Alignment Issues

Hi all, just installed my 2" lift over the weekend. 6112 setup with SPC UCA's in the front, and Deaver progressive AAL with 5100's in the rear. Gave me about 2" front and rear. When doing the front yesterday, my buddy and I set camber using the SPC's and eyeballing it (regrettably I believe). When I took it into Firestone today, the tech told me he was very close to running out of toe adjustment thread and thinks it could become an issue. My initial thoughts are the following. 1) The UCA camber adjustment was set more inward toward the strut when I set the camber adjustment. 2) He didn't even touch the UCA, just told me he couldn't without messing other things up. I am thinking to solve this, I should set the upper adjustments to maximum "out" adjustment. Am I thinking wrong? I forget where the SPC recommendation is to set them. Does anyone know the linear adjustability on the Tacoma? I am in a 3rd gen. Please help with thoughts!

 

I have the SPC and 33’s and alignment was perfect after bumping caster. Did they mention anything bent? That could cause the issue. Or a better tech May be needed.

 

What could be bent? Truck has 900 miles on it. He asked if I turned the steering wheel or something like that during install, but I didn’t open the door of the truck until it was ready to drive out of the garage. Let me grab some photos of what I mean by I messed with the SPC adjustment.

 

This.

Don't go to Firestone, find a real alignment shop.

SPC's are also a pain in the ass - SPC Upper control arms settings. | Tacoma World

 

I don’t disagree, I’m going to call in the morning and see if I can work out a refund or if they have someone that knows better. When I talked to the guy Sunday afternoon, he seemed confident he had a guy who knew what they were doing on trucks with adjustable UCA’s, as well as a guy who was clueless but could “perform” an alignment. Maybe I ended up with the clueless one, but I scheduled my time earlier to get in with the better one. I’ll find out. On another note, see the pictures. The one adjusted more inward is the one with issues. Also, caster adjustment is set at “D” I believe (0* caster).

 

Now that I’m looking, looks like I could run into a clearance issue with the new tires going on if I leave it set inward.

 

You probably got the clueless/lazy tech. They didn't touch the camber or caster, all he did was adjust toe via tie rods which is why you ran out. That's lazy BS and you could have done that yourself at home with a tape measure. Go back and get the smart tech to do it.

Lots of shops do it the "lazy" way because the LCA adjusters are known to rust frozen. Without being able to adjust LCAs at the same time as you are tweaking those SPCs it isn't gonna be happy. I know because I had frozen LCAs when I installed my SPCs. After fixing my LCA issue everything was happy.

So to solve your issue: First need to see if the LCA adjusters move. Mark the positions with a paint pen, take them apart one-by-one, and put anti-seize (I prefer copper/high temp) inside the inner sleeve because that's where they rust and freeze. Put it back together but don't fully torque, then adjust your LCAs to move them forward but keep in mind this changes caster too. Do not fully torque your LCA bolts until it's on the ground and not jacked up in the air!! Adjust your SPC caster settings until you get 3-4 degrees on final alignment. Finish it off by setting toe - factory is like 0.01 each side; I prefer a little more, like 0.03-0.05 each just like your final alignment sheet says.

Lots of great threads if you want to dive deeper on the how and why of alignment stuff. Here's a good one that's been around a long time:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-do-an-alignment-at-home.252256/

 

Thanks! It's currently with the "smart" tech and I'll be picking it up later. LCA moving is no issue, and we had a good 15 minute discussion about what I want and how to adjust the UCA if he needs. Asked for some more caster 3-3.5 and even on both sides, 0 camber, and .03 toe in. He's also putting my new tires on (MT01 255/85R16). Should be good to go and I'll add a pic later. Thanks for the help/explanations all. If things don't go well with this guy, I'll look elsewhere. I doubt it will be an issue, he seemed pretty knowledgeable and invested in doing the job right.

 

Got it taken care of.