just about off the ground / Now set your camber to 0. this may take a couple attemps as when you lower the jack. I normally place a construction type trash bag under the tire so when you drop the jack the control are should settle to the static angle. It may take a bit but its worth it in the end . Each time just tighten the nutenough to hold it in place for this proceedure. after it is where you want it torque it to spec. Set toe and you are good

 

Thank you for that, helps a lot!

 

Just to be sure I understand tho, to make front shorter and rear longer, both left cams should be turned all the way right and both right cams should be turned all the way left, correct?

 

Look at where the bolt is located in each cam. You can see its offset . You want the bolts on the front of the LCA's to be towards the middle of the truck as much as possible( towards the - sign in the diagram a few posts back . The rear bolts you want to rotate the cams the bolts are opposite of the fronts, you want the bolts to be towards the outside of the truck as possible ( towards the + sign in the previous diagram posted ) ..... That will move the lower BJ as far forward as possible by using the lower control arm alone. Do the same to both lower control arms / That will be Maximum caster that you can obtain by adjusting to lower control arms . As you seem in the picture I posted I use 36"x 1" square aluminum tubing from Homo Depot. Each 1" PVC coupling as been filed to be exactly the same length. Their are letters on the ends which can be filed off easily to help accomplish that . After setting uppers to "D" I check camber. I have a shorter piece of the same 1" tubing that will reach from the outer edge of the rim to the opposite side vertically. I place my digital angle finder on that to read the camber and the picture shows how I set toe-in. like I said I go about 1/32"

 

Guys I have a 3rd gen taco with 3 inch lift and spc control arms. I have had the truck for 2 years and I have always felt my alignment was just wrong. It tracks straight but both ball joints were set differently at alignment shop and it just seems like the wheel is centered differntly from on side to another.

Anyways I want to hit reset and do a redo based on all of the info I have read here and max my lca for caster, set the camber as close to 0 at home set my ucas at D setting and then take to the alignment shop for fine tune and feel better about it!

Where i am confused on is exactly what my eccentrics should look like after i adjust to max my caster. If anyone could send me pictures of what the eccentrics look like when they are maxed that would be awsome. I have read the diagrams and get all turned around.

Thanks guys in advance for your help.

 

I believe this video will answer your questions. Make sure you watch the whole thing. https://youtu.be/f2YhnldfI50

 

Dude you literally just saved my life!!! Haha this is exactly what I needed! Wish i had just asked 4 hours ago before reading all this!!! Thanks!

 

Forward bushing all the way in and rearward bushing all the way out

 

Not a problem man. Good luck with your alignment!

 

Only time I have seen the uppers set at different positions was because the OE cams were froze up and were not fixed. That to me is a half assed excuse for doing it but to each his own. If all cams work correctly I see no need to have the uppers set at a different caster setting. End result should be a fraction of a degree more caster on passenger side and all else should be equal in a perfect world

 

Thats how I have always felt!

 

Got my SPC UCAs installed yesterday and once everything was back together, did the following:

1) set the front LCA cams in the shortest position I could (bolts offset towards the middle of the truck)
2) set the rear LCA cams in the longest position I could (bolts offset towards the outside of the truck)
3) set the UCA balljoint in the E setting (+1° of caster) on both sides
4) attempted to set camber as close to 0° as possible with the UCA top bolt.

After checking torque specs and tightening everything up, the truck feels pretty good. My steering wheel is off center but that’s to be expected since I didn’t mess with toe. I’ve got an appointment with an alignment tech tomorrow after work and I’m hoping he will listen and understand when I tell him to set camber using the UCA top bolt and tweak the caster as necessary with the LCA cam bolts. Because I’m OCD and kind of paranoid, I’ll probably bring my torque wrench with me to check the top bolt as soon as I leave the shop.

My new 33” tires are going on at the same time so I’ll know right away if there’s any issues with rubbing. I don’t expect any issues because after doing the steps above I can already tell that my wheels are sitting further forward in the fender wells than they were before. I’m hoping to get out of there tomorrow with camber and toe as close to 0° as possible and somewhere between +2° to +3° of caster.

I’m kind of curious if I should switch the UCA to setting D and let them align it that way first though... after reading about @08RC and his D to E and back to D I’m wondering if I shouldn’t at least try to fit the 285 33” tires at the D setting first.

 

D seems to be the most popular setting and toe should be off considerably at this point if you didnt reset it I would think . Amount of lift will have a big effect on the D or E setting