Can I get some advice on alignment after slight lift? Think the shop screwed it up

I just put in bilstien 5100s and OME 880's, plus General HD leafs and 5100's in the rear. Forgot to measure beforehand but I'm guessing lift came to about 1.5 or 2" in front and 2" in rear. Went in for an alignment at the local spot and came out with the truck tracking slightly to the left. It's also got a noticeable but not real bad shake from about 10mph-35mph. I don't really know shit about alignment but everything I can find on here is talking about caster should ideally be 2.4 but after a bit of lift you usually have to settle for less. -0.1 is a lot less though... Even on their own printout it's out of spec! I also already don't trust this shop cause of some other shady shit but I don't have a lot of options locally. Any opinions on this readout? Can anyone give me numbers for what the factory specs are, and what the specs should be after a small lift? Appreciate any help I can get I'm going to go back in there tomorrow, trying to sound like I kind of know what I'm talking about...

 

It looks like they just gave you a toe n go...they didn't do anything to your caster/camber. I hope you didn't pay much for that alignment.

You want your caster around 1.5 - 2˚, it's way too low...and that camber needs to be matching side to side

Was this a Firestone alignment? I would suggest not going to Firestone unless you have a stock vehicle...they don't work well with aftermarket suspension in my experience (and many others).

Find a shop that does alignments specifically that isn't a big chain store, or a local 4x4 shop that does them

 

Ok, thanks. I know the caster is way off, was confused about the camber cause I saw a few other posts on here with similar camber numbers, fair difference L to R. I guess they just say screw it, it's within spec rather than taking the time to even them out with each other? Would the caster number being way off have something to do with it drifting left?

 

The caster numbers are out of spec but they are matching side to side so I don't know if that's making the drift happen...I was going to say it's probably the camber causing that but who knows. I would want them to put those caster numbers in the green before making any final determination on what's causing the pull, and also try to get those camber numbers closer to matching each other.

If there's some reason they can't get those numbers correct (like something bent or in bad shape...spindle, tie rods, etc.) then they should be able to tell you that.

If it's a place like Firestone they might just say they don't do full alignments on modified vehicles, in which case you will want to take it someplace else that does a better job.

 

So if I'm right basically the goal is to get the camber and toe as close to 0 as possible and the caster as close to 2.4 as possible but with the lift in reality that's more likely to come out around .5 camber and 1.5-2.0 caster? What about the toe, what's acceptable there? Most of the numbers I'm finding here are for 2nd and 3rd gen trucks I dunno if there's a difference or not.

 

Shouldn't be a difference as far as numbers go, 1st 2nd and 3rd gens all have the same style of IFS front suspension. Maybe some slight difference in acceptable spec range but in general I think its the same.

 

Arms are likely seized. I quote new arms and set the toe, let the customer know.

I'd like 1.5 caster and 0.5 camber at least.

 

it's weird they wouldn't tell him that but it makes sense

 

It's like a small local chain, not a national one. They're awful though, I'm really fed up at this point. Don't have a lot of options around here unfortunately.

 

Seized like in the bushings, or in some other way? Def not seized in bushing, I just replaced ball joints and tie rod ends, control arms felt good to me, movement but no play I could feel. They did tell me I needed new inner tie rod ends so I changed those out but I think they were trying to scam me for some work, when I pulled em off there's no play or roughness at all and they're tight enough I can hold the end and the ball stays sticking straight out, doesn't fall under it's own weight. Long story short I just don't trust these guys at all.

 

Thanks. What about toe? Should that also be even on both sides, more or less? And close to 0?

 

It is even. .1 is very little and can be caused by play in the rack bushings (common on first gen tacos), I try to get identical but I don't stress on older vehicles that have wear in the rack.

 

Oh yeah sorry I was looking at the numbers for the rear. I've got 200K so that makes sense.

 

You are right, but its not crazy bad. I wouldnt worry about .20 in the rear unless there was major tire wear. I'd chalk this one up to age as well. No biggy.

 

Gotcha. I had really bad wear on the front tires before I did all this work but the rear wasn't too bad. Thanks a lot for the help, all makes a bit more sense now

 

One more question for you. I'm going to talk to a manager to try and get these guys to refund me so I can take it somewhere else, it would be helpful to have the factory specs/tolerances on hand. Do you have those, or is there a place ton get them? I don't have a FSM (not sure if alignment is in there anyway).

 

Should have done my own homework, didn't realize it's all there online, it just took a little digging in the FSM to find the right page. For anyone who finds this thread looking for the factory toyota specs go get the FSM (http://web.archive.org/web/20080731033603/http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/ works) and it's in repair manual -> suspension and axle then open file insp2

 

You have higher than desirable thrust angle in the rear due to your toe not being zero, a solid axle backing plate can adjust that or possibly. Leaf spring base plate shim.

As for the front, I don't know the circumstances of the lift in the front and how much you raised, but you definitely will need camber/ caster adjustments. If you cannot get into the mid two - mid three degree range on both sides you will need aftermarket uppers arms.

The shake may or may not be alignment related, but one thing is for sure, changing the ride heights of the front and rear and not adjusting the carrier bearing height will cause driveline vibrations if the variance between the front and rear end raises or lowers the angle by half a degree.

Good luck.

 

Thanks. I'm confused as to why the toe is so different from left to right. Am I correct in thinking that could be from the axle being twisted slightly when I installed the new leafs?

I'm seeing other people on the forums settling for numbers like 1.7-2.0 with the factory UCAs, you think that's too low? If it tracks ok and feels driveable are we just talking a bit of tire wear or should I be concerned about more expensive issues (not that tires are cheap...).

 

All they have to do to make anything green is change the number in another area on the screen. Anything that's not factory setting will be red. Mine are always red with a 3" lift but they change the factory number and it turns them green. Can't go by the color for setting a lifted truck.